So I’m watching last week’s episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I get to a scene that looks like an obvious product placement. A character drives up in his shiny Mercedes, and the camera frames the front of the car right around the logo. However, the logo is gone: the familiar three-pointed star has either been yanked off the car, or removed in post-production.

Why would they do that? I have no idea. Maybe Mercedes abruptly cancelled their sponsorship. Or perhaps they were never a sponsor at all, and another sponsor had some issue with the Mercedes logo. Either way, I’ll be on the lookout for more situations where product names and logos are removed from TV programming. Aside from shows like Lost where generic goods are part of the story (i.e. Dharma’s private label products), I’m curious how many shows go out of their way to keep brand names out of the picture.