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It is Ridiculous how much product placement this show is using! They have enough of a budget now to not use product placement, they're just getting greedy. The product placement in episode 1612 with ipad and mc donalds was their worst yet! I am about to stop watching southpark, it's just a 30 minute commercial now.

And while you're at it, please bring back the look of the show from 1998. The flashy effects you guys have now SUCK!

There's a fine line between showing the characters eating at McDonald's and having one of the characters hold a burger up to the camera and start talking about its delicious, mouthwatering ingredients...like fresh, crisp white onions...bright, leafy lettuce,,,rich, juicy tomatoes...crunchy, salty pickles, and 100% real Angus beef patties made from cows not treated with the growth hormone rBST.

Seriously, if you think this is product placement, I have to wonder what else you watch on TV or in the theaters.

They've said in commentaries that they never got a dime for "product placement" as you are describing it. They did an entire episode about Guitar Hero, and said something in the commentary along the lines of, "Yeah, it would have been smart of us to get some money for that."
The stuff that's in the show? That's stuff that they want to have in the show, not stuff they're being paid to have in the show. There used to be less of that going on because when South Park started out they would have been sued for using product names, and often had trouble procuring rights. Now, as you say, they're big enough that, what-evah! they do what they want!

Yeah it's not product placement when you don't receive any money for doing it. This isn't James Bond drinking skunky Dutch beer for millions of dollars.

It's not real product placement. Nobody pays them... until after the fact.

Although I do really question the McDonald's bit in Halloween.

The answer to that one can be found in last year's documentary 6 Days To Air.

Oh, yes, it's Trey's McDonald's order, I know that. I just don't see why they included it in the actual episode.

"Hey Matt, you know what'd be hilarious? If we told everyone what I get at McDonald's!"

"That should totally be the very last joke in the episode, too!"

"All right!" *high five*