Pretty much every product placement in TV (and to some extent, even movies) is pay for play. Why did E.T. have a soft spot for Reece's Pieces? Because M&M Mars didn't want to pay (or wasn't willing to pay as much).
It is a smart play. If you search around blade forums, you see countless threads on what is being used by whom. And eventually, many of these experts see the value in putting their name on a particular device and making even more money that way.
Bear Gryls started off using SOG and Becker, but then teamed up with Bayley to make
this blade, which I think sold for well over $400. That relationship appears to have ended and it will be interesting to see what he has when the new season starts.
Mykel from Man Woman Survival uses lots of different knives. He lists the knives and clothes they wear on each episode on his
blog. You'll note he wears a lot of very expensive designer stuff. His feet are wrapped in Armani socks before they are stuffed into his dirty Army boots. He also wears a lot of Armani and FCUT clothes which I'm guessing aren't things he regularly buys himself.
He markets
his own knife as well.
In a
2008 interview with Dave Canturbury, he said the only knife he would carry is a KaBar or a
Tom Brown Tracker, which, as you'll see, has the logo for Dave's company on it. Later he also marketed another TOPS model called the Pathfinder and, today, he uses a knife -- which also bears his company logo -- made by Blind Horse Knives.
His shoeless hippie sidekick uses dirt cheap Mora knives. My guess is that he is not getting paid to use these but chooses to use them to make some sort of statement -- perhaps that he won't sell out to the man or perhaps that you don't really need a $300 - $500 knife to keep your ass alive.
I'll bet more people than would like to admit it have purchased knives based at least in part because of these endorsements. Hopefully these guys at least have the integrity to only endorse quality knives.
If you want to see a recent example of how effective product placement can be, try to find a Benchmade model 42 Bali-Song. They are considered by many enthusiasts to be among the best "flippers" out there, but were recently discontinued. They may be popular among the Bali-Song community, but that's a small community.
However, the 42 played a small role in the movie "Kick Ass." Before this movie, they were easy to find in stores for around $130. After the movie, they were going for $280 at online retailers until they were gone and some people were paying $300 - $400 for used ones. Now Benchmade is using their inventory of parts to put some new ones together to satisfy demand.
