The Walking Dead: WATCH! AMC Does Product Placement Deal with Mountain Dew for Upcoming Episode

Well, The Walking Dead is doing the Dew.  Mountain Dew, that is. AMC reached an agreement for product placement of the beverage for this coming Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond.

According to Variety, this becomes just the second time in the past ten years that The Walking Dead has permitted intentional product placement.  The last time was Kia.  Remember the time when that Kia looked just a little too brand new and shiny compared to every other vehicle on the show. Well, don’t worry.  At least this time it appears that the Mountain Dew is flat.

In the episode, actress Annet Mahendru surprises actor Nico Tortorella with a full bottle of Mountain Dew.  Notice how the label is more vintage 2010? “Is this legit?” he asks, mentioning the Mountain Dew. “I will never stop missing these. I mean, I used to drink this like water, back in the day.”

Check out the video below:

“This is definitely something that we love doing and want to do more across this universe,” says Kim Granito, AMC Networks’ senior vice president of integrated marketing to Variety.

But it wasn’t just the drink itself mixed into the episode. PepsiCo, who makes Mountain Dew, also helped with one of the old “hillbilly” figures that was used to promote the drink in the 1960s for a sign seen on a convenience store. So really, there’s two appearances by the beverage on the show.

According to Variety, at the show’s peak, a 30-second ad in The Walking Dead could cost as much as $502,500, while the same kind of spot in Fear The Walking Dead might go for an average of $395,000. In recent seasons, however, a 30 second ad in the flagship cost $135,369 and the same in Fear cost around $52,737, according to Standard Media Index, a tracker of ad spending. PepsiCo spent $69.3 million on advertising in the two series in 2019, according to Kantar, another tracker of ad spend.

We’re sure this intentional, in-episode placement of Mountain Dew won’t be a cheap endeavor for the beverage giant!

What are your thoughts on Mountain Dew in an episode? What other products would it be appropriate to see advertised in an episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!