Bravo ranks highest in product placement effectiveness

Bravo, home of the "Real Housewives" franchise as well as "Bethenny Ever After" and "Pregnant in Heels," is also the best place to go for subliminal advertising messages.

The cable channel, which is owned by Comcast Corp.'s NBC Universal, was declared by Nielsen to be the highest-ranked network for product placement effectiveness in broadcast and cable television.

Now, that doesn't mean Bravo has the most product placement of any network. It just means it's the best at it.

In a nutshell, Nielsen measures the recall of product placement and integrations. Apparently viewers remember the Toyotas in "The Real Housewives of Miami" and the Nikes in "The Real Housewives of Atlanta."

Other networks getting high marks include TNT for the inclusion of Chevrolet in "Men of a Certain Age," in which the character Owen operates a dealership.

-- Joe Flint