It's not suprising in this heightened world of product placement that a consumer complained about seeing a Total Corn Flakes cereal box on a segment of the Total-sponsored CNN "American Morning" newscast. While Total Corn Flakes parent company General Mills has a sponsorship agreement with CNN that includes various forms of advertising, no product placement were planned. The viewer saw it as a crossing of the editorial/advertising wall. Both General Mills and CNN claims the placement was not planned and that a guest on the show brought the Total box as part of a cooking segment.

Now that product placement is rampant, it seems that even innocent on-air/in-movie product appearances will automatically be dubbed paid placements when, in fact, they may not be.