Did CBS get "punk'd" by Ashton Kutcher? The actor used his massive exposure on the sitcom "Two And A Half Men" to stealthily promote his personal tech investments. Kutcher, who replaced Charlie Sheen on the show, plays Internet billionaire Walden Schmidt. In this week's episode, Kutcher's laptop was covered in stickers for the tech companies Foursquare (the location "check-in" site), Flipboard (the iPad news aggregator), Hipmunk (the travel searcher), and Chegg (the textbook rental service). Well, it just so happens that those are all companies that Kutcher has invested in. Coincidence? CBS thinks not. It's not happy about the product placement because the companies got it for free. A lot of eyeballs saw those stickers. That episode alone drew 20 million viewers, a huge number, though down from the 28.7 million viewers who watched last week's premiere. Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley was thrilled. During the episode, he tweeted a screenshot of the laptop saying, "Check out @aplusk showing some @foursquare & @GroupMe laptop-sticker love on Two & a Half Men." CBS says unless the companies pay up, the stickers will be blurred out in future shows. But should CBS have seen this coming? Kutcher is notorious for promoting products he's invested in. Last month when he guest-edited Details Magazine, Kutcher got flak for praising companies that he has invested in, without being up-front about his involvement. Kutcher also often tweets about products to his 7 million followers, and there were nearly 30 product placements in his last film, "No Strings Attached."
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Originally Posted by Hal-9000
Too late now cry-babies
