How To Merchandise a Primetime TV Show

I think I can safely make the claim that How I Met Your Mother is the best-merchandised show on television. The producers have brilliantly sustained a tradition of transforming in-show jokes into real-life merchandising opportunities.

Take, for instance, the recent episode in which Barney Stinson (played by Neil Patrick Harris — and yes, his character has his own blog, as referenced frequently in the show) creates a new holiday called Not A Father’s Day. Before the episode aired, the producers made sure to launch the respective minisite, from which you could buy gear and apparel to show your not-a-fatherhood pride (such as the following mug which I purchased):

(After all, why should Dads get all the tacky coffee mugs?)

Or, for instance, the recently published Bro Code, which I discovered in a bookstore last week – allegedly written by Barney Stinson himself:

And that’s only the beginning. In addition to these merchandising opportunities, CBS also launched a minisite based on an in-show reference at LilyAndMarshallSellTheirStuff.com, which featured an auction of clothes worn by the actors (the proceeds of which went to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles).

The list of in-show jokes with parallel real-life sites goes on. Check out:

Of course, all of these site and product tie-ins are completely unnecessary. These off-air properties don’t make the show one bit funnier. And the revenue from coffee mug sales has probably proven to be pretty minimal. But this tradition has provided an opportunity for die-hard fans of the show to engage just a little bit deeper with the stories, the characters, and the cast. What TV producers wouldn’t want to give their fans that opportunity?

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