OnePlus featured in latest House of Cards season, thanks to $300k deal

Samsung and Apple may be the kings of mobile in the US, but there’s certainly no lack of competition in the space. Not only do we have a handful of ‘established’ players like HTCand LG, there’s also plenty of relative newcomers, most straight out of China. Getting in the US market isn’t easy, but marketing and advertising is certainly key. To that end, OnePlus is hoping to increase recognition through product placement.

Those who regularly watch the show and have already plowed through Season 4 might have noticed that all three of OnePlus’ phones make an appearance at some point in the season. None by Kevin Space’s Frank Underwood character, but plenty of minor characters and even some major ones, like Claire Underwood.

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OnePlus has now come out on Weibo to confirm this isn’t just coincidence, and that the company actually paid $300k for the privilege. So was it worth it? It is obviously too early to tell for sure, though I’m sure many of you will have an opinion on it in the comments.

For what it is worth, many companies do this, including Apple and Samsung. In fact, OnePlus isn’t even the only Chinese company getting involved in product placement in US shows and movies, with OPPO partnering with America’s Next Top Model in 2015 and vivo placing its X5 Pro in “The Martian”.

What do you think, is this kind of advertising effective?