The main storyline of Wednesday night’s episode of "Modern Family" has Phil going crazy over the release of the iPad and his family trying everything in their power to get one for him. The plot brought lots of laughs, the blowing out of virtual candles on his birthday cake, and ended with Phil stroking and confessing his love to his new iPad.

Everyone thought that the iPad paid for its starring role in, but Apple and ABC are saying otherwise. There was no paid product placement, but Apple did allow the show to access the iPad for the filming.

Despite the money that ABC lost out on without getting paid for the storyline, I thought it was refreshing to see pop culture so integrated into the show. Let’s face it. It is a little annoying seeing big stickers over Apple computers and Coke cans turned away from camera so the brand is not “recognizable.” When we all tuned in on Wednesday, we laughed because we knew someone who would go just as crazy as Phil on Saturday’s iPad release. Not only did it get people talking about the iPad, it got people talking about "Modern Family"! More TV shows should learn from this and embrace brands, not try to mask them or make ones up.

Watch the episode here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/136819/modern-family-game-changer#s-p1-so-i0

Coke Zero definitely scored some points for using Facebook in an innovative way, rather than the path many brands in just slapping a fan page on the internet and hoping fans come to it. This past Saturday, they streamed the NCAA Final Four Concert, featuring Chris Daughtry, Ryan Seacrest and Darius Rucker. Starting in the early afternoon with a pep rally, NCAA fans could log onto Facebook and watch everything directly on the Coke Zero fan page.

I think this was absolutely brilliant, because this was a unique way for fans to engage with the Coke Zero brand while getting something of value out of it. After looking at the page, there was no way you could forget who sponsored it. It's also very cool because it's the first time that something like this has been done with a big sporting event. According to Mashable, a company called Vitrue offers this service, called Wall Apps. They say it offers higher reach because people are more likely to interact with something if they never have to leave the newsfeed or page.

This has huge potential for other brands or organizations. A church in L.A. has also done this already, streaming services straight from Facebook. Apparently Papa John's and Best Buy are also using it. It will be exciting to see how brands take this and run with it.

If you want to check out what Vitrue is, here's a link: http://vitrue.com/blog/category/wall-apps/