How 'How I Met Your Mother' Met 'The Zookeeper'

Which part of this is more interesting: that ads for "Zookeeper" have been inserted into the background of "How I Met Your Mother" reruns, or that someone thought "Zookeeper" was worth that much effort to promote?

Recent images posting in The Consumerist pointed out that the Kevin James movie was being pimped within reruns of "How I Met Your Mother" episodes, all of which, of course, have run many moons before the film's release date this weekend.

Product placement by digital insertion is hardly anything new. Purist baseball fans threw a collective coniption when Fox started overlaying sponsored graphics on the field and behind homeplate during World Series broadcasts years back.

It's not like movies are any stranger to this, either. Many major video games these days even feature innocuously placed recognizable logos for snack foods, restaurants and wireless phone providers.

But if you've been paying attention the last couple years, ads are making their way into your reruns.

Check out the stills below from a past "How I Met Your Mother" episode. In the first-run still from 2007, it's a statue in the background. In the rerun, it's suddenly a magazine back-cover ad for the current Kevin James comedy "Zookeeper."

It's not the first instance, either; the show has also seamlessly digitally pimped this past year's Gwyneth Paltrow flick "Country Strong" in the same manner.

I must admit: had this never been pointed out by The Consumerist, I'd have never noticed. Well-played.

Then again, it was already physically impossible for me to care less about seeing "Zookeeper." It's not you, marketers. It's me.

I'm lying. It's Kevin James and talking animals. It's neither you, nor me. Your job is hard enough.