I guess I knew about the wide-ranging sponsorship agreement between the National Football League and General Motors’ GMC division for this football season. But actually seeing it in action, as I am during tonight’s Raiders-Patriots kickoff game, is a different experience altogether.

Generally, I don’t have a problem with product placement and other embedded advertising. But, still… It seems over the top. GMC logos were everywhere during the Hank Williams Jr. opening number, and the whole car assembly line motif really looked out of place. I guess it would have made more sense had Lions been playing, since they’re from the Motor City. But for this game, it just hit me as overly blatant.

The extended conventional GMC commercials that debuted on the first break really came across as overkill.

On the bright side, it does appear that all that auto-overload shunted out the by-now-usual penile dysfunction ads.