OK, so you probably can, but maybe you shouldn't.  Television as a medium (along with everything else, it seems) is in an interesting transition phase right now - and I'm not talking about the 2009 switch to digital (I'll be glad when February 2009 rolls around just so I can quit seeing those incessant reminders on TV about it).  I'm talking about a transition in content. 

There are a lot of people out there who will tell you that television is a dying, or even dead, means of marketing.  I disagree.  Television as a marketing medium isn't dead, but the traditional ways of marketing using television (mostly 30 and 60 second spot ads) may be.  TV can still be part of an effective marketing strategy, but the content has to be fashioned in the right way for a modern audience.

Many books on developing personal social skills, working the room at parties and the like, will talk about "conversation starters" - things you can wear or have with you that are likely to spark conversation.  As I was working last night, I saw a tweet from @ev, the founder of Twitter.com, saying he had to come up with 3 conversation starter lines of 18 characters or less to put on his badge for the TED conference.  And we thought limiting things to 140 characters on Twitter was tough!  The point is, those lines are intended to be entry points into a larger conversation - and that's how you have to view your broadcast marketing efforts. 

Broadcast marketing by itself doesn't work any more - people have become so inundated with it that they simply tune it out - unless it has something of interest to them.  Once you hit that target in your broadcast, you can't leave it at that, or so will they.  Your TV content has to be a conversation starter.  Notice how many television shows (the really smart ones) now prompt you to go online and view an extended version/deleted scenes/behind the scenes clips/production notes/etc.  This is a way of further engaging you if you find the subject interesting.  Now, what the really, really smart shows do is have a way to prompt you to continue the conversation that they began through comments, feedback forms, posting your own video responses, or some other means.  The conversation is the key.  The more conversation there is surrounding your product or service, the better it is for attracting customers to you.

But to get those first television viewers to your online presence so they can be converted to communicators, the content of the television production itself needs to be considered.  What works and what doesn't?  What works is content that tells a compelling story, with your service or product being integral to that story.  That does not mean product placement! Product placement, although megacorporations will still pay millions of dollars for it in the right movie or TV show, has been shown not to work.  Product integration is what works.

So what's the difference between product placement and product integration?  Let me give you some real world examples.  I watch The Biggest Loser on occassion and I consider it to be a pretty good television show.  However, there is one part of the show that grates on my nerves - the product placement.  It's painfully obvious when healthy food and snack products are placed in the show by corporate marketers.  "Chewing ABC Brand Low Calorie Sugar Free Banana Apple Mango Flavored gum is a great way to alleviate those urges to snack without adding to your calorie intake for the day."  Who talks like that? Corporate ad agencies do - not real people, and real people _know_ that they don't talk like that, so there's a natural negative reaction to this kind of ad-speak.  Now compare that to a show like Clean House where the crew comes in, cleans out some of the messiest houses you're ever likely to see, and redecorates, often with the designer explaining how they were able to get all this great new furniture for the room and stay within the budget shopping at Import Store XYZ.  Is the mention intentional?  Yes, of course it is.  Is it forced or obnoxious?  No, it's not.  The difference is subtle, but this product is integral to the story of redecorating the room.

So, to sum it all up - I guess, yes, you can do that on television, the question is what is it that you should do on television?