The Wall Street Journal reports on the product placement deal between Miller Brewing and FX's "Rescue Me." Excerpts:

"The script for an episode of the ribald FX channel firefighter drama "Rescue Me" called for Jerry Reilly, the cable show's grumpy fire chief, to get into a fight at a gay bar. A character in the scene was to break a bottle of beer and brandish it as a weapon. But when Miller Brewing Co. balked at the idea of its product being used in the brawl, producers agreed to omit the brand from the scene, which was eventually canned anyway.

The revision goes a long way to explain how much entertainment companies and advertisers are intertwined these days. Marketers have handed over their products to set decorators for years with little control and almost no guarantee of airtime. But faced with the waning power of traditional advertising, Miller, like many companies, is seeking to ensure its logo can stand out above and beyond any paid commercial airtime.

"It's becoming more and more difficult to reach consumers," says Steve Buerger, Miller's director of media and marketing services. "We are looking for innovative ways to present a brand."

Miller's arrangement with FX turned out to be one of the most elaborate -- and risky -- product-placement deals yet on television. The main character, for starters, is hardly the kind of friendly pitchman that's a staple of beer commercials. Firefighter Tommy Gavin, played by Denis Leary, is a gruff, foul-mouthed, philandering alcoholic who is haunted by the ghost of his cousin Jimmy Keefe, who perished in the Twin Towers on Sept. 11. Mr. Gavin likes to have an occasional Miller Lite when he's not downing shots of whiskey. Miller paid to have characters on FX's 'Rescue Me' sip its beers, but only in the right context.

But in addition to getting prominent display on the sets, Miller also had plenty of say -- as with the bar scene -- about how its brand would be portrayed onscreen. Miller, for instance, worked with producers to match up various Miller brews with different characters. While the show's main protagonist drinks Miller Lite, his dead cousin is partial to Miller Genuine Draft. Miller says it wanted the cousin to drink MGD because his character is more masculine, a profile that matches the target MGD drinker.

The beer brands scored dozens of visual plugs -- both planned and impromptu -- and got at least one verbal mention. In one scene, the firefighters tell a rookie that he has to buy the beer. "A couple of those suitcase things -- MGD would be good," shouts one of the firemen.

While many producers and script writers might be defensive about an advertiser getting that close to the creative process, executives on "Rescue Me" seem to have taken it in stride. "It's an odd thing to do, but I think the sponsor is helping us out," says Peter Tolan, an executive producer of the show. "I only feel like a minor whore, but when you are in the TV world, whoring is part of the business nowadays."

Mr. Tolan, who directed the last two episodes, shouted to the actors "labels up!" so the Miller brand would appear in the lens just so. No non-Miller beer labels could be shown -- even in bar scenes.

With the assistance of its media-buying agency, Miller crafted its deal with News Corp.'s FX network and the "Rescue Me" producers in the show's infancy. Starcom USA, which procures media time for Miller, received scripts in advance to plot out how and where the beer brand might be used.

The brewer bought an ad package on the show that included traditional commercials, product placements and sole sponsorship of the commercial-free debut episode. The pact also called for Miller to be the exclusive beer advertiser for the first six episodes. The price of the deal: about $1 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Starcom and Miller were able to leverage their relationship with the show's producers to make sure Miller's brands didn't show up in sticky situations. The brands were excluded from scenes involving talk about alcoholism, for example. Also, Mr. Leary's character drank Miller Lite only in social settings. When imbibing alone, his preferred drink was whiskey.

In another coup for the brewer, FX agreed to hire a third-party researcher to find out whether viewers noticed Miller's participation, and what they thought about the beer's cameo appearances.

FX recently did a similar deal with XM Satellite Radio Inc. that involved getting the brand mentioned on its "Nip/Tuck" plastic-surgery drama. General Electric Co.'s NBC signed an agreement with Campbell Soup Co. that extensively plugged the company's distinctive red-and-white soup cans on its retro-1960s show "American Dreams." The soup has made appearances on recent shows."