Season five of “The Rookie”, an American police drama, returned to screens this week. The enormously popular show, screened in more than 180 territories, is standard cop-show fodder: cops busting crims, car chases, a dash of romance. But its viewers see and absorb an extreme level of gun violence, much of it perpetrated by police officers. In the three-minute trailer for the show’s first season, a gun is held, raised or fired twenty times: once every nine seconds. The officers’ trusty service-issue Glocks are the weapons most often brandished on-screen.
It’s an example of weapon product placement, the sponsored use of recognisable branded firearms in screen dramas.
Glock’s marketing is assisted greatly by the frequent and prominent use of its pistols in many popular US police television dramas. Its website proudly proclaims that “law enforcement agencies around the world trust Glock to deliver the reliability and firepower necessary to protect their officers in the line of duty”. The arms manufacturer promises, literally, “perfection”. The on-screen guns do indeed deliver something like perfection: the weapons never jam or misfire, the officers never kill a bystander, and the audience does not see the blood or hear the screams of those who are shot.
