Unofficial Product Placement

Product Placement has a requirement that it should be paid sponsorship. The examples that acknowledge that can be counted by hand. While it's a logical assumption that putting a copyrighted object would require licensing, some don't, so the trope is used as basically "The work averts Bland-Name Product or Product Displacement".

• Isn't that a scope issue?
• Wouldn't paid sponsorship be more on production/Trivia side?

I agree, that seems really difficult to verify.

By the way the trope is worded, it is hard to tell the difference between actual paid sponsorships and simple shout-outs to real-world products and services.

You're right, and the second type really shouldn't fall under this trope at all.

I'm not saying "writers add real-world brand for verisimilitude" isn't a trope, but I've never heard anyone use the phrase Product Placement and not refer to the in-your-face, sponsored variety.