Product Placement in Movies
 

Me and one of my roomates love to have a laugh about product placements. Its fun to reduce a movie down to just one big commercial. Kind of like BMW films but on a bigger level. For example:

Matrix: Reloaded, one really long really hip Cadillac commercial.

X-Men 2: An interesting roundabout way of saying "Drink Dr. Pepper."

About A Boy: One really well written McDonald's commercial.

Spirited Away: Audi, All-Wheel Drive.

You get the idea. Post some that you have seen recently.

Mobile phones in:
Matrix: Reloaded, The Saint, Charlie's Angels, Minority Report,

Bond: Finlandia vodka, Omega clocks, cars..

Mission Impossible 2: Sun glasses, don't recall the brand

Austin Powers: Heineken beer ("Hey! Hey! Hey! Get your hands off my Hiney, baby!")

I like to spot products, but my favorite hobby is to spot how stupidly computers & Internet are portrayed. In Mission Impossible, they send mail to max@Job 3:14. In Independence Day, they can code in a few minutes a virus which brings down the alien OS. I have diving license but don't dive actively anymore, but I always get annoyed when characters can fight underwater and never panic in tunnels or wrecks when diving without tanks, and they come straight to the surface no matter how long or deep they have been under water.

Check out Swordfish. Apparently there is a great GUI for hackers out there that only Hugh Jackman knows about. :)

They're all over the place in Spider-Man. It's insane, especially in the big party... I forgot what it was called.

Waynes World anyone?

Worst example ever:

"Demolition Man". The only remaining franchise in the future is Taco Bell. UNLESS you live outside the USA. Then it's Pizza Hut. Taco Bell-signs digitally changed into Pizza Hut-signs, and VOICE OVERS by the actors. You can still see Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock mouth Taco Bell, but their voices say Pizza Hut.

Talk about artistic license etc. Even though I never liked the movie, that was just too much.

The American "Godzilla" remake is the biggest offender I can think of- Taco Bell, Juicy Fruit Gum, Pepsi products, Kodak cameras, I don't even know what else.

Minority Report - Lexus

Reaching back a few years, I remember all the Pepsi Cans the kids were drinking in "The Goonies".

Oh, and Reese's Pieces in "E.T."

Apple computers in Independance Day Jeff Goldblum wrote the virus that took down the alien sheilds

Indepence Day really is bad about that stuff... I remember an early scene, where Will Smith's dog brings him his Reeboks in bed, and even then I knew we were in for it. Also, his girlfriend's son plays with Godzilla action figures from TrendMasters, who also made the ID4 toys.:)

It doesn't bother me when a specific product is used in a place where they would otherwise have to make up a fake one (e.g., drinking a Coke instead of some fake cola brand). What bugs the crap out of me is when they do things that seem like they're only put in there to call out a product. I read once that the cigar smoking thing in ID4 was added specifically as a product placement deal.

I also read where the original script for ET called for a different candy from reese's pieces (M&Ms? I forget which), but that the makes wouldn't go for it so they switched to reese's. It ended up causing a huge spike in reese's pieces sales.

the addams family. there is a minute-long commercial for Purolator Courier, done in the style of their current commercials and using the same music. there is homage, then there is product placement. :p

lets see, the most flagrant ones i can think of are

a) big daddy, when they are flying sandler to new york, they have a scene where he asks them to stop at wendys "im glad i got the bacon double cheeseburger" "how you enjoying your frosty"

and
b) spider man, scene where hes practicing his web shooting, hes staring at a dr.pepper can for like 3 minutes.....chasing his uncles killer, rides on a heineken truck for like 2 minutes....and theres a couple more.

Another Adam Sandler: Subway Subs in Happy Gilmore.
I remember in Ernest Goes To Camp there was a Pepsi machine, but they probably didn't get clearance because the words "Pepsi" were covered in black tape.

Anyone see Josie & The Pussycats?

At least they were openly flagrant about their abuse of product placement.

I still like the way Repo Man handled it. Characters named Bud, Miller, and Lite... but all the actual products were wrapped with the generic Food label

Come to think of it, I remember that the thugs in Bruce Willis' Hudson Hawk had names like Kit-Kat, Butterfinger, and Baby Ruth. But it's not like anyone made any money off of that movie anyway...

That reminded me of "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man"

Characters with the names Harley Davidson, Marlboro, Virginia Slims, and Jack Daniels.

As silly of a movie as it is, Last Action Hero handles the product placement parody pretty well.

I think its great that according to Hollywood the only computers in the world are Apple computers. :D Every TV show I see where someone has a laptop, or a home PC, its always an Apple. Intel's & Microsoft have been black-listed.

I'm surprised the Matrix doesn't have apple logos on their flat panels in the Nebuchadnezzar.

A sidenote: I like what Baz Luhrmann did in Romeo + Juliet with the Shakespearean style product placements. He used fake products with tag lines from other pieces of Shakespeare. Almost everything was a product of either the Montagues or the Capulets, even the cars bore no specific brand. Are there any other recent brand-free movies like that?

Tarantino generally did pretty well with making his own brands: Kahuna Burger, Red Apple Cigarettes, etc.

I don't have a problem with seeing product placement in movies, unless they go out of their way to bring notice to the product. If a group of guys are sitting around drinking Pepsi, that's one thing. If someone orders a Pepsi and says "I just can't get enough of Pepsi", and a friend says "I know what you mean"...that's just too much.

As previously stated, I'd rather see someone drinking a name brand product then drinking "Cola". I'd rather they put products in the movies than put two or three commercials before the trailers.

I hate the commercials before the movies now. I get enough of that shit on my TV, I am paying money for this, I don;t want to watch freakin commercials. Did anyone notice alot of Heiniken and poweraide billboards and signs in the Matrix-reloaded? What I dont get are the people who see something like that and go ohh I want a powerade!

I think it was Goodwill Hunting that had Matt Damon and Ben Affleck drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee.
On a side note, the studio making 2001: A Space Odyssey had to pay companies (Pan Am and AT&T i think) to use thier logos in the movie. Kubrick used these logos to make the future in the movie seem more plausible, not to sell products.

Josie in the pussycats has WAY WAY WAY to much product placement! as dankitti said, there is homage and there is product placement. In josie in the pussycats there isn't one scene in the entire movie that doesn't have a logo of something on it. I guess they had to pay for the movie somehow, the box office sure the hell didn't do it.

Obnoxious product placement is undesirable, but it's quickly becoming the norm for hollywood movies. Even though you have the Tarantino's of the world making up their own brand names, remember that the conversation in the car started out with McDonalds and Burger King as their topic.

A generation ago people had to pay to use logo's in movies. A half-generation ago the endorsement idea came into play. Now the investors are just demanding the level of exposure that they're paying for.

Me, I wouldn't mind so much if it was being used to keep ticket prices down, as versus the current practice of lining executives pockets...

bourne identity - heineken - some of the posters even mentioned him liking heineken.

silence of the lambs - maltese terriers - who could forget buffalo bills 'precious'.

monsters ball - jack daniels - halle berry knocks down a few then rides billy bob. gotta get me some of that drink!

boogie nights - rollerskates!

You've got it wrong. They didn't take a cent for that placement. If you listen to the director commentary, they were mocking product placement by putting so many products in.

Austin Powers 2: "Get your hand off my heiney!" Movie footage used for the commercial.

I'm with you on the ads before the movie. It's to the point now that with the ads and trailers, a movie with a start time of 7 pm doesn't even start until 7:30.

You listened to the director commentary on Josie and the Pussycats!?!

I have to say that took quite the sack to post that even with relative anonymity. :lol:

:lol: I also posted in the "Movies I'm ashamed of" thread.

Heh I was also going to point out that the product placement in Josie and the Pussycats is a parody, tongue in cheek.

And I like that movie dammit. Rachael Leigh Cook as a redhead is just too hot..

i remember one day me and a friend watched 2 movies and in both of them we saw product placements for MGD. one was x-men 2, dont remember what the other was...possibly starsky and hutch. naturaly we took this as a sign.

One more comment on Josie: towards the end, in the scene where the Feds come in, Agent Kelly says something about shutting Fiona down because "subliminal messages work better in movies."

*cough* Yeah, I love that movie :D

Hmmm...Austin Powers seemed like one huge commercial...not sure how "intentional" that was...

What was the movie with Paul Reiser about single dads? Ummm...Bye Bye Love, I think. McDonald's, anyone?

I think I,Robot had alot of product placement. Of course I realized it do to Maddox article. Here it is http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=i_robot Enjoy

hmmm... i watch a lot of movies & i have never really noticed...

i guess i'm too involved watching the movie in my Lazy Boy(TM) while drinking a cool refreshing Pepsi(TM) and munching on some good tasting Pop Secret(TM) microwave popcorn

As long as it's tastefull I don't mind. The Happy Gilmore subway commercials work because it's part of becoming a superstar.

Oh, you mean AutoCAD?

Anyways, about computers. They're always Apple's or Dell's. Why Apple? It's what everyone in the industry uses. Every computer on Smallville is a Mac, with the exception of Lex's Alienware laptop. Face it people. Mac's are sexy!

Yup that movie is very littered with product placement, I remember american pie 2 showed only pepsi cola products.