One of the things that elicit the outbursts of “Give me a break” from movie audiences almost more than anything else in theaters is when blatant product placements are noticed. Take Iron Man for example… when Tony Stark gets out of his car and Jon Favreau (his driver and also the director of the movie) hands him a CLEARLY blatant “Burger King” bag.
Personally, I don’t mind product placements as long as they fit into the scene. For example, if the scene calls for a laptop in it, I don’t mind if the laptop has a clearly visible Apple logo on it. If a scene calls for a cell phone, I don’t care if it’s visibly a Blackberry. (A whole post could be done on product placement).
So how do we feel when we see movies getting in bed with products even just for the marketing? There is a new trend in film marketing where we see a commercial that is for both the movie AND a particular product at the same time. Here are a couple of examples:
IRON MAN AND LG CELL PHONES
SPEED RACER AND ROADRUNNER INTERNET
ZOHAN AND THE NBA
Now this sort of market whoring has been around for a while… but lately it seems it’s getting more and more prevalent. Seems like every time I turn on the TV I see one of these cross bread commercials. And I don’t know why… but they bug the hell out of me. It’s funny… product placement (if done right) doesn’t really phase me at all… but this kind of marketing makes me hate both the product and the movie just a little bit inside.
So my question is, what do you think of these commercials? Do they bother you? Do they not phase you at all? What are some other movie/product commercial mixes that you remember seeing?
Like GM and Transformers
I agree that product placement is ok depending on context. Heck sometimes it works well.
For example the novie ET introduced us to Reeses Pieces which happens to be my favorite candy today, I remember asking my grandma to buy me a bag of them after seeing the movie. Now Reeses Pieces sell themselves.
On the other side of the coin is its bastard son Mac N Me which should have really been called Coke: The Movie with its distracting product placements of Coke and McDonalds.
I don’t have a problem with product placement in movies or in tv shows. It makes things a little more realistic. I would rather see a brand name product in a scene (when the scene calls for such a product) than see the same product with a blanked out logo.
Product Placements is a two way street. I scratch your back if you scratch mine. I see product placements from the producers point of view, it will bring down the cost of the film by giving us money by putting their product in the film. I bothers me when there is product placements very second like in every Micheal Bay film. I agree with John “Personally, I don’t mind product placements as long as they fit into the scene. For example, if the scene calls for a laptop in it, I don’t mind if the laptop has a clearly visible Apple logo on it. If a scene calls for a cell phone, I don’t care if it’s visibly a Blackberry. (A whole post could be done on product placement).”
Product placement gets to me only when the movie makes a contrived effort to show it.
Take Transformers. There is a scene where a few SUVs are driving into an alley. It’s a crane shot, and the camera moves down, and sits on the GMC logo for a good count of 1, 2 before moving on.
Or the scene early on where the one guy mentions the rims on his Hummer and it cuts to an awkward shot that puts the Hummer logo right smack in the middle of the screen, with the actors off to the side.
Or the cell phone that they turn into a robot. “Ooh, Nokia.”
Or the guy in the climactic fight scene who happens to be sitting there with an xbox 360 console. No games, no box, no controllers. Just the console, (the shot directly after the mountain dew machine turned into a robot).
It got to a point in Transformers where it just made me laugh.
As far as subtle product placement in movies go, why should it piss someone off? By it being there, the studio has more money to make a better movie overall. Sure, blatant commercialism in a movie (like Casino Royale or i,Robot is annoying, but a guy being handed a Burger King bag fairly non-chalantly without aural mention of the product is hardly something to get in a twitch about.
my post got messed up-
roadrunner >>>>>>>> speed racer.
man i hate when im watching free porn online and all the sudden a dam commercial …dude like thats gonna make me want to buy anything…it just pisses me off that i need to fastforward with my good hand to the the good parts! lol im not kidding
:( This bothers me a great deal! I hate commercials in movies that I have paid money to see!! And I hate so called “product placement”!!! I resent it!!! Damn it makes me angry! It made Transformers a worse movie!!! :(
roadrunner speed racer.
They’re commercials on TV that are advertising two products at the same time. Who gives a shit? What’s the difference if it was JUST a commercial for Speed Racer or JUST a commercial for High Speed on-line? This way the company saves money by adverting two of their products within the same 30 second time span. It could be for Bic razors and Bic pens. Either way its a stupid commercial.
Solution? Don’t watch TV. Download everything you want to see. Get rid of cable/satellite. This saves a lot of my time for watching movies on DVD.
The James Bond films pay recoup their budget with product placement before a single frame is shot. They are the most blatant product pushing movies out there.
The funniest product placement has got to be the Dr. Pepper vending machine in the Pentagon in the US version of Godzilla Returns.
Also, many James Bond Movies does cars the right way. Get sponsored by a company and use several of their brands so its not as obvious. Ford and Aston Martins for example.
For the product placement in Ironman, I honestly didn’t notice the Audi thing, just don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. I liked the burger king placement, it fit the character and the scene.
What bothers me with cell phone and laptop placements is they always hold the scene for a few seconds too long. It always breaks me out of the movie.
I also get bothered when appropriate products aren’t in the film. Honestly, why does every company and government agency use some custom Operating System when every company I worked for used Windows.
This is the first time I’ve seen any of those commercials. I’m glad I almost never watch TV :)
And no, product placement is just the way it is, and I couldn’t care less. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle is technically a 90 minute White Castle commercial and it’s funny as hell.
I agree that product placement is ok depending on context. Heck sometimes it works well.
For example the novie ET introduced us to Reeses Pieces which happens to be my favorite candy today, I remember asking my grandma to buy me a bag of them after seeing the movie. Now Reeses Pieces sell themselves.
On the other side of the coin is its bastard son Mac N Me which should have really been called Coke: The Movie with its distracting product placements of Coke and McDonalds.
There is a difference between Commercials and Product Placement, in my mind.
I guess I have the opposite opinion of John here. I couldn’t care less what commercial I see on TV. I don’t care if they imply Iron Man uses Axe Deodorant, Verizon Cellphones, or even Tampax. It’s just a commercial, and is therefore separate from the film itself.
However, when there are product placements in films that are, like you said John, blatant, that starts to cheese me. I rolled my eyes at the Burger King reference in Iron Man, as well as the Audi stuff. I was willing to accept Iron Man driving a nice Audi but when he caught the family in their Audi SUV I was a bit perturbed, as if everyone in this world drives Audis. Somehow when he used his awesome Verizon phone it wasn’t big of a deal for me. There’s no real way to NOT show what kind of phone you’re using if you are indeed going to use a phone, and same goes for computers like you mentioned, it’s hard not to show the giant apple on Apples.
But ultimately, it doesn’t really bother me enough to condemn a movie. As long as the main character doesn’t take a big swig of Pepsi, smile at the camera while simultaneously turning the can perfectly, and then go, “Ah, so refreshing and delicious” I’m fine with a little mild placement.
But go ahead and whore out the commercials, they’ve always been whores anyway.
Speaking of Burger King; i know it’s hard to remember Men in Black II but the product placement for BK in that film was the most blatant i’ve ever seen in a film.
no, it does not bother me. if it helps the value, outcome, the special f/x, marketing of the movie, so be it. they do this in video games and i think it’s funny.
Product placement in films only bothers me when it’s blatant, out of place, and stupid. The Burger King bit in Iron Man didn’t bug me since there was that funny line right beforehand from Tony saying that he wanted an American cheeseburger. Yeah, it was product placement, but in the context of the scene, it made sense. If I’d been held captive for months, I’d probably go get a Whopper, too. The fact that EVERYONE in that film drives a fucking Audi(including that car on the highway during the climax that Iron Man picks up so the damn car logo is RIGHT in your face) got on my damn nerves, though.
I don’t know, I think the Zohan commercial was funnier than anything I’ve seen in the trailers for the film. Although, that isn’t saying much.
Actually, i find American commercials irritating period.
I remember the ones that Casino Royale had for the Vaio laptop and Omega watches because both commercials were played right before the movie meaning you couldn’t help but notice whenever Bond used those fine products.