Monday, January 25, 2010
Product Placement in Movies
Though this post may not be very timely, I watched Minority Report over winter break, and one thing that struck me was product placement in the film. Companies pay to put their products in movies and tv shows, as well as commercials and billboards and whatnot. Anyway it was quite interesting during the scene where Tom Cruise walks into the mall and he is bombarded with ads. The film company could've quite easily made up some fake products and put them in, but instead we get cameos from Guinness, Lexus, and American Express to name a few. Another scene where this comes up is when Cruise travels to the lake house and as the shot pans out, you can see the Lexus badge on the sleek looking future car. If you pay attention you can notice all kinds of products appearing in films, from Audi in I-Robot, to Reese's Pieces in E.T, and where would we be without the iconic "Vote for Pedro" shirts from Napolean Dynamite. I think product placement is healthy, its a way for people to make money, but when it isn't done well, it can be just downright pathetic. Whats your opinion on this?
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I totally agree. Frankly, I don't even notice it most of the time. While watching the Minority Report, I wasn't even thinking about the ads that were going on: I noticed them, I just didn't really care. Unless an actor says something like "Lets have some Lucky Charms. Yummm, they're magically delicious!" it doesn't bother me at all. Its basically the same as commercials coming up during halftime of a football game: It'd probably be nicer if they weren't there, but at the same time I've accepted the fact that they will be there, and there is nothing I can do about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Drew that I usually don't notice those kinds of things. But I remember hearing about a really bad case of product placement. Sandra Lee, who is a chef for the foodnetwork, came out with a cookbook where practically every ingredient listed had a brand name before it. It would say things like "kraft cheese" and "swanson chicken broth." Every single ingredient had a brand and people got really pissed at her. That's just one case that I remember where the product placement was so obvious and just really bad.
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