HEY FLIST!

[somedaybitch]

one of the young pups at work is doing a presentation for his journalism class - and get this, he actually cares about journalism doing the job right. anyhoo, he's looking for film examples of product placement.

i gave him Minority Report right off the bat because they do such a good job of making the placements organic to the story. and of course we both mocked "VAUGHN! THE F150!!!!eleventy!!!

what others, both good and bad come to mind, oh wise and brilliant ones?

Comments

[themonkeycabal.livejournal.com]

The aliens are stopped in "Independence Day" by the clever use of a Mac. 'Cause, you know, the Mac OS can interface with random alien computer operating systems. OH YES!

[themonkeycabal.livejournal.com]

FedEx guy in the first Matrix.
FedEx guy in Bowfinger.
Mazda whateverthehell in the second X-Men movie. (I think it's a mazda -- Scott's car, that Wolverine nicks).
Bond as his Aston Martins.

Actually, probably cell phones and cars in nearly any movie. Some are more prominently displayed than others.

um ... I'll think some more.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

BOND!!!!!! *that's* the one i was trying to think of that i'd seen recently.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

well duh, cuz the aliens were bad guys so they MUST HAVE USED MICROSOFT PRODUCTS. heh

[themonkeycabal.livejournal.com]

AND THEY WERE TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD AND THEY DID IT BADLY AND THE PLUCKY MAC GUY WAS ALL "NO WAY, DUDES!"

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

ZOMG, TOTALLY!!!!!!!!!! THEIR SECURITY SYSTEMS WERE PASTED ON, YAYZ!!!!!!

[themonkeycabal.livejournal.com]

Oh, and here's a wiki page with some other examples and stuff.

and *coughicon*

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

and *coughicon*

heh. subtle.

[themonkeycabal.livejournal.com]

Oh, dude, here's a whole page of product appearances and stuff in films back to 2001.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

niiiiiiiiiiiice.

[eve11]

The only one I can think of is when Attack of the Killer Tomatoes spoofed it because in the script they ran out of money halfway through the movie. And then for example, the mad scientist turned around and blazoned across the back of his white coat was a huge Pepsi logo...

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

heh

[wishkey.livejournal.com]

War Games. I think it was diet Pepsi? some carbonated thing. It's the earliest example I can think of (before coffee today). It wasn't subtle, and it bordered on distracting.

A Killer Within contained a huge amount of product placement for Dr. Pepper. I'm not sure, but I think the taps on the set ran Dr. Pepper and not water. It was not just obvious, it was overkill.

I think there was a hilarious montage of (and about) product placement in one of the Wayne's World movies, I think the second one.

On the other end of the spectrum: product dis-placement! when a production tries so hard to disguise a product brand, to aoid legal stuff and so on, that you end up knowing what the brand is anyway.

For instance, I watch Good Eats all the time. In as much as they try to hide the product brands, often a product's brand so obvious (and intentionally ill-disguised, because you NEED that brand for the right results) that you get a reverse effect: You never forget what brand is used. Like when Alton Brown says he can't say the name of the brand of cracker he uses for a certain recipe's crumbs, but the cracker "looks..." and he holds up a Ritz cracker..."like this."

BTW, the weirdest experience I've had with product placement was when some fan mentioned and linked to a Farscape campaign t-shirt I within an X-files slash fic. It was actually part of the story, though the author thought to promote Farscape and fan activities in some passive way. Krycek/Spender. Oh. Dear. God.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

BTW, the weirdest experience I've had with product placement was when some fan mentioned and linked to a Farscape campaign t-shirt I within an X-files slash fic. It was actually part of the story, though the author thought to promote Farscape and fan activities in some passive way. Krycek/Spender. Oh. Dear. God.

0_o

[lvp3.livejournal.com]

The Truman Show did something with product placement, if I remember. Or more accurately, the "commercials" that whatsherface did throughout the movie. Not sure if anything in there would be of use. I'm going on like, 0.68983 hours sleep in 3 days so just pat me on the head and nod if I'm out of my mind.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

OHMIGOD SHE WAS CREEPY!!!!!!