Truly Shameless Product Placements in Film

[Scrustle]

The Transformers movies. What I was expecting was a feature lengthed advert for Hasbro toys. What I got was a feature lengthed advert for everything in the film. It was gratuitous, especially in the first film (I've only seen the first 2). It was like 30% of the shots were set up to conveniently and clearly show the brand name of whatever happened to be in shot at the time.

Side note: Everyone knows about the racist twin robots in the second film, but does it not occur to people that the only robot in the first film with a(n obviously) black voice actor is a Pontiac?

 

[darlarosa]

Mac and Me.

 

[Lilani]

And if a sponsorship or using products that already exist in the real world help get an indie film off the ground? Hell yes, I'd welcome product placement in that case.

Don't forget that sponsoring is also a form of cencoring.
What do you do, as an indie developer, if you want to create something that your sponsors don't approve of?

Then they'll have to make the choice many filmmakers have to make, that filmmakers recently made in the cases of The Watch and Gangster Squad--do you fall in line with what the suits want, or do you go on and pursue the project you set out to create?

And you forget those kickstarters only hit it big in, what, the last year or so? I'm sure they will do wonders for getting indie films the no-strings-attached funding they need, and yes I'll agree that they are much better for the projects than corporate sponsorships, but until very recently no such alternative has ever existed. What you're doing would be like criticizing Palm Pilots for all they can't do the same year the smart phone came out. Yes, Palm Pilots are inferior to smartphones in just about every way imaginable. Except, until the smart phone, it was the best choice, because smart phones didn't exist. Make sense?

 

[twistedmic]

The movie Mission to Mars. On top of being a horrible piece of shit movie, the product placement was god-awful and horrendously blatant. Everything from logos and decals plastered all over NASA rovers and drones to using M&M's (by name) to create a double helix model in zero-g and using a pouch of DR. Pepper (at one point prominently displayed at the center of the screen for over ten seconds) to find a leak in the spaceship.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I really don't mind product placement in movies at all. If the story takes place in current times chances are people use brand products.

Unless they pull something like this...


...I couldnt care less if someone uses a Vaio laptop or drinks Coca Cola.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I can't believe there hasn't been mention of the Will Smith movie "iRobot" yet. That movie had ridiculous amounts of blatant product placement. Maddox even wrote an article about it back in the day...

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=i_robot

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I can't believe there hasn't been mention of the Will Smith movie "iRobot" yet.

The movie's name was "I, Robot", not "iRobot". This movie was made LONG before Apple appended the letter "i" to the names of literally every single product they crapped out.

I guess I've just gotten used to associating anything shitty with 'I' in front of the rest of the name to rest of Apple's lineup. Brand association!

 

[Esotera]

Oh hey there I'm just going to talk about how cool my shoes are for the next 90 minutes, did I mention that they're vintage from 2012?

I'm not really sure what the worst one I've seen is. Anything that mentions facebook/twitter really pisses me off.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

INB4 OBLIGATORY WAYNE'S WORLD CLIP
Surprised I got there first o:

 

[gigastar]

If anyone ever saw Evolution, the live action movie not the animated series it spawned in its wake, at the very end of the movie all acting goes straight out of every gap in the hypothetical house and the actors outright advertise Head & Shoulders shampoo.

Worked on my dad though, he wont get anything else.

 

[Nielas]

I can't believe there hasn't been mention of the Will Smith movie "iRobot" yet.

The movie's name was "I, Robot", not "iRobot". This movie was made LONG before Apple appended the letter "i" to the names of literally every single product they crapped out.

The title actually comes from an anthology book by Isaac Asimov published in 1950. However, "iRobot" is not a bad modern alternate title for it.

 

[Worgen]

The Transformers movies. What I was expecting was a feature lengthed advert for Hasbro toys. What I got was a feature lengthed advert for everything in the film. It was gratuitous, especially in the first film (I've only seen the first 2). It was like 30% of the shots were set up to conveniently and clearly show the brand name of whatever happened to be in shot at the time.

Side note: Everyone knows about the racist twin robots in the second film, but does it not occur to people that the only robot in the first film with a(n obviously) black voice actor is a Pontiac?

Oddly enough I only remember a couple of the product placements in that movie, the guy holding the xbox and the stupid bumble bee thing, where he turns from a classic car into a pos.

 

[Nouw]

Real Steel had some pretty shameless product placement in it, including an 'Xbox 720.'

 

[Nouw]

Real Steel had some pretty shameless product placement in it, including an 'Xbox 720.'

Dude, that whole movie was a feature-length ad for Rockem Sockem Robots.

Haha true, true.

 

[Vigilante 989]

I watched "Rumble In The Bronx" as a kid, and I remember seeing one of the characters who was in a wheelchair playing a SEGA Game Gear. What annoyed the hell at of me back then, and still does know, is that he was playing it with know game inside.

Another movie to feature the SEGA Game Gear (the hand held that I owned and loved) was 'Surf Ninja".

Good old memory lane.

 

[alrekr]

How has no one mentioned frying the coke from Double Team?

 

[doomspore98]

This isn't the biggest amount product placement I've seen, but in the avengers there was one scene where black widow and captain america are talking in destroyed new york, right in front of a spotless acura. the funny thing was, when they left the shot the camera men stayed on the car for like 3 more seconds. I just found that really funny.

 

[Someone Depressing]

How has no one mentioned frying the coke from Double Team?

Damnit, you beat me it!

Also, Canada. That's all the movie was called, I think. Just Canada. It was like a feature-length ad for holiday trips to Canada.

 

[twistedmic]

I really don't mind product placement in movies at all. If the story takes place in current times chances are people use brand products.

Unless they pull something like this...


...I couldnt care less if someone uses a Vaio laptop or drinks Coca Cola.

INB4 OBLIGATORY WAYNE'S WORLD CLIP
Surprised I got there first o:

The way I see it, The Truman Show and Wayne's World don't really fit here. First, they are both comedies. And second, the blatant product placement is being joked or spoofed. In the Truman Show, most of the movie took place inside a continuously running t.v. show so the product placement was their version of commercials. And with Wayne's World, the entire movie was a parody/spoof and was repeatedly noted as being a movie so any product placement was way over-done and joked.

Movies like 'I, Robot' and 'Mission to Mars' were (mostly) serious and the product placement wasn't meant to be a joke.

 

[MisterGobbles]

How has no one mentioned frying the coke from Double Team?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

You beat me to it. Sad face.

But yeah, this is pretty much the best shameless product placement ever. I mean, "guys Coke totally protects you from raging explosions n shit guys omg u guys" - it doesn't get much better.

I do remember that in that Mark Walhburg flick Contraband, everyone was using Blackberry Torches. Like, everyone. It was a bit odd.