Where Product Placement is Okay

[Soviet Heavy]

You know how people are so quick to point out product placement in films, tv or games? And how it is always in a negative sense? Well, I'm not against it when it is done subtly. If somebody shouts out "LETS GO TO MCDONALDS!", it's rather on the nose, while if someone just walks into a room with a bag of McDonalds, it's only implied.

When you are trying to retain verisimilitude (realism), throwing these little nods in to real world stuff, it grounds your work. It makes the world a little bigger, because, yes, these things do exist in the film world as well. I'd rather have the implication that these things do exist in the world, rather than just act like they don't exist.

What do you think about product placement? Are you against it totally, or like me when it is used "tastefully" or "understated"?

Captcha: Media Frenzy.

Stop watching me Captcha.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Thing is with product placement is that along with the permission to use said products comes the idea/demand that those products can never be shown in a negative light, especially on something like the BBC (not so relevant for non-UK television).

That and implementing product-placement for the sake of realism would cost hella ca$h money; usually one or two brands get cherry-picked, and then it becomes more obvious.

I 'unno, it's a (theoretically) effective way of increasing the budget for a comparatively small concession; but there are few instances in which it's naturalistic, especially considering that the larger corporations and companies probably have a solid wall of lawyers and a PR department each the size of all outdoors that are going to be breathing down a few necks.

No one wants that, your neck gets all damp.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I never really understood the extreme hatred toward product placement. If a movie is set in current times, changes are people use brand products.

There is a line ofcourse, like in Casino Royale where fucking everything had a Sony brand on it.

So unless it's something of the level of Casino Royale or Transformers...


...I don't really mind.

 

[Lionsfan]

Like the others have said, I don't mind it when it's just subtle things that prove we're in the real world.

snip

Seeing Bernie Mac in that trailer just reminded me how weird the first Transformer was. Didn't they have like high school hackers at one point?

 

[shrekfan246]

I don't really mind product placement.

It's more weird (and funny, admittedly) to see fake branded Cola in games or movies because they couldn't use Coke or Pepsi.

I mean, if the thing is just an elaborate commercial then we've got a problem, but I've got no issues with big brands being placed in media. Half of the ones they could use probably don't even exist in Vermont anyway.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Like the others have said, I don't mind it when it's just subtle things that prove we're in the real world.

snip

Seeing Bernie Mac in that trailer just reminded me how weird the first Transformer was. Didn't they have like high school hackers at one point?

It also had two of the most disgustingly blatent "let's appeal to the teenage demographic" references, when they mention The 40-Year Old Virgin and The Matrix.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I don't really mind product placement.

It's more weird (and funny, admittedly) to see fake branded Cola in games or movies because they couldn't use Coke or Pepsi.

I mean, if the thing is just an elaborate commercial then we've got a problem, but I've got no issues with big brands being placed in media. Half of the ones they could use probably don't even exist in Vermont anyway.

Are you referring to the bizarre fake cola blatant product placement in Metal Gear Solid 4 by any chance?

 

[shrekfan246]

I don't really mind product placement.

It's more weird (and funny, admittedly) to see fake branded Cola in games or movies because they couldn't use Coke or Pepsi.

I mean, if the thing is just an elaborate commercial then we've got a problem, but I've got no issues with big brands being placed in media. Half of the ones they could use probably don't even exist in Vermont anyway.

Are you referring to the bizarre fake cola blatant product placement in Metal Gear Solid 4 by any chance?

Just one of many, really. They tend to all blend together after a while, which is another reason I don't mind product placement - I rarely notice those things in the first place. If I'm really enjoying a TV show, movie, or game, it's not really going to take me out of the experience to see a Starbucks show up.

 

[an annoyed writer]

I actually don't mind product placement, if it's done tastefully. For example, Chrysler and Ubisoft had a thing a while back that got Ubisoft a bunch of terrific car models in various games that really helped with the immersion factor. Even after that partnership ended they still base some really good models off of models from that era, so all-in-all It was a relationship that left a positive impact.

 

[Terminate421]

Soda ads for sure

Just make it casual that the guy is drinking a coke and I have no issue.

 

[Lionsfan]

Like the others have said, I don't mind it when it's just subtle things that prove we're in the real world.

snip

Seeing Bernie Mac in that trailer just reminded me how weird the first Transformer was. Didn't they have like high school hackers at one point?

It also had two of the most disgustingly blatent "let's appeal to the teenage demographic" references, when they mention The 40-Year Old Virgin and The Matrix.

I'm just glad we all learned our lesson, didn't watch any sequels, and Michael Bay never got another directing job again.[footnote]*sigh*....if only this was true...[/footnote]

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well consider that one of my vaourite anime is Tiger and Bunny (sponsor superheroes wearing real branded companies on them), product placement can be done. Sure those superheroes did had the proper logos on them but not once did the character actually advertise the said product in the episode. The closest we got was that ad that got played first during the break (the character Blue Rose advertise Pepsi since one of her sponsor is Pepsi) and even then it was short).

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I don't mind product placement in racing games. Having ads along the track like in real life adds to the game in a good way.

Also Bad Company 1 had ingame billboard ads that you could blow up and destroy. I thought they were quite amusing.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Eh... I don't mind it when its done cleverly.

Like Coke Zero bit in Scott Pilgrim. Until I read the comics, I thought that was just one of his quirks. Even still knowing that, it doesn't bother me. If I'm playing a video game and I see a build board of it like in Mercenaries 2, I'm fine with that too.

But everyonce in a while I'll see shots of Automobiles, or products where they deliberately put the logo in the shot as if I'm too dumb to realize it's product placement.

I've also seen television shows.... Secret Life Of An American Teenager did this, where they started plugging a product in the middle of the show. And at the time, I thought it was a fiction product that was tied into the plot.... Then the show cut to commercial and I saw a legit commercial for the product and jesus was I pissed.

Preferably, I like it when a fictional movie product gets to exist in the real world. Like if they made a Fallout Movie, I'd love Pepsi to temporarily rebrand Moutain Dew High Voltage as Nuka Cola Quantum.

 

[TaboriHK]

Breaking Bad had a particularly embarrassing example of it:


It came out of nowhere and in the context of the series is completely baffling.

 

[Ranorak]

I liked what [PROTOTYPE] did.
When running around New York killing shit and eating people for their memories, you barely notice the billboards.
I mean, they are there in the real city.

But, and I might just have this all wrong, I played this game again recently, and the billboards were actually showing current things.

They update, and showed me actual current commercial posters.

That, I liked. It was (more) subtle than usual.

 

[Grunt_Man11]

Breaking Bad had a particularly embarrassing example of it:


It came out of nowhere and in the context of the series is completely baffling.

Burn Notice had an embarrassing example too.

The best example of a car product placement is actually Terminator 3. Toyota got their truck in the movie and just let the movie makers beat the crap out of it in a chase scene.