NEWS: Product(ion) Placement

CULTURE: Product(ion) Placement

Corporate interference and product placement in mainstream film has increased exponentionally since its formative days in E.T. to the point where it is now endemic in Hollywood. The worst examples make it diffucult to know when the adverts have stopped and the film has begun, as anyone who has seen The Island will testify. But now corporations are on the verge of taking their influence into the creative process one step further, as Universal Pictures has signed a deal to distribute the very first movie ever produced by...Mountain Dew???

Sponsorship of extreme sports is nothing new, and any documentary about snowboarding would by its very nature inevitably feature corporate banners throughout the action footage, although this is the first example of a corporation explicitly producing a nationwide cinema release, and could signal a dramatic shift to firms deciding not to rely on tie-in advertising, but rather to produce what could essentially amount to two hour adverts for their products.

The Truman Show was a film based on a fictional TV series financially supported by product placement (and consequently supported by this placement itself) – now, this degree of separation is being removed, which could prove disasterous for projects with oppositional views or ideologies contrary to corporate values, never mind to the artistic integrity of their creators. Due to the major studios quasi-monopolistic hold on the industry through vertigal integration (they control the filmmaking process from production through to distribution), films that do not accommodate corporate inteference could struggle to be produced at all, let alone shown.

Though it may not herald the end of oppositional dialogue in mainstream film (eg. Terminator 2 showcased the pinnacle of technological advancement while containing a narrative demonstrating that such advancement will ultimately prove apocalyptical), corporate inteference in the production of art can only be a step in the wrong direction. Especially if it means we have to endure more shite like The Island.

For a second i thought this news article was about DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist...

I once spent $8.00 to see a 2 hour FedEx/Wilson Commercial called Castaway. Tom Hank was the spokesman.

i bet that mountain dew movie will be EXTREEEEEEEEME MAN!

The Documentary DogTown & the Z-Boys was a Sony Pictures Classics release, but it was a Vans off the Wall film. Nearly all the money behind it came from Vans which is owned by the VFcorp, they make Lee & Wrangler jeans.

It seems pretty similar to me.

[Edited on Sep 16, 2005 by Thrasher]

Adverts are due to become rarer and rarer as technology advances enough to make people able to cut out the adverts. This means that product placement on television is going to become more and more blatent and you can bet that if coke spend millions on product placement in TV shows, they will want control over the subject matter too.

Dark days.

Ugh, and they wonder why theatre attendance is down.

I never really notice product placement in movies, unless they make a big deal about it.
Normally it just seems to add some realism.

This Mountain Dew thing is really weird, though.

I.Hate.Advertising.

Even worse are the product placements in I, Robot and Blade Trinity. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love apple, but "She likes to listen to mp3s when she hunts" is fucking bullshit.

wow.......i didn't think it could get any worse when it came to product placements in movies. this is just disgusting. i think alpha had it right when he said......."and they wonder why theatre attendence is down".
if you think this is bad try reading the book No Logo and you'll realise how invasive advertising is in our everyday life. it makes me feel icky whenever i see product placement.

This actually isn't anything new. Go find the book called Syrup by Maxx Berry (or barry, not sure). The two main characters of the book come up with an idea to make a feature length action movie commercial for Coke. Basically, some aliens invade Earth because Coke is like crack to them and they gotta have it! It was pretty hysterical. Go check out the book.

In the early days of television, wasn't there a law eventually passed which limited the degree to which advertisers could control the content of TV programming? I recall that there was, in response to just the kind of thing being discussed here.

As for math classes being sponsored by Pepsi, one needs A LOT more caffeine than is provided by a can of Pepsi for proper math comprehension!

[Edited on Sep 16, 2005 11:34PM]

I'm not as scared, and here's why -- there are too many studios who are already supporting indie films and don't factor in product placement that this will be a non-issue. Remember the Spot games for Genesis/SNES (I think there was one for PSX as well)? Or Yo! Noid? McKids? Or, finally, Pepsiman?

Yeah, it's shameless product placement, and the movie will most definitely suck, but that's just it. The movie will most definitely suck, and in the end they'll realize that this just isn't a cost effective way to get people to consume.

There was this shitty Tom Cruise movie I could never bring myself to watch that looked so much like a soda advertisement that I called it "The Mellow Yellow movie" -- "Days of Thunder." Didn't Mellow Yellow used to ber the name for Mountain Dew?

The worst I can think of was the Nike commercial in What Women Want. That was just unbelievable.

Along with Nike's 1987 promo video with the Beatles' "Revolution" in the background. The height of silliness!