Product Placement

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/30/14 at 8:50pm

What are some good instances of product placement in movies or tv shows?

I think Reese's Pieces in ET was a big one back in the day.

Updated On: 8/30/14 at 08:50 PM

Posted: 8/30/14 at 9:05pm

[StockardFan]

Posted: 8/30/14 at 10:09pm

Soaps use product placement quite a bit. IE: Adam Chandler on All My Children talking about Ragu Spaghetti sauce. Hell Days of Our Lives practically did a whole commercial for (I think?) Panda Express once.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 8/30/14 at 10:10pm

Oh yeah, and I remember once there was a shopping bag on a table in the foyer of Tad and Krystal's house on AMC from New York & Co.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/30/14 at 10:16pm

I believe ET was the film that actually started the trend. Calvin Klein and Pepsi in Back to the Future.

Updated On: 8/30/14 at 10:16 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/30/14 at 10:47pm

E.T. showed just how effective it could be, but if you think about it at the time it was not this huge blatant advertisement. Reese's Pieces were relatively new on the market (introduced in the late 70s) and not extremely popular before the film was released. And, as I seem to recall, they only went with them after failing to get an agreement with Mars to use M&Ms. After the film was released they saw sales soar of course, but it was not widely predicted beforehand that that would be the result.

I would say a huge one was the use of Dominos in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Every boy in America probably begged for Dominos pizza after seeing that (I know my little brother did, and threw a tantrum the first time after seeing it when we went to Pizza Hut instead of ordering Dominos for delivery).

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 8/31/14 at 3:23am

My favorite bit of product placement, would have to be the scene in the movie Wayne's World, where Wayne does a good job of making fun of product placement.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 8/31/14 at 10:56am

The UPS guy in Legally Blonde.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/31/14 at 11:18am

There are two types of product placement: passive placement (i.e., the same product is featured prominently throughout a movie or television show, but is not a plot component) and active placement (a product is featured throughout and is written into the narrative of the plot). Companies pay for active placement and passive placement, or sometimes, a combination of both.

The most egregious use of active product placement I can think of in recent memory is Goodnites bedwetting diapers in the movie 2012.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 8/31/14 at 9:50pm

It's a delicate balance.

[Jonwo]

Posted: 9/1/14 at 10:04am

The Bond films has had some good and bad product placement, the cars work because Bond drives a fancy car and it's a no brainer for Aston Martin to pay to have their latest vehicle showcased in a Bond film because that will lead to sales. Since Sony became part of handling the franchise, there has been many blatant Sony product placements but the 'Rolex, Omega' line still makes me cringe.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/1/14 at 10:07am

The product placement in Bond is actually, I think, part of the charm of the piece in a way. Bond is the greatest secret agent out there, but he makes absolutely no effort to be secret. He flaunts rampant materialism, is constantly drinking and screwing to the point where any other agent would be compromised, and keeps such a high profile that everyone has heard of him.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 9/1/14 at 11:45am

I love when it's blatant because it can be so hilarious. And sometimes I think intentionally so, like when their dialogue is basically ad copy, and you know the writers are like, "f*ck you."

On a kinda subtler note, I can't remember if it was AMC or OLTL, or both, but when Florida orange juice was a sponsor, so I swear they worked in a pitcher of OJ in a ton of scenes for a long time.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 9/1/14 at 4:56pm

I don't mind the product placement in Bond films, but there are times when I think it goes to far. I know that there were hardcore Bond fans who were pissed that Bond's new drink of choice (at least for the recent film) was a Heineken rather than a martini.

[madbrian]

Posted: 9/2/14 at 9:34am

American Airlines in the movie Up in the Air.

[javero]

Posted: 9/4/14 at 8:20pm

Nokia mobile phones in THE MATRIX.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/4/14 at 8:37pm

2001 A space Odyssey had tons! Pan Am, IBM, Bell picture phone,American Express credit card, Howard Johnson's, Whirlpool, Hilton Hotels, Genreral Motars, Parker Pens, to name a few.