Best/Worst product placements in a movie

[Oscar Antonio M]

Best:
Anything in Fight Club (The IKEA furniture, Starbucks Coffee, Pepsi, etc.)

Worst:
xXx (The VAIO computers, the High-End Sony cameras even though they are pretty cool, but still ugh)

Mission to Mars (The Dr. Pepper thing, just corny)

[FurryHumanBeing]

The Mac that can hack into an alien spaceship and save the day in ID4

[manigrasso]

Anyone remember how Bill Cosby kept that bottle of Coke right next to his head in that scene where he talks to his daughter in Leonard Part 6? Biggest whore in show business. (Cosby, not the woman who played his daughter).

[littlebib]

Worst: All of the product placements in Minority Report. They completely distracted me from the movie. Every new scene, I just kept wondering: OK, where's the next one.

[trespoochies]

Ain't in funny how in Minority Report that Spielberg's vision is so futuristic, yet The Gap same the same damn store design? I guess Gap is here to stay...and stay the exact same way.

[Darksim]

Actually I liked the product placements in Minority Report. It added realism to the public places. I mean come on, don't you get bombarded with ads when you dirve a highway or walk thru a mall?

I didnt like the product placements in Goldmember. The Taco Bell thing was terrible.

[DoubleDeuce]

Wayne's World!

[FurryHumanBeing]

Originally posted by Darksim
I didnt like the product placements in Goldmember. The Taco Bell thing was terrible.

Wasn't it Subway?

[aedavela]

Speaking of Taco Bell, in "Demolition Man," wasn't that the only restaurant to survive the nuclear holocaust? Scary stuff, that is.

[Monterey Jack]

When will people learn that the product "plugs" in Minority Report were Spielberg's deliberate satire of the future of aggressive, personal marketing? Honestly, did you come out of that movie wanting to purchase any of the featured products? Did you want to buy a can of Coke™ after the scene in Dr. Strangelove after a vending machine gets shot when Peter Sellers needs some change for the phone?

As for me, the most distracting product placement of recent memory was in The Thomas Crown Affair, when Rene Russo literally stopped in the middle of a conversation with Denis Leary, went to another room, popped open a can of diet Pepsi™, and chugged it with the label turned right towards the camera. Drags me right out of the movie every time.

[deanandmaria]

As for me, the most distracting product placement of recent memory was in The Thomas Crown Affair, when Rene Russo literally stopped in the middle of a conversation with Denis Leary, went to another room, popped open a can of diet Pepsi™, and chugged it with the label turned right towards the camera. Drags me right out of the movie every time. [/b]

In my eyes, we have a winner. I was going to post the very same scene. It is absolutely distracting in the movie, and extremely obvious.

[deltau922]

Come on. What about The Recruit where Colin Farrell is this computer genius getting recruited by theis guy from Dell at the computer fair, but Colin has a big Mac on his desk at home?

[aintnosin]

In hindsight, these are the funniest product placements:

Atari in Blade Runner

Pan Am in 2001.

Omni magazine in 2010

[littlebib]

Originally posted by Monterey Jack
When will people learn that the product "plugs" in Minority Report were Spielberg's deliberate satire of the future of aggressive, personal marketing? Honestly, did you come out of that movie wanting to purchase any of the featured products?

I understand that was Spielberg's "vision", and while they were maybe intended as satire, I found them extremely distracting. And, I don't believe they were just satire, Advertisers paid $25 million to get into the movie (1/3 of the budget if I remember correctly). I just don't buy that they were only satire.

Its also not just about wanting to leave the theater and immediately buy the product. Its product recognition. Lets say you walk out of that movie and later decide to buy a pair of sunglasses. So you go, and you're deciding between a pair of Revo's and a pair of Maui Jim's (both excellent sunglasses). You're more likely to recognize the Revo brand having just seen it in a movie, and therefore, more likely to buy them.

[tvboy]

The Coca Cola bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy.
Coca Cola in One Two Three.
Multiple offenders in Total Recall.
Qantas in Rain Man.
Reeses Pieces in ET.

[Jerm]

Originally posted by DoubleDeuce
Wayne's World!

I have to agree. That was classic comedy. I especially loved when Garth was lounging in his Reebok outfit.

[PolloDiablo]

Adam Sandler movies seem to whore them selves out every chance they get, and the sad thing is their never subtle about it. In Billy Madison he loves Snack Packs, in Happy Gilmore theres Subway everywhere you look, in Big Daddy theres McDonalds, and in Mr. Deeds theres Wendy's. I think the wendy's and Subway placements are probably the worst I've ever seeen, its like they make a huge point of saying "Hey this subway/wendys sure is good."

[C Roberts]

Cool:
AK-47 in any movie. Oh, and The Killer's .45


Cheesy:
5th Avenue bar in Stargate
Macs in anything (C'mon, nobody really uses those!)

[cherno]

Best: Anytime it doesn't draw attention to itself

Worst: Anytime it does

[Donkey]

I don't really mind prodcut placement in movies. I think the "Austin Powers" movie's overdo it a little bit and there are some really bad/corny ones. But besides that - if there not like right out there in the open saying "Hey, Hey Look At Me!!!" it's all good.

[LBPound23]

Originally posted by PolloDiablo
Adam Sandler movies seem to whore them selves out every chance they get, and the sad thing is their never subtle about it. In Billy Madison he loves Snack Packs, in Happy Gilmore theres Subway everywhere you look, in Big Daddy theres McDonalds, and in Mr. Deeds theres Wendy's. I think the wendy's and Subway placements are probably the worst I've ever seeen, its like they make a huge point of saying "Hey this subway/wendys sure is good."

I don't know about all that. Take the breakfast scene from "Big Daddy." You replace McDonald's with Big Al's Restaurant and it doesn't work comedically. Some of it's suspect, but I wonder how much of it is getting product placement money versus how much of it is just things that Adam Sandler likes, like the '70s and '80s music he's fond of and turn up in his soundtracks.

"Popeye's Chicken is the shiznit!"

That said, one that comes to mind which bothered me was in The Santa Clause 2...the reindeer is eating a whole bunch of candy, which we see is all Nestle products, and all with the wrappers strategically arranged to show the labels.

Sometimes film scenes won't work without product placement, replacing with generic food places just take away from reality or undermine comedic potential. Other times, it just seems like the studio wanted to get some extra funding and pimped themselves out.

[electricsheep22]

Dr. Strangelove and Blade Runner

[run1]

BMWs in James Bond movies. 007 in german cars?? Bring on the aston martin!

[papibear]

Originally posted by C Roberts
Macs in anything (C'mon, nobody really uses those!)

Begging your pardon, but I do.

And so do many people.

Let's please not drag the old Mac vs. PC thing in here. I deal with that enough over at friggin' Yahoo.

They're just tools. Plenty of people in the motion picture and television industry actually use them for production work. So let's just agree that, although product placement of them is often a bit glaringly obvious, the Mac DOES get used in daily life by millions of people. Not as many millions as various Wintel boxes, but millions nonetheless.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

I have to agree on Wayne's World, I loved the scene when they are talking about not selling out.

"Wow Nuprin! Little, yellow, different."

[MrTony]

My favorite product placement is the ad for American Express featuring the Cleveland Indians in Major League.

"Don't steal home without it!"

[Monterey Jack]

[quote]Originally posted by littlebib
I understand that was Spielberg's "vision", and while they were maybe intended as satire, I found them extremely distracting. And, I don't believe they were just satire, Advertisers paid $25 million to get into the movie (1/3 of the budget if I remember correctly). I just don't buy that they were only satire.[quote]


Yeah, advertisers kicked in a significant amount of moolah to be featured in Minority Report, but likely had no idea that Spielberg would use their products so subversively. That scene when Tom Cruise, wanted for a future murder, is walking through that tunnel, and the retinal scanners are causing the holo-billboards to shout out his name from all sides was positively Kubrickian in it's black wit. It's just like how the spam cluttering your inbox now addresses you chummily by name. We will see marketing come to this intrusive extreme within the next century.

Its also not just about wanting to leave the theater and immediately buy the product. Its product recognition. Lets say you walk out of that movie and later decide to buy a pair of sunglasses. So you go, and you're deciding between a pair of Revo's and a pair of Maui Jim's (both excellent sunglasses). You're more likely to recognize the Revo brand having just seen it in a movie, and therefore, more likely to buy them.

Unless you don't like said product. Just because I see a plug for, say, Taco Bell in a movie doesn't mean I'm going to seek out the nearest restaurant as soon as the movie's over, because I don't like Mexican food.

[Jellodyne]

Unless you don't like said product. Just because I see a plug for, say, Taco Bell in a movie doesn't mean I'm going to seek out the nearest restaurant as soon as the movie's over, because I don't like Mexican food.

OK, lets take this one one point at a time.

1) First off, not 100% of the people who see an ad will act on it. But some will.

2) Just because you're not going to act on the ad, you don't mind paying $8 to see it?

3) Taco Bell is not mexican food. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's definately not mexican, or food.

Best product placement of all time: The complete corporate sponsorship of Repo Man by the Generic Company. Honorable mention to Fight Club.

Worst: Minority Report (ceaseless plugs by long-time Pepsi collaborator Speilberg), Demolition Man (Taco Bell), Coneheads (Subway), and Adaams Family (FedEx).

[Dave McFly]

Originally posted by run1
BMWs in James Bond movies. 007 in german cars?? Bring on the aston martin!

*gives you a BIG HIGH FIVE!*

i totally agree the only one of the 007 movies that was okay to have a BMW was in Tomorrow never dies being partly set in germany lol as much as i like the cars by themselvs my dad said that Ian Flemming must me spinning in his grave if he knew that his brittish agent character driving german cars, i was SO glad that Bond was in an Aston Martin in Die Another Day, I LOVE THAT CAR its hellasweet but i didnt care for all the other cars in the movie being ford owned (ford owns, Jaguar, Aston Martin,) and that Tbird etc, i liked the ferraris and lamboriginis that fell out of the cargo plane