product placement

M

mrpink89

Movies try to be as realistic as possible. Well, some do. Anyways, they ones that try often try with great dialog, a good reasonable story, scenes that don't seem to be to ridiculous, and solid identifiable characters. However, sometimes theses movies are often flooded with product placement. Making you wonder at the end if you have watched a movie, or if you just watched a 90min commercial.

I started to think about this the other day about realistic movies and product placement and it let to a bit of a conundrum. You see our world its self is commercialized to the tee. You can't go a single day or even a single second without seeing an ad for something. Even as I type this I am seeing a ad for "vimeo Pro. yet if you want to make a good movie and if you care about your work, you don't want to lose the movies soul by shoving pepsi ads down the audience's throat.

is making a realistic movie with tons of ads really product placement when our world its self is just a huge ad?
WOuld like to hear from others about this.
 
I personally think making a movie that i want make/love is more important than anything, if that means having to put some advertising in it to get the the money to make the film in the first place, then i would be more than happy to
 
tomb378 said:
I personally think making a movie that i want make/love is more important than anything, if that means having to put some advertising in it to get the the money to make the film in the first place, then i would be more than happy to
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Even if it detracts from your film and story?

Just playing the devils advocate here.
 
Waynes-World-product-plac-001.jpeg


At the right level of product placement compensation I'm quite comfortable with the practice.
Sometimes a product's usage is incidental, while at other times it's discretionary.
No sense leaving money on the table if Ford automotive wants to pay you $X thousand to promote their trucks in your action flick instead of you featuring Chevy trucks.
Or Coke vs. Pepsi.
That'd be foolish.

waynes-world-product-placement.jpg
 
I'd settle for the low budget version: Pizza Hut helping to feed the cast and crew in exchange for the pizza in the movie being theirs, Hertz providing rental vehicles in exchange for a prominent shot or 2 of a sign, etc.
 
Ernest Worthing said:
Even if it detracts from your film and story?

Just playing the devils advocate here.
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You're right, there has to be a balance between financial realities and the quality of the movie. This has always been the case, regardless of whether product placement is in a movie.

You'll find that the deals of cash for product placements aren't in movies as much as you'd think. Of course there are product placements, the deals are usually advertising related to increase awareness of a film and product, with both parties piggybanking on each others advertising dollars. The more people in the pool, the higher the profile of each.

James Bonds movie doesn't seem to let the product placement get in the way of their movie and they still find a way to make it work.

I personally believe in product placement, but just like everything else, it has to be done right to ensure the audience doesn't have a lesser experience.
 
There is an increasing amount of overt advertising in television shows these days. Many of the shows that I watch have had car commercials as part of the show. On the show "Suits" there have been commercials for many of the features of the Ford Taurus and Fusion. It seems that every time one of the agents gets in their car, they have to have a 10-15 second dialog about some feature or other, such as the EcoBoost Economy Display on the dashboard. I find that type of advertising to be very detrimental to the story and the show.

I have no problem with incidental advertising in films and television. If a cop on a show or in a movie drives a Ford (or Chevy, or Dodge, or Toyota, etc.), that's fine, I just don't want them to have a whole scene about how great that particular vehicle is. As long as the product placement doesn't become overt advertising, it doesn't bother me.
 
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