# fast food and movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2001, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-and-movies/95416 "2001-11-27T01:37:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-and-movies/95416/1 "2001-11-27T01:37:05Z")
Why does Burger King feel the need to butcher good movies in the thought that it will sell hamburgers? I was annoyed with Shrek singing about a hamburger, and a bit more so by their horrible puns about the Lord Of The Rings plastic goblets they’re selling. It’s not so much using the movies to sell hamburgers as ruining them to sell hamburgers. McDonalds does it with their Disney music happy meal ads. They make their ads the first impression any one has of a movie or a song (or at least the most widespread, since TV commercials are a lot more frequently seen than movie trailers). And the puns and skits could give people nightmares. All-time king of this kind of advertising was Batman Forever. Everyone had seen the batmobile “I’ll get drive through” ad before they saw that very scene at the start of the movie. It would have been funny in the movie; everyone just groaned when they saw it b/c they’d seen it before. Even if this wasn’t the case, it really seemed that part was in the movie just to sell hamburgers. gah, I hate that. Anyone else have some nightmares from the world of fast food advertising they care to bring to the surface? ---
**Author:** ![Mofo\_Rising](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mofo\_Rising](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mofo_Rising)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-and-movies/95416/2 "2001-11-27T02:02:54Z")
I guess it is distasteful, but what are you gonna’ do? Personally, I find it so widespread that I don’t even notice it anymore. Like a bad smell. Besides, it’s for the kids. Let them have their cheapo toys. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-and-movies/95416/3 "2001-11-27T03:29:46Z")
Welcome to the world of “Product Placement”. As tobacco companies are crowded out of ordinary commercial media venues you now see them plastered all over race cars and the like. Hell, if they could shape a racing car like a pack of cigarettes, they would. So it is with modern movies. Do you realize that the movie “ET” was originally supposed to have the alien like M&M’s? Mars wouldn’t allow the placement so Reese’s Pieces were used and became a national institution. You just can’t get that sort of advertising any other way. Ergo, product placement. Yeah, it sucks, but big bucks rule Hollyweird and the cost of moviemaking is so high that any way of subsidizing them is pursued like a dropped rock in a crack house. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-and-movies/95416/4 "2001-11-27T07:35:33Z")
Why don’t you just stop watching television, and then you won’t have this problem? I rarely (if ever) watch television, and my stomach can’t handle junk food any more… so this isn’t a problem for me. We usually decide on what movies to see based on word of mouth and Ebert reviews. (Or seeing the trailer before another movie.) ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-and-movies/95416/5 "2001-11-27T11:06:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Daniel \* > \*\*Why does Burger King feel the need to butcher good movies in the thought that it will sell hamburgers? \*\* I don’t think Burger King has butchered any movie. > [@](#): > > \*\* > I was annoyed with Shrek singing about a hamburger, and a bit more so by their horrible puns about the Lord Of The Rings plastic goblets they’re selling. \*\* Neither of these are examples of movies being butchered by Burger King. I wasn’t annoyed with the Shrek commercials but the LoTR ads just seem kind of lame. But neither one will ruin the movie for me. It isn’t like I’ll be watching LoTR and waiting to see Bilbo eating a Whopper during his farewell feast. > [@](#): > > \*\* > It would have been funny in the movie; everyone just groaned when they saw it b/c they’d seen it before. Even if this wasn’t the case, it really seemed that part was in the movie just to sell hamburgers. \*\* I’d hardly say it ruined the movie. Marc ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-and-movies/95416/6 "2001-11-27T15:21:33Z")
The major fast food businesses will sell ANYTHING to get a few more middle class kids choking down their fat filled fries. If that means trashing some character so much that his face appears on every plastic piece of shit from toys to drink cups, they’ll do it.