# First example of product placement in a film
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 27, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792 "2005-05-27T18:33:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/1 "2005-05-27T18:33:01Z")
While having a loverly time over at [this thread on product placement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=318482), I started to wonder how long this practice had been going on. Is there product placement in _Casablanca_ or _All About Eve_ that I was simply not aware of, or is this a fairly recent phenomenon? I was under the impression that the practice started with junk food junkie _E.T._, but Bond films were cited as examples, and they significantly predate the home-phoning Bug Eyed Monster.
I want to concentrate on feature films in this thread, as we are aware that the line between entertainment and advertising broke down on TV a long time ago (or perhaps never existed at all). However, if you have some interesting early TV product placement stories or info, I’m not gonna cry foul. Let’s also try to distinguish between paid product placement (the type I’m most interested in) and real products that were used to enhance the realism of the film, but for which the producers recieved no payment.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/2 "2005-05-27T19:12:50Z")
One of the earliest was **Love Happy** , the Marx Brothers’ last film together (no one counts **The Story of Mankind** , for good reason).
They ran out of money to make the film, so the producer went to several companies and offered placement. The final chase scene has Harpo on a rooftop, and climbing on several company logo signs (e.g., Mobil Oil).
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/3 "2005-05-27T20:28:33Z")
There was also product placement in _The African Queen_. Bogey’s preferred brand of whiskey was featured.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/4 "2005-05-27T20:50:19Z")
Joe Adamson, in _Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo_ calls the product placement something about as common at the time as the “Irish measles”, so there may be earlier examples but not very many.
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/5 "2005-05-27T21:21:25Z")
Does “as common as irish measles” mean it was common or uncommon?
**ascenray**. did the production recieve money from the whiskey company? What kind of hooch was it?
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/6 "2005-05-27T21:41:53Z")
“Irish measles” means unheard of.
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/7 "2005-05-27T22:00:10Z")
Thank you! Ignorance fought!
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### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/8 "2005-05-27T22:00:36Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> “Irish measles” means unheard of.
To help explain the reference, “German measles” is an archaic term for rubella.
On-topic: I’ve heard somewhere or other that Buick donated all vehicles used in _Gold Diggers of 1935_.
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### Author:  [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/9 "2005-05-28T02:55:53Z")
According to [this article The New York Times:](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/business/media/28adcol.html?ex=1267419600&en=fa299baa13b9c6ea&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt)
> [@](#):
>
> The earliest example of product placement Mr. Newell said he found involved films from 1896 created by Auguste and Louis Lumière for François-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke, the Swiss representative for the Sunlight brand of soap sold by Lever Brothers (now Unilever). One film shows a cart bearing the Sunlight name parked on a street, Mr. Newell said, and another shows “people doing their wash.”
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### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/10 "2005-05-28T03:20:47Z")
Ok, I’m gonna show my age (Or lack therof) here.
1.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (The first Movie) the Pizza Delivery down the sewer probably had Dominos and Pizza Hut in a bid war. Dominos won. (And yet delivered the pizza vertically… That doesnt quite work well). Yet Pizza Hut seemed to be the most all over TMNT back in the day.
2.E.T. I’ve read time and time again that M&M/Mars Declined to have ET eat M&Ms. Reeses Pieces got it (Which I think differs from the novel) and well… to say the least I think it was one of M&Ms worst moves.
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### Author:  [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-example-of-product-placement-in-a-film/305792/11 "2005-05-28T05:59:19Z")
**Dragwyr** , I opened the thread and planned to mention that article. How is it that it doesn’t require payment to read an article from February? Anyway, as the article mentioned, TCM was running a series about product placement in the movies. I saw a short that showed a very old film (early 1900’s?) of women doing laundry. There was a box of detergent that was prominently displayed in the film, and was believed to be one of the first uses of product placement (if not _the_ first ever). I don’t have anything more than a vague memory of the details of the film. I think it was from Ireland? but maybe not.