# The most shameless product placement seen in a movie. (and ruins the movie for you) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709 "2003-06-23T05:29:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/21 "2003-06-23T15:21:03Z")
Ebert’s review of Happy Gilmore notes these product placements: Diet Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Subway, Budweiser, Michelob, Visa, Bell Atlantic, AT&T, Sizzler, Wilson, Golf Digest, ESPN, and Top-Flite golf balls. For Subway alone, he saw “one Subway sandwich eaten outside a store, one date in a Subway store, one Subway soft drink container, two verbal mentions of Subway, one Subway commercial starring Happy, a Subway T-shirt, and a Subway golf bag.” ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/22 "2003-06-23T15:22:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blowero \* > \*\*And I just saw The Matrix sequel - there seemed to be some conspicious placements of Cadillacs in there. I guess they’re trying to shake their image of the car that old people drive. \*\* When they grabbed the car to make the get-away, I thought “Ok, what hot vehicle are they going to be using in this movie?” A few minutes later, I was saying to my S.O. “A Cadillac?!? They’re in a _Cadillac_???” Surprised me too. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/23 "2003-06-23T17:27:45Z")
Not that it was a particularly enjoyable movie (thus it wasn’t the product placement that ruined any potential enjoyment), but Popeye’s Chicken was pretty blatantly plugged in _Little Nicky_. And, of course, there’s the whole “all restaurants are Taco Bell!” nonsense in _Demolition Man_. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/24 "2003-06-23T17:38:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zeldar \* > Thanks for that. I had no idea. I take back what I said then. Nitpick: Atari today is Infogrames (French video game company) with a new paint job. The original Atari died about five years ago. (There’s a Carlsberg beer truck in **Spider-Man?** Must not be very effective product placement, since I still can’t remember seeing it…) ---
**Author:** ![Husker\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Husker\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Husker_Dude)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/25 "2003-06-23T18:35:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*(There’s a Carlsberg beer truck in **Spider-Man?** Must not be very effective product placement, since I still can’t remember seeing it…) \*\* It’s in the scene where Spider-Man chases down uncle Ben’s killer, he even jumps on top of it if I’m not mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/26 "2003-06-23T18:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*(There’s a Carlsberg beer truck in **Spider-Man?** Must not be very effective product placement, since I still can’t remember seeing it…) \*\* Yah, all Spider-Man was doing was riding on top of the damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/27 "2003-06-23T18:51:45Z")
Nobody’s mentioned _You’ve Got Mail_ yet? With the AOL logo in the opening credits? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/28 "2003-06-23T19:02:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blowero \* > \*\* > Also, in Independence Day, when the Coke can is placed on the spaceship, with the logo perfectly centered, of course. > \*\* Didn’t even notice that…I DID notice, however, that eariler, in the lab, they threw a Coke can into a recycling bin…and ALL the cans in there were Cokes. Every single one of 'em. (Pssst, writer? REAL lab techs drink Dew ;)) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/29 "2003-06-23T19:10:46Z")
**Smapti** : > [@](#): > > The bad part is that Storm of the Century is set in 1989, seven years before the Powerbook became available, and certainly long before laptop computers were widespread enough for a yokel on a remote island off the coast of New England to have one to do crossword puzzles on. **Macintosh PowerBook 100**. Introduced: October 1991 Your point still applies, but only as a two-year credibility gap, not seven. I have no idea how many of them were sold to folks living in coastal New England island communities. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/30 "2003-06-23T19:24:47Z")
Robert Zemeckis has repeatedly stated that Federal Express did not pay anything for its presence in _Cast Away_. I would imagine they let them film some planes, but still, my revulsion at what I thought was the most blatant product placement since _You’ve Got Mail!_ is somewhat mollified by this. How about all the candy wrappers in _The Lost World_? And that scene in which a Mercedes 4WD is used to pull a trailer back from the brink of a cliff (or not, can’t remember)? All I can remember about that was the five foot high Mercedes logo slowly moving back and forth across the screen and thinking “subtle.” And _Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me_ had an irritating Heinekin placement that was just like the commercials Myers was doing for them at the same time. I found this irritatingly ironic since Myers mocked product placement pretty thoroughly in one of the _Wayne’s World_ movies (though for all I know he got money on that one as well). ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/31 "2003-06-23T19:35:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Baldwin \* > … (Somebody should make a movie of the classic Pohl/Kornbluth novel _The Space Merchants_, in which ads are inescapable, even appearing on people’s bathroom mirrors.) … Bravo, **Baldwin**! As an avid collector of every work by Pohl and Kornbluth, I must say you have brought this entire thread to its logical conclusion in one short little paragraph. **The Space Merchants** , would essentially be one long product placement, ocassionally interfered with by a plot. As one of the most translated sci-fi books of all time, I’m sure the only thing keeping this off of the big screen is the intense lampooning that commercial enterprises receive in the story. Intentionally addictive drinks, simultaneously subliminal _and_ suggestive advertising, literally all of the industry’s worst and most insidious practices are cheerfully exposed in this one book. I commend your splendid insight into modern product placement. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/32 "2003-06-23T22:24:08Z")
**The Wizard** was awesome. Especially when they unveil the newest game at the end of the Nintendo competition, Super Mario Bros 3, and all of the characters scream how unfair it is to have them play a game they’ve never seen before. Then, once the game starts, they start yelling out hints as if they’ve played it before: “The whistle! If you get it, you can warp to the next world!” ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/33 "2003-06-24T00:09:19Z")
In The Peacemaker, Nicole Kidman, the government operative, e-mails files found on a Russian mobster’s computer to herself. Back in the hotel room with George Clooney, her laptop lets out a loud “You’ve got mail!” and she states that she used her AOL account for this covert operation. Of course, the e-mail must have taken 3 hours to be delivered, movie-time. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/34 "2003-06-24T00:21:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blowero \* > \*\*And I just saw The Matrix sequel - there seemed to be some conspicious placements of Cadillacs in there. I guess they’re trying to shake their image of the car that old people drive. \*\* The best part about those Cadillacs is that according to the first Matrix movie, the Matrix was created to simulate the year 1999. The two Cadillacs are a CTS and an Escalade EXT, neither of which existed before 2003. I guess it’s been 4 years between movies, and no Agents occupied the body of any GM designers over those 4 years. 😃 As for the OP, my example actually _did_ ruin this movie for me. _The Thomas Crown Affair_. In one scene, Rene Russo stops what she’s saying, opens a Pepsi One, and sits there drinking the entire can, all while holding the logo perfectly aligned facing the screen, while everyone in the Police station watches her. Totally inexplicable, totally unacceptable. Especially since they make a big deal out of the fact that she only drinks this certain kind of green wheat germ juice drink earlier (and in another scene later) in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/35 "2003-06-24T00:21:34Z")
_Happy Gilmore_ actually used product placement as a plot device. Adam Sandler was doing endorsements for Subway as part of the story. That’s about as blatant as it gets. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/36 "2003-06-24T00:29:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scupper \* > \*\* > And _Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me_ had an irritating Heinekin placement that was just like the commercials Myers was doing for them at the same time. I found this irritatingly ironic since Myers mocked product placement pretty thoroughly in one of the _Wayne’s World_ movies (though for all I know he got money on that one as well). \*\* I was going to mention _Wayne’s World_-that was a pretty good one. Let’s see, there was Pepsi, Doritoes, Nike, and Nuprin, right? ---
**Author:** ![Zander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecb155/32.png) [@Zander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zander)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/37 "2003-06-24T00:35:45Z")
Scupper-- I remember hearing that the Heineken placement in _The Spy Who Shagged Me_ was also not paid for, that it was in the script as a joke. Kind of a lame joke not to get paid for, don’t you think? I agree with **Bad News Baboon** about the placement of fake products when the real ones are so omnipresent in real life. As ruined as any of these movies were by the real logos, fake ones substituted in would have been just as irritating. Maybe. From a narrative standpoint, a fake business logo in a modern-day (i.e. non-science fiction) setting makes me pay far too much attention to it, and makes me expect that the company is going to play a major role in the plot of the film. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/38 "2003-06-24T00:43:56Z")
What gets me is that every once in a while a movie will try to poke fun at product placements in movies by showcasing a few really obvious ones and playing it for laughs. So they try to have their cake and eat it too by having big name product placements _and_ earning cool points by making fun of the very thing they’re doing. _Wayne’s World_ actually managed to pull this sort of joke off really well, making for one of the funniest moments in the film. _Josie and the Pussycats_ was just a really bad movie though. The whole theme of rampant consumerism and marketing is evil just played like an excuse to cram in as many product placements as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/39 "2003-06-24T01:28:55Z")
The FedEx one in _Runaway Bride_ is the worst. She jumps in one of their trucks and someone asks “Where is she going?”. Hector Elizondo, to his eternal discredit, says “I don’t know, but she’ll be there by 10:30 tomorrow morning”. Totally shameless. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709/40 "2003-06-24T06:27:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zander \* > I remember hearing that the Heineken placement in _The Spy Who Shagged Me_ was also not paid for, that it was in the script as a joke. Kind of a lame joke not to get paid for, don’t you think? He probably got paid under the table.:rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-shameless-product-placement-seen-in-a-movie-and-ruins-the-movie-for-you/183709.md?page=3)