# When Product Placements Attack
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 31, 2005, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414 "2005-08-31T13:15:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/1 "2005-08-31T13:15:55Z")
What kind of movies and television shows will we see when the big companies stop trying to be subtle?
Will we see tepid action films like **Mission to Mars Bars**? Female oriented scifi-action movies like **The Playtex**? Horror films like **Bram Stoker’s Chocula**?
Or perhaps we’ll see more artsy film infiltration, like in **I Am Curious (Yellow and Blue Make Green Seal)**. Maybe we’ll be able to tune in and see four older ladies who love to bicker, united by their love of a favorite cereal, on **The Golden Grahams**.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/2 "2005-08-31T13:19:49Z")
Too late - we already have I, Robot.
And for the record, it wasn’t that bad, although I deeply resent them using the name.
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/3 "2005-08-31T13:22:06Z")
Right, the product placement for Apple’s new iRobot. 😉
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/4 "2005-08-31T13:23:15Z")
Stop trying to be subtle?
Look at the TV showsd of the 1950s – the sponsor was right in the Title (Texaco Presents), and often had their logo blazoned on everything. Milton Berle was introduced by a chorus dressed as Texaco gas station attendants. Longines used to have its logo hanging in the background on shows it sponsored.
Cigarette commercials used to have the stars of the show, in character – I Love Lucy adverrtised with Lucy and Ricky. Even The Flinstones show had cigarette ads (!)
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/5 "2005-08-31T13:25:57Z")
Cal, Cal, Cal… - I think I whooshed you, buddy.
This is one of those threads where people are supposed to come in, and suggest their own ‘hopelessly corporatized’ movie and TV titles.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/6 "2005-08-31T13:27:25Z")
No, have you \*seen \* the movie? Those damn Converse sneakers were _everywhere_, and that was only one of the products advertised. It was as far unsubtle as it could possibly be.
Not to mention the name \*was \* an advertisement. It was specifically meant to draw Asimov fans. Thankfully, I waited a long time to see it and had already hear about it, and thus had very little expectations. For a light robot flick it was pretty cool, but it Was. Not. Asimov. :mad:
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/7 "2005-08-31T13:31:29Z")
The Back To The Future movies were particularly blatant about it, with jarringly obvious product placements for Pepsi, JVC and Nike (probably others too, but those are the three I remember as most striking). That would be an example of how not to do it.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/8 "2005-08-31T13:32:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Bram Stoker’s Chocula
Now, I’d pay money to see _that_!
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/9 "2005-08-31T13:58:24Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#):
>
> Now, I’d pay money to see _that_!
At least the wig would be appropriate.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/10 "2005-08-31T14:02:43Z")
You should have seen the recent Herbie movie. But it makes perfect sense in context. They’re a NASCAR racing team racing the circuit. The logo shots are (literally) everywhere and the lead characters discuss their sponsorship deals with this product or that brand.
And you can’t _call them on it._
If you have a movie focused on NASCAR having the product placement leads _verite_ to the picture not distraction.
A truly evil genius at Disney had that thought. I am deeply impressed.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/11 "2005-08-31T14:11:35Z")
Phaugh!
If you want product placement, get **Return of the Killer Tomatoes** sttraight and upgfront about it. And it’s got George Clooney.
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### Author:  [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/12 "2005-08-31T14:50:29Z")
**Mutiny on the Bounty - the quicker picker-upper.**
**One flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nestle’s Quick**
**It’s A Wonderful Life Cereal** (or boardgame, or magazine…)
**Fight Club Soda**
As far as product placement we’ve already seen…
In [Daredevil](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287978/), there were three scenes in which people were seen drinking beer. All three times, the beer was Heinekin, with the label clearly visible. The problem was, that all three times it just didn’t make sense.
When we see the young Matt Murdock looking at his drunk father, the pile of empties next to the man is clear enough. But why would a washed up, down-on-his luck, broke has-been like Jack Murdock be buying imported, premium beer?
And when we see Ben Urich drinking a Heini at the Hoi-Polloi society bash, why is he drinking straight from the bottle, instead of one of those fancy stemmed galsses you always get at those parties?
And - my favourite - when we meet Bullseye, he’s in a dark, tough-looking little Irish pub, an ACTUAL Irish pub, in Ireland, where all these tough working class Irish men are drinking… bottles of Heinekin.
I know, bad movie all around. But I thought the beer placement was kind of funny.
thwartme
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### Author:  [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/13 "2005-08-31T15:00:57Z")
The product placement in _The Island_ nearly ruined the movie for me (I enjoyed the movie otherwise).
[quick change of topic]The makers of _Clonus_ filed a lawsuit against Dreamworks for _The Island_.[/qcot]
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/14 "2005-08-31T15:22:37Z")
In a stunning twist, Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood get fired from last year’s hot new drama, prompting the immediate spin-off: **Ex-LAX**
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-product-placements-attack/319414/15 "2005-08-31T15:38:19Z")
**Pirates of the Royal Caribbean**
**Return of the Burger King**