Product placement

From Qualitipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Wasn't this supposed to be a movie that suddenly turns into an advertisement all the sudden?

Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is the act of taking real-life products and using them in movies. Whenever a film uses product placement, there's a good chance that many people will hate it because of that; most of the time, the film pauses itself just to advertise that product.

Examples in bad/average films

  1. Jack and Jill
  2. Foodfight!
  3. The Alvin and the Chipmunks tetralogy
  4. The Smurfs duology
  5. The Emoji Movie
  6. Disaster Movie
  7. Meet the Spartans
  8. Fun Size
  9. Escape from Planet Earth
  10. Mac and Me
  11. G-Force
  12. Epic Movie
  13. Just Go with It
  14. Transformers: Age of Extinction
  15. Fantastic Four (2015)
  16. 2012
  17. Problem Child
  18. Free Birds
  19. Ghostbusters (2016)
  20. Men in Black: International
  21. Eight Crazy Nights
  22. Hellboy (2019)
  23. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
  24. Leonard Part 6
  25. North
  26. Godzilla (1998)
  27. Baby Geniuses
  28. Thunderbirds (2004)
  29. Homeward
  30. Playing With Fire
  31. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
  32. The Wizard (1989)
  33. Daddy Day Care
  34. Are We There Yet?
  35. Inspector Gadget
  36. Max Steel
  37. Disney's The Kid
  38. The Cat in the Hat (2003)
  39. Sleepover
  40. Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
  41. Space Jam: A New Legacy
  42. The Ant Bully
  43. The Exorcist: Believer

Why This Move Sucks

  1. Getting the first thing out of the way is that they're very pointless and turn the movie(s) into an advertisement, which is not what it's supposed to be. They're also very out of place for those movies as well.
  2. They are mostly very distracting and will more likely make you focus less on what is happening with the movie's story.
  3. It's mostly a lazy attempt at trying to sell a product and is used only to expand profits, but it doesn't even do its job well of doing so because they're not used in a way where they are important to the story that the movie is telling; they are just there all just to get people into buying the product.
  4. It's lazy for writers whenever they do this and shove products in because they run out of ideas.
  5. It puts the movie to a halt just to show the product, which is a very bad sign.
  6. Most of the time, they add absolutely nothing noteworthy or interesting to the story; you could easily take them out, and it wouldn't make any impact on the story.
  7. Some usages can also be an attempt at trying to be "hip" and "modern" with the current generation, which sounds like a bad idea because even though they might be fresh when they were first released, they will be outdated in later years.
    • Sometimes, they can even do a pop culture reference to a product that is no longer relevant by the time the film is released. One notable example has to be the scene in The Smurfs where they dedicated an entire scene to Patrick Winslow playing Guitar Hero, with the Smurfs rapping to "Walk This Way" by Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith, which is cringe-worthy and dated because the Guitar Hero franchise lost all relevancy by the time the film was released.
  8. In live-action films, it somewhat serves as an excuse for the actors to go out.
  9. Most films that use this usually end up being panned by critics and sometimes also win a Razzie Award.
  10. The filmmakers would use the excuse that it brings realism when it only does if it's well-hidden, doesn't show too many brands, or fits well within the context of the narrative such as a store.
  11. Sometimes, they can take up the entire movie:
    • The worst offenders are arguably He's All That (2021), The Smurfs, and The Emoji Movie; these movies have product placements and advertisements that nearly take up entire scenes, with The Emoji Movie having dedicated scenes to random iPhone apps like YouTube, Spotify, Candy Crush, Facebook, and Just Dance Now; He's All That (2021) name dropping and even showing off a bucketload of product placements throughout the film, especially for social media platforms; and The Smurfs just advertising various companies and products during the scene where the Smurfs enter the Times Square center and when they go to FAO Schwartz.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. Product placement can sometimes be used efficiently, and sometimes parodied very well without being shoved down the audiences' throats. Some examples include:
  2. Some of them can be a bit funny and be used for laughs, like the scene in Wayne's World, where Garth Algar jokes about how "it's like people only do things because they get paid" and that it's "really sad" while wearing Reebok merchandise at the same time, which is a nice jab at the movement; the scene in Looney Tunes: Back in Action where Bugs, Daffy, Kate, and D.J. Drake see a Walmart and enter in there makes a good joke with regards to product placement; or even the infamous Dunkinchino musical scene from Jack and Jill, which, you guessed it, became a meme and the best moment of the film.
  3. Films that take place in not-so-modern periods or too fictional settings like Star Wars, most Disney films from 1939 to the 1990s don't have product placement unless these kinds of films are parodies, or even some of the animated ones outside the US like Nahuel and the Magic Book, Boy and the World, Song of the Sea, Klaus, A Costume for Nicholas, Where Is Anne Frank and My Father's Secret.
  4. Some product placement can be necessary such as newspapers and sports teams to highlight the setting and the characters' hometown pride.
  5. For pop culture references, it can be done to acknowledge a film's influences or the creator (or their family members) being a fan of them or the period the film takes place in.
  6. Companies and brands that appear in works that weren't included via payment don't qualify as product placement and thus are more well-integrated. This is very evident for works released before 1982 when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial pioneered and popularized the concept of product placement through its deal with The Hershey Company by including the then recently introduced Reece's Pieces in the film as well as works made for premium cable networks (like HBO, Showtime, and Starz) and streaming services (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Premium, Disney+, and Max) as an alternative for commercials since they are not supported by advertising.

Comments

Loading comments...
Retrieved from "https://newqualitipedia.telepedia.net/index.php?title=Product_placement&oldid=232950"