A Bucket of Popcorn and Some

When you think of spam, unless you’re hungry, you’re thinking of unwanted, unsolicited, unbelievably annoying advertisements showing up in your email account. The main reason why they’re spam and not just “ads” is that you don’t expect the ads to show up, or rather, you feel they definitely don’t belong there. When you watch television or surf the net you know when and where ads are “supposed” to pop up, and as much as you may TiVo the commercials and ad-block the web, there’s no protection from the barrage of ads invading our brains at a rate of 3000 per day. To maintain our sanity, we like our ads in controlled environments, impossible when every surface, from restroom walls to subway floors, is jammed with visual spam.

And now, drum roll please, the reigning champion for decades and the ultimate surface for unwanted, unsolicited and unbelievable annoying ads, ladies and gentlemen, coming in at 30 by 70 feet and in digital surround sound, we give you: the silver screen!

theshiznit.co.uk gave Fantastic Four the
“Most company logos in one shot” award.



To give you an idea of how much cinematic spam is occurring in films today, check out just some of the brands being featured in this season’s blockbusters:

Iron Man: Apple, Audi, Bulgari, Burger King, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Cisco, CNBC, Dell, Dolce & Gabbana, Esquire, Forbes, Ford, Goodyear, LG, Maxim, Newsweek, Nissan, Operation, Persol, Ray-Ban, Rolling Stone, Rolls Royce, Saleen, Segway, Shelby, Tesla, Texaco, The Apogee Foundation, U.S. Air Force, University of California, Berkeley, Vanity Fair, Verizon, Wired.

Baby Mama: 7-Eleven, American Idol, Apple, Blimpie, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Exxon, Forbes, Infiniti, Marriott, Maytag, Mazda, Motorola, Pam, Perrier, Philadelphia Eagles, Pringles, Red Bull, Rolling Rock, S. Pellegrino, Sega, Sharp, Silk, Sony, Suzuki, Terra Chips, USA Today, Yamaha.

21: Beefeater Gin, Bombay Sapphire, Budweiser, Chrysler, Dunkin' Donuts, Everlast, Freitag, GMC, Grey Poupon, Gucci, Hard Rock Cafe, Harvard University, Jansport, Lincoln, Louis Vuitton, M.I.T., Pepsi, Planet Hollywood, Pony, Reebok, Republic, Samuel Adams, Sony PlayStation, Sunplus Technology, Twinkies, VitaminWater, Volkswagen.

The lists above are from Brand Channel, where you can find many more films and their creepy amounts featured brands.

Conglomerate Creativity

For a very interesting look at the dark marriage between the advertising and film world, check out this video, and the other parts that follow. It’s called Behind the Screens: Hollywood Goes Hypercommercial. It highlights the effect of major conglomerates on the production of film, and the priority of profit that inevitably erodes the quality of movies produced. It’s a tragic idealist expectation that the better the film, the more money it will make. The reality is that if a film of average quality can make enough money through merchandising and other partnerships, it will be made instead of a potentially excellent (and potentially flopping) film that has little spin-off (safe) revenue potential. Juggernaut hybrids of kid captivation include films like Toy Story and Space Jam. Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny cannot go wrong, as far as toys, tees, and other logoed junk are concerned.

While the filmmakers do include interviews mentioning conglomerates needing to operate the way they do to survive, they don’t talk much about why this is the case, or if there are alternatives. All in all, though, the film is eye-opening, and well-made, covering a lot of angles. If you thought product placement was bad watch the video; it’s probably worse than you thought.

One aspect the film doesn’t discuss is the more philosophical, experiential side of the matter. The filmmakers take it as a given that when the product is displayed on screen, the viewer recognizes the product and has their suspension of disbelief shattered as they’re ripped back into the real world of people trying to make their buck. But when I was a nice and impressionable child, I didn’t notice the ads. I probably still miss a bunch of them. And if I don’t notice the ads, maybe I don’t care if later on I subliminally feel like drinking coke. While questions concerning the harmful effects of the subliminal ads are still wide open (and important), I wonder first if being overt about the placement is dangerous. Some of the clips above are so commercial-like that their cheese knocks you immediately. Could noticing the product become bad publicity? And is bad publicity still good publicity?

I remember hearing about commercials in Japan quite often being run twice in a row to really engrain the message. My first wonder was whether this pissed off enough irritated people that they associated the product with a negative emotion. The Cola wars in the 80s had Coke not only placing itself heroically and divinely in movies, but Pepsi in negative surroundings with villains and sadness and other crying babies. I wonder if the same principles apply to the negative emotions of noticed product placement.

That’s the great noodle-baking irony of the documentary, really. This film fills in some knowledge gaps such that I’d wager just about anyone, having seen it, would be more apt to notice ads in movies. Ethics of the advertising aside, I wonder if the viewer’s extra awareness of product placement will help or hurt future product placers. On one hand, you’ll say “ah ha! Caught you. You’ll never brainwash me, Coca-Cola!” but on the other, you will have spent an extra five seconds thinking about Coca-Cola. Then, of course, you have to think about the amount they talked about the product in the movie itself. I feel like a Cola now - what the hell. And I guess there’s this post, too, written and read to get you thinking of that cold, refreshing flavor. The kind that makes hugs soft and summers memorable.

Original here