Today I will talk about product placement in movies. This is a marketing technique to promote a brand or a product. In fact, a company pays to appear in a movie. It can last a few seconds, the product can appear on the screen very briefly but sometimes it can last longer and the product can be part of the movie.
Let’s give us an example:
(Shinning by Stanley Kubrick) We can see clearly the Heinz tin can casually turned to the camera (oh no sure that wasn't made on purpose :) ).
We don’t always see the brand or the products in the movies and it’s not because you see Coca Cola in a movie that you will go and buy Coca Cola. So why does the marketers do that?
First to gain on visibility. If Pepsi is in a movie, Coca Cola has to be in a movie. If they don’t the concurrent will be more known.
Plus, to my mind the product placement links the movie to reality. You see consciously or not a brand, you recognize it and the movie you’re watching is becoming more real.
We’ll take two simple examples to explain that.
In American Beauty, no fast food chain wanted to appear in the movie because it was associated to jobs without responsibilities. If MacDonald’s or Burger King would have been in the movie it would have been really bad for their image. To my mind, with a product placement the movie would have been related to something that exists in the real life and it would have lost a part of its mystery.
Another example: In Dawn of the Dead (1978) the action takes place in a commercial center and we can see or recognize absolutely no Brand or product. This was made to make the movie unrealistic.
But sometimes... the product IS the movie...
And the last video just for the fun: Ikea product placement in the movie Fight Club…
Cécile P
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