McDonalds product placement on the news desk
I am working on a big presentation about product placement and I need some help. I want to gather the biggest body of examples I can get my hands on. I am specifically looking for television and movies, but I would love to get some other examples as well (video games, theme park attractions, fast food). Anything where advertising is integrated into the content or experience is of interest. If you have your movies or television shows digitized I would love to get my hands on full quality stills (640px or greater) of the following:
- Taco Bell in Demolition Man
- Apple Computer in Mission:Impossible
- Dodge in Twister
- FedEx in Cast Away
- Subway in Happy Gilmore
- Pepsi in Back to the Future
- Coke in Blade Runner
- McDonalds in the Fifth Element
- Coke in American Idol
- Ford in American Idol
- Staples in The Office
- Ford in Knight Rider
- Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story
- Red Strip in The Firm
- Crest Vanilla Toothpaste in The Apprentice
- Lark Cigarettes in James Bond License to Kill
- Audi in iRobot
- Gap in Minority Report
- Blackberry in Sex in the City
- Snapple in Seinfeld
I will do a follow up post on this an provide links back to everyone who helps on the project. Please point me to your stills in the comments.
Subway is huge on Chuck. Fans are even buying subway subs in support of the show and stars Zach Levi and Adam Baldwin just bought 400 UK fans subway sandwiches at an event.
here’s an interesting still from “Fantastic Four” that features one or two products 😉
http://www.bottledcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/f4.jpg
Chris Brogan pointed out that he had seen Cisco in Marvel Comics.
I also know that on 24, they use Sprint heavily as the handheld of choice. I’m pretty sure Cisco has a reasonable presence there as well — it’s even in the script in some episodes.
The one movie I always think of when I think “holy product placement, Batman” is HOME ALONE! I think every single scene in that movie has something to do with Pepsi!
ER many (10?) years ago used to always have Seattle’s Best Coffee at the coffee stand outside the hospital. We were new to Seattle, so I noticed it.
One of the main stars in the fox show Fringe uses a samsung blackjack phone.
Ted –
Check your email for images! 🙂 MLT
Hey, those are my morning news people here in Vegas 😉 The new 90210 is HUGE on Dr. Pepper. They drink it all the time, and when they go to the “Peach Pit” to eat, it’s all Dr. Pepper on the tables with Dr. Pepper signs hanging on the walls.
I found some pictures 😉
http://laist.com/attachments/lindsayrebecca/Silver_DrPepper.jpg
http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2008/startracks/080901/jessica_stoup.jpg
http://bbpr.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/laist-dr-pepper.jpg
One of the most blatant, overuses that comes to mind is an episode of Smallville where a character gets powers by eating meteor affected Stride Gum. The entire episode is basically a commercial. They even use Stride catch phrases from commercials. http://www.commercialexploitation.org/news/smallville.htm
Apple/Mac on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” and “The Real World/Road Rules Challenge” series have product placement all over the place (in the form of prizes).
Got a couple for you … Baby Ruth in “The Goonies” … one of my all time favorites:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LwGsO6bakww/SYqvIxpfZgI/AAAAAAAABSc/lEWwy-ccoRI/s400/goonies_sloth.jpg
And who could forget the Ray Bans in Top Gun??
http://www.surveygalaxy.com/upload/2795_image_5-p.jpg
The movie Spanglish starring Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni and Paz Vega had one of the most obscure product placements ever. There’s actually a seen in the movie where California Grapes are the product that’s being advertised…but you wouldn’t know it because they look just like any other grapes.
http://vistagroupusa.com/SpanglishGrapes.jpg
http://vistagroupusa.com/serv02.htm
The entire Josie & the Pussycats movie (2001)
How about The Italian Job? Dell had some great placement when the hacker was working on his laptop, but the real winner was the Mini Cooper. Perfect product placement mix:
– the product was vital to the plot
– it was shown over and over and over again, even as the focus of many scenes
– it was in a good move (larger audience, well received, etc).
How about Nokia and the Matrix?
Craig Ferguson did a whole bit on product placement in his show http://www.thedailytube.com/forward/2360
You’re missing the best one; Converse in iRobot. Couldn’t find a good quality picture though… here are some links:
http://data-allocine.blogomaniac.fr/mdata/7/6/1/Z20010212111706970102167/img/1219327366_i_robot_converse.jpg
http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM107/Introduction/BehindScene/Converse.jpg
Another great one is ‘The Island’ which features a real commercial from Calvin Klein;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6sTGGb-MhE
I noticed that a lot of my “computer savvy” friends and I (all of us nerds) and a lot of “computer savvy” people smoke parliament cigarettes. I figured out the origin of this habit of these specific cigarettes in this specific group of people. In the movie “Hackers” one of the characters smokes parliament cigarettes.