Have you gotten fed up with all the advertising in this year’s blockbusters? We are living in a culture overwhelmed by logos, and “Product Placement” is an effective strategy for companies to gain long-term product exposure at a fraction of the former cost. Product placement represents a change in cinema, which has become a medium for advertising and not “good old story telling.”
Placing commercial products in films is an inexpensive advertising tool for companies, especially if the advertisers lack healthy budgets. Yet spectators may be getting a little annoyed with all the products advertised through Hollywood.
Films try to make placed products look as realistic as possible, because excluding name brand products in movies would be noticeable. If you saw a movie with Tom Cruise juggling a bottle labeled “Beer,” it would seem unreal. For car, soft drink, and athletic companies, placement is a dependable and pocket-friendly way to promote products.
It costs a fraction of the amount of television advertising. An average 30-second television spot can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000 plus production costs, according to one Hollywood executive. The permanent exposure of products in films may be worth only $20,000 to $500,000. Therefore, product placement is earning an infinite shelf life.
Mega-superstar Tom Cruise is getting older, and so is his audience. To retain All the Right Moves at the box office, he and other Hollywood giants, such as Steven Spielberg, must capture The Matrix generation to stay on top. Last summer’s film noir release, Minority Report, cost millions upon millions of dollars in computer animation in order to portray the year 2054.
Who better to supply some of the funds than gigantic corporate monsters, such as Starbucks Coffee, Lexus, and Nike?
Some felt that product placement was overdone in Minority Report. Obvious endorsements included a copy of USA Today flashing headlines for readers and several motorized mechanisms provided by Lexus.
According to Dr. Eugene Ungrait of FSU’s Communications Department, the most commercially successful film in last 20 years, E.T., sparked an increase in the sales of Reeses Pieces by 65% after its 1982 release.
In last year’s release, I am Sam, Sean Penn plays a mentally handicapped employee of Starbucks. The coffee giant provided a location complete with employees, uniforms, and coffee. The second Austin Powers film, The Spy Who Shagged Me, mocked product placement by exaggerating promotions from both Starbucks Coffee and Heineken.
It would be nice if the advertising mammoths didn’t get carried away with their new place in show business. It would be refreshing if moviegoers felt they were seeing films made solely for art. Imagine if the story, the acting, and the execution were enough to “reach out and touch someone” in today’s commercialized. “You deserve a break today” from the exhausting advertising campaigns coming out of Hollywood.
