Page 408 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Product Placement |

Parodying PlaCeMent
With movies such as Wayne’s World (see “Product Placement Timeline” sidebar), Hollywood
has realized the benefits of presenting its placements periodically: not only do producers
still get the money, but they seemingly escape the accusation of selling out, while the ad-
vertiser receives prominent exposure and seems cool, hip, and willing to take a joke—an
arrangement, therefore, calculated to bring both parties maximum benefit. In this regard,
we might be more impressed by the placement parodies in, for example, the films of Kevin
Smith (Nails Cigarettes; Discreeto Burritos) and Quentin Tarantino (Big Kahuna Burger; Jack
Rabbit Slim’s Restaurants). In The Simpsons, fictional brands such as Duff Beer, Lard Lad
Donuts, or Laramie Cigarettes take the spotlight, thereby drawing viewers’ attention to the
practices of product placement, while also avoiding using this seeming lesson of media
literacy as yet another platform for advertising.

ThE FuTurE oF ProDuCT PLaCEmEnT
anD ThE FaTE oF ThE moviEs

With the arrival of reality television, we have witnessed the summary collapse
of the formal distinction between TV shows and the commercials they once
sandwiched. Programs such as The Apprentice and Survivor allowed producer
Mark Burnett to make vast sums in placement deals, basing entire episodes
around the contestants’ need to advertise a certain product in the case of The
Apprentice, and offering the food-deprived Survivor cast Doritos as a way of en-
suring endless paeans to the wonders of the nacho chip. Similarly, American Idol
judges drink nothing but Coca-Cola, The Amazing Race’s family edition showed
endless scenes of contestants gassing their cars up at BP, and America’s Next Top
Model’s reward of a Cover Girl contract ensures excited weekly mentions of the
cosmetics company.
Movies, though, are not far behind, given their appeal to advertisers, and the
relative lack of organized resistance to this practice. To take one example: Tom
Hanks is a celebrated actor, but he’s also a gift to advertisers, since he appears to
have no qualms at all about cozying up to products, as demonstrated by four of
the most placement-saturated movies of recent times: Forrest Gump, You’ve Got
Mail, Cast Away, and The Terminal. Such celebrated film stars of the past were
reluctant to have their names associated with the commercial necessities of ad-
vertising. but Hanks’s newest film project is called How Starbucks Saved My Life.
Nonreality television, too, is growing more placement friendly, with numer-
ous advertisers experimenting with “old-style” single sponsorship for one-off
events, as when one season of 24 began without commercials, yet with continu-
ous loving shots of hero Jack Bauer in his Ford SUV, and as entire episodes of
the former ratings giant Friends revolved around the characters’ love of certain
products, such as Pottery Barn furniture.
Judging by industry figures (see “Product Placement Timeline”) we can
look forward to more and more placement, which may lead to fewer and fewer