This Title is For Sale

Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me, is at it again. This time he has stepped into my arena. His new movie, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, takes an inside look at advertising, marketing, and product placement. I would love to sit here and tell you about the movie, but instead I’m going to let Spurlock do it himself. Below are videos for the trailer of the film and Spurlock’s talk at TED. His TED talk is 20 minutes long, but I promise that it flies by and is both entertaining and informative. A little surprising spoiler from his talk- when he asked four advertising executives from Ban deodorant how they would describe their brand, none of them could. I know that I don’t have any real world experience, but I’ve been taught that no marketing can take place without a strategy statement or plan, which should include a brand identity. I found this amazing.

When I think of product placements a handful of movies instantly come to mind. Number one in my mind is Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rick Bobby. It features 96 different product placements, and the top 3 products (Wonder Bread, Perrier, and Old Spice) appear in the film 90 separate times. The most memorable product placement scene for me is the dinner scene!

Next in my mind is Josie and the Pussycats. This film ends up being about product placement in movies, but that isn’t obvious until the end. Until then, the movie is just awkward. Unlike most movies with product placement, Josie’s products were put their for free!

The Book of Eli, stuck in my mind because the obvious product placements keep taking me out of the movie. In the middle of a post-apocalyptic world, are all of these brands. I had to Google most of the brands in the movie after having not watched it in so long. Some of them are- Motorola, Busch, O Magazine, GMC, and Puma. The only brands that stuck with me were the ones that were integral to the story line such as Apple iPod, Beats by Dr. Dre, Ray-Bans, and Oakley. Martin Lindstrom discusses this in his book, Buyology. If a product is not important to the story line, or used in a meaningful way then it is not remembered. This is also seen in E.T. They are credited with saving Reese’s Pieces! The producers originally wanted M&M’s as the hard candy that was used to catch E.T., but M&M passed on the product placement opportunity. Reese’s Pieces, who was on the way out, jumped at the chance and the brand became bigger than ever!
If you want to see the product placements in your favorite movie check out, Brand Channel. In the meantime here is a list of the 96 products featured in Talladega Nights! How many do you remember seeing?

3M
76 Lubricants
ACDelco
Advanced Auto Parts
Applebee’s
Baby Einstein
Baccarat
Bain de Soleil
Bell
Bennigan’s
Big Red
BOSCH
Budweiser
Bushnell
Cadillac
Caterpillar
Checkers
Chevrolet
CitiFinancial
Coco-Cola
Commit
Coors
Country Crock
Craftsman
Dickies
Dodge
Domino’s Pizza
Dynacorp
EA Sports
ESPN
FedEx
Fif Newton
Food Lion
Ford
FOX
Gillette
Goodyear
GQ
Halliburton
Hardee’s
Havoline
Honda
Huffy Bicycle Company
Hummer
Jenga
Jesel
Jim Bean
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Kodak
Lowe’s
Lucky Charms
M&M’s
Mac Tools
mbna
McDonald’s
Michelob
Miller
Mobil
Mopar
Motorola
Moutain Dew
MTV
NASCAR
NBC
NetZero
Nextel
Old Spice
Pepsi
Perrier
Playgirl
Powerade
PUMA
QVC
Rally’s Hamburgers
RE/MAX
Shake ‘N Bake
Sharpie
Sony VAIO
Sparco
SPEED Channel
Sprint
Subway
Sunoco
Taco Bell
TAG Heuer
Target
Tide
Tylenol
United Auto Workers (UAW)
USG
Vanson Leathers
Visa
Waffle House
Walmart
Winnebago
Wonder Bread