Office Space Product Placement

Office Space directed by Mike Judge is a witty comedy about the drab life of corporate America. Three coworkers get fed up with the day to day boredom of cubicle life and decide to hatch a plan to secretly steal from the company. Throughout the movie a good amount of name-brand products are shown on screen, but there is also some products that seem to be implied. Also, there is a great deal of products shown with their labels facing either towards or away from the camera. This is a trick producers use to get around copyright laws.

You really do not notice these types of things upon casually watching the movie, but when you take a closer look, there is an example in almost every scene. For example, when Peter and Michael are sitting in Peter's living room talking about the computer virus they plan to use they are both drinking a beer. No matter which camera angle they use for this scene the label of the “Dos Equis” beer is facing directly towards the camera. Almost as if the beer is rotating in their hands from clip to clip. It is just enough to catch the eye, and using a logical appeal, or logos, the director puts the thought of a cold beer in your head. This could be a benefitting way for Dos Equis to advertise, especially since this movie really targets a post-college working crowd. Another obvious example of product placement is in a scene where Peter and Joanna are riding in a car. Joanna is holding a cup that has “Pepsi” label all over it. Pepsi is notorious for using obvious product placement in movies, and sometimes it can seem like they're using cheap tactics to advertise. There is one part of the movie that uses an implied product placement that really stands out. 

Joanna works at a restaurant called “Chotchkie's” which is an obvious rip off of popular restaurant chains like T.G.I. Friday's or Chili's. The inside dining area and even the uniforms that the employees wear look similar to these chains. Unfortunately the movie sheds a very bad light on these types of establishments by repeatedly making fun of the uniforms and annoying waiters. This can really be seen as bad advertising using a logical argument that shows how ridiculous these places actually are. This kind of image can really deter customers from dining at places like this in the future. Other products are showed throughout the movie like “Swingline” staplers and other beers like “Miller Lite” and “Heineken” and I think that all of these products and aspects of the movie really speak to a certain demographic. 

Those who have recently graduated from college and are looking for jobs, or might be stuck in a cubicle job all day would easily identify and relate to these products. Almost all of the products shown in the movie are very subtle and do not really inhibit the viewing experience, so I give the product placements in this movie four out of five slurpees.