Almost everyone loves an
inappropriate comedy to just sit back on the couch and just have a good time,
but one that involves a live teddy bear creates a debatable classic. This combination is the exact definition of
the movie Ted written by Seth
McFarlane who is notorious for his hilariously inappropriate television show, Family Guy. This comedy was such a box office hit that it
made a total grossing of $218,628,680. The movie Ted
begins with a little boy named John, who is played by one of my personal favorite
ex-rap artist and actor Marky Mark or better known as Mark Wahlberg. John is depicted in the beginning of the
movie as a little boy whose only friend is a teddy bear named Ted because all
the other kids his age do not like him.
On Christmas, John makes a wish as a shooting star passes over him that
he and Ted could be friends forever and the next morning when John wakes up,
Ted is alive as if he is a real person the same age as John. Fast-forward twenty years and the comedy part
of the movie begins showing the life that John and Ted now live, demonstrating
their life as party animal bums, trying to figure out what they want to do with
their lives. Not only is Ted a laugh until your stomach hurts
type of movie, but it also uses non-stop product placement in almost every
scene. In fact, Ted won the 2012 Award for Achievement in Product Placement in a Single Film from
brandchannel.com, accumulating a total of 38 placements of products. The product placement goes as far as seeing
generic brands in the grocery store Ted is working in to the “pothead-beloved snack foods like Corn Pops” as Ted and John are
in scenes smoking marijuana. Although
those products are seen in many scenes, no product is seen more in the movie
than the Anheuser Busch products Bud Light and Budweiser and the overall city
of Boston where the movie takes place.
Being two natural party animals,
beer is constantly being drunken between Ted and John. It is very easy to just make it look like an
actor is drinking a random beer, but “a generic can labeled "BEER" is more jarring to a
viewer than a recognizable label” (Smith 2). The beers we see are Bud Light, Budweiser,
Jameson, and Michelob with Bud Light and Budweiser being the most prevalently
drunken and seen. “Front Row Marketing
Services estimates the value of the product placement on-screen
time for Budweiser at $778,325 and Bud Light at $229,670 for Ted's opening weekend”.
Busch products are seen everywhere in the movie. My favorite scene that involves lots of
product placement of the two beer products is the scene when John walks into
his house with his girlfriend and finds Ted sitting on his couch with four
prostitutes. The living room is trashed
with Bud Light cans spread everywhere on the table and floor as if there was a
huge party that had just been thrown there.
Either Bud Light or Budweiser is always seen in the film.
The city of Boston also used the
movie Ted for product placement in
the essence that the city was the actual product. Everywhere the movie was shot is a real place
in Boston. Every street, bar, or
restaurant that is seen in the movie is a real place in Boston and is being
advertised in the in the film. In fact, “The Ted filmmakers received $9 million in state funds
to shoot the film locally, from local landmarks such as Fenway Park to spots
that locals only might recognize”. The
state was willing to give that much money to the movie because they wanted to
advertise what a great city Boston is and
The addition of the Anheuser Busch
products and the city of Boston as products really benefit not only the
products, but also the movie Ted by
making it seem as believable and relatable as possible. As a result, I am giving Ted five slurpees for its use of product placement in the film.
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/02/25/Brandchannel-9th-Brandcameo-Product-Placement-Awards-022513.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fbo_pQvU7M
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