"I like my money right where I can see it, hanging in my closet."

 

The sex and the city television have been known to be almost every woman’s favorite show.  Full of fashion, luxuries, the fabulous New York City, and love; this series is basically every woman’s dream life.  This series has always been perfect for product placement and advertising because women simply want to walk, talk, and dress life their idols.  Many people believe that product placement can take away from the artistry of the cinema (Smith The Orange County Register); however this is not always the truth.  Advertising can “really flatter the product (Smith The Orange County Register), as well as it is “more realistic to use real products rather than generic packaging (Smith The Orange County Register)”.  I believe this is true, it is definitely strange to see something made up or just the generic name.  I feel that a movie can lose its credibility when they do not use a real product.  Just two years after they ended the series for good, they decided to write a movie.  The Sex and the City: The Movie, quenched the desire to learn more about the fabulous lives of Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbs.  

  Carrie Bradshaw was a young girl who moved to New York to make her dream as a write come true.  She had a “sex column” in a newspaper, she wrote for Vogue Magazine, and even wrote her own books, and also known as being the “ultimate single girl.”  She is a “rags to riches” story; showing up to NYC with no money but after making her dreams come true, she lives for being a fashionista and wearing and buy designer clothes like: Manolo Blahnik, Halston, and Dolce & Gabanna.  The “ultimate single girl” Carrie is now engaged to marry her dream man and lover for so many years, John Preston, or as many fans know him as “Mr. Big.”  With the excitement of her friends and colleagues at Vogue Magazine, they scheduled her a photo shoot for wedding dresses by fabulous designers.  The scene I have given for you is full of advertising for the designers, there’s no doubt about that.  But any girl that loves fashion does not see it really being “product placement” or advertising, but it does grab their attention to strive to buy clothes from the designers.  Not everyone in America knows these designers; therefore, it is crucial to get their names out there and what better way that the oh-so popular Sex and the City?! 

In another scene we see famous PR publicist Samantha Jones doing a little retail therapy.  When she is done shopping, she walks out to her brand new Mercedes GLK.  Which, hilariously, had not even been out for sale when the movie was filmed and released.  This was very subtle advertising for a new Mercedes car, and also was able to help get the word out and show what the car looked like.  Just like advertising for designers, product placement for a car can help to interest prospective buyers and raise profits. 

 Now one would know not everyone out there could afford these “material world” luxurious products.  However, according to the Image-base Culture article, “The image-system of the market place reflects our desires and dreams, yet we have only the pleasure of images to sustain us in our actual experience with goods.”  This is absolutely true; it’s exactly like when someone goes window-shopping.  It grabs the audience with a logos argument because it gets them to think, “How would my life be?” or “I wonder how that dress would look on me?”  I known I do this all the time, and pretty sure a lot of other woman do too.  I think the product placements in this movie are not obnoxious, I believe they enhance the movie and gets a wider audience to view the movie because women love the fashion.  Therefore, I give Sex and the City a score of 3 out of 3!