Product Placement: Anchorman 2

Anchorman2: The Legend Continues is the sequel to the 2004 film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. After being fired from his news show in New York City, a washed up Ron Burgundy returns to San Diego and is hired along with his crew to anchor the graveyard news show. Ron transforms the way news is presented and gains viewers that puts him back at the top again. This film had an unconventional marketing campaign. Will Ferrell participated in interviews in character on ESPN and Conan, and teamed up with Bern & Jerry’s and even led a promotional campaign with Dodge that led to a 40% increase in sales. In the film, there are not too many real products seen. The two blatant product placements I noticed were SeaWorld and Miller Lite. 

Early in the film we see the product placement of SeaWorld. After being fired, Ron is at a low point in his life. He beings to work as at SeaWorld, or the “abusement” park as he called it, as an announcer. It is obvious that SeaWorld gets the short end of the stick in this product placement. The fact that Burgundy is marking his job at SeaWorld seem low and humiliating does not shed good light on the theme park. Viewers may get a bad feeling towards SeaWorld after watching this scene and may not want to go there. This possibility relates to pathos because it is about how the viewers feel after the scene. On the other hand, there may be some people that after watching Ron Burgundy there, may now be intrigued to visit SeaWorld. In this sense, he has added ethos or credibility. In my opinion, there was not too much logic for this product placement. I do not see a solid reason why SeaWorld out of anything else was used for this scene. This product placement was a little random, but that is a common theme throughout the film.

Another product placement I noticed was during the scene where Ron and his news crew are riding in the bus. They are drunkenly reminiscing all while drinking Miller Lite’s ‘Original Lite Can’. I believe that the film and Miller Lite both benefited from this product placement. It is logical for this cameo of the beer can to be included in this scene because Miller Lite was just re-introducing this line of beer and this air time is great publicity to increase sales. It was a logical choice for the film because of the retro vintage 70’s look, which is supposed to be the assumed time period. It also made sense for Miller Lite to use their product in Anchorman because it makes the product culturally relevant as the whole film is. This product placement incorporated pathos because it added a sense of realism that a can simply marked “beer” cannot. People can actually find this specific kind of beer in stores and that makes people feel like they can relate to the characters. Anchorman gained many fans with the first film. Furthermore, the actors drinking the beer are well known including Will Ferrel, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. These actors added credibility to the scene and product placement. People that like these actors may notice the type of beer there are drinking and be more inclined to pick up that kind the next time they go to the store.

Overall, I would give this film 2 out of 5 pickles for its use of product placement. Although the second scene with Miller Lite did a good job incorporating ethos, logos, and pathos, the SeaWorld scene was illogical and gave the park a bad name.