Marley and Me

Marley and Me

            Most movies need to use common and popular products on set, so the audience can relate themselves with the actors in the movie. Also many companies pay the movie producers for the use and advertisement of their product. Since the products that the actors use has large influence with the movie or actors fans. If the producer makes the product look desirable many of the audience would be soon interested and want to have the product.

            In the movie Marley and Me by David Frankie shows some products and companies that could be advertised. The first one is the company that Owen Wilson, John, worked for, South-Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper. At the beginning of the movie when John was just getting out of the car for his interview at Sun Sentinel, his wife Jennifer Anniston, Jenny, told him to be confident since he is being interviewed to a “major metropolitan newspaper”. This definitely brings advertisement to Sun Sentinel since it is mention several times throughout the movie. Also since John shows before being interviewed that he really want to work there, it makes the company be desirable for the audience. John portraits the company as a prodigious company so this helps the company be more recognized worldwide. The advertisement ethos shows the credibility of South- Florida Sun Sentinel Newspaper Company. It’s logos, when Jenny told John to be confident and to be exited that he is being interviewed with one of the major metropolitan newspaper made me feel exited and I could imagine myself exited by being interview to one of the major companies in my industry. 

          

  Later on the movie, when Sebastian, Eric Dane, was movie to New York and mentions to John that he got a job at New York Times. John mention with gratitude how proud he feels for him and how they always wished to work for New York Times. In my opinion this is consider a kind of advertisement since it remarks that to work for New York Times is a huge deal and it is a very recognizable company worldwide. As logos the advertisement shows authority and credibility since the New York Times is a really well known company. Movie Producers if they want to they can just create a new brand or name for the products on the movie instead of advertise certain companies. But as Martin J. Smith mentions in his article “First, they say, brand-name products and logos realistically reflect the landscape of everyday American life” (Smith, page 2). Obviously if they incorporate recognizable brands it makes the movie more credible and the audience can relate to the movie much more easy thank creating a new brand. 

            In conclusion, the companies get lots of profit and recognition by being advertised in movies. Also by the movie producers incorporating recognizable brands help their audience to relate easier with the movie since shows more like a really day-to-day life, instead of something new that no one knows about.

The Truman Show

Taking a slightly different approach to this blog post I decided to analyze the movie The Truman Show. The writers of the the movie The Truman Show consistently satirize the use of the persuasive element through product placement and how Truman is persuaded. Truman has no idea that he is living inside a television studio, surrounded by actors paid to make his life seem normal. Nor does he know that some 5,000 cameras have been placed around the city in order to record his life for the TV audience, 24 hours a day. Since the television program that is his life plays nonstop, without commercial interruption that a normal program has timed breaks for, it has to makes money through product placement. Advertisements are not-so-seamlessly woven into dialogue and scenes throughout the film, turning Truman's life into an almost continuous commercial, without interrupting the source of entertainment.

For example, when Truman drinks his favorite beverage, he is actually doing a strange kind of celebrity endorsement. The actors who surround him know it is all a “commercial”, and in the middle of conversations with him will begin to describe the wonders of the very product he is using. This can be an example of ethos, something that the writers of the movie The Truman Show are satirizing, if Truman is enjoying said product than you, a viewer, will too! Truman thinks they are just being enthusiastic, the actors even going so far as to push him up against a billboard in order for the camera to focus on a product placed behind him. Once again the writers satirize the persuasive elements using product placement, specifically pathos; Truman is constantly persuaded by the townspeople, actors, to try or enjoy a product that he might not have otherwise bought into. He has no idea that they are talking to a TV audience; similarly that we may not realize that products are constantly being placed in our everyday lives.

Though the movie does not benefit any real product because none are actually incorporated into the film, The Truman Show's depiction of the way product placement is woven into Truman's life is an effective satire on the commercialization of our own lives. Today, entertainment is everything and advertisers are taking advantage of this, incorporating products constantly and seamlessly into our everyday lives, specifically through the use of product placement. As scary as this is there are some that feel there are ways to combat this and as mentioned in one of our readings Cohen suggests that, “By disclosing paid placements at the beginning, the theater-goer can erect the same psychological defenses against paid advertising as a television viewer.  They suggest the announcement would reduce the effectiveness of product placements, because their attraction to an advertiser is the product's seemingly realistic use by the stars and in appealing situations”.  I would give this film 4/5 slurpees for the writers creative use of satire and the overall entertainment value. 

http://media.screened.com/uploads/0/4459/385012-advertising_super.jpg

http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/XsFilms/SnelPlaatjes/Truman10MarlonBeer.jpg

Ted Product Placement

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. 

Almost every time John and Ted walk into the house they go right to their fridge to grab either of the beers to start drinking.  Everywhere you looked from seeing one of the beers in their house or at the club, to Budweiser bottles being used in a fight with each other, to using Bud Light boxes to help Ted move out of John’s house, both brands are always seen. A product like this has many reasons why they would want to be advertised in a movie like Ted.  If you look at Bud Lights market campaign, you will see that their slogan is “Here We Go”, as in as soon as you open your Bud Light you are about to have a good time.  There is no better movie showing people having a good time than Ted and the actors are constantly showing how good of a time they are having while holding on to or drinking a Bud Light.  If you look at Budweiser’s market campaign, their slogan is “The King of Beers”.  John and Ted live a lifestyle like they are kings.  Always drinking, partying, and being around beautiful people.  If you are living like a king why would you not drink like one?  The only issue with the product image is the products are seen in a strictly party atmosphere.  To some, it may seem that those beers are for only party situations and not to relax with.  This could discourage some beer drinkers from buying Busch products, forcing them to buy another beer over Bud Light or Budweiser if there wanted to drink them in a non-party atmosphere.

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

also to get people who saw the movie to go to the places seen in the movie the next time they are in Boston because they saw it was in such a great movie like Ted.  One of the largest product placements for the city of Boston in the movie Ted is at the end of the movie when Ted is being chased through Fenway Park, which is the stadium the Boston Red Socks baseball team plays in.  The ballpark is renowned for its left field wall, which is called the Green Monster because it is almost 40 feet tall.  As Ted is being chased, he climbs the Green Monster trying to escape, but is ripped in half by the person trying to grab him.  This is a very important part of the movie and it is all happening on the Green Monster that was done in an effort of advertisement for the Green Monster and Fenway Park.

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/2012/07/02/Brandcameo-Ted-the-Movie-070212.aspx

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

Wilson in Cast Away

            

             Cast Away is a 2000 film directed by Robert Zemeckis about a FedEx employee named Chuck Noland, played by Tom Hanks, that is stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean. Hanks’ character is a hard working man that is forced to travel a lot. However, one of his flights crashes in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Noland is able to save himself from the wreckage but find himself stranded on an island. The movie follows the time that he spends on the island, and eventually in a search for companionship, he befriends a volleyball that washes to shore in a FedEx package. Noland names the volleyball Wilson after its brand, and their relationship grows as he tries to escape the island.

            Wilson’s product placement in Cast Away is one of the most famous examples of product placement in movies, but it isn’t true product placement as Wilson didn’t actually pay to put their brand in the movie. Zemeckis also did not pay Wilson for the use of their product. Robert Zemeckis states that “there was absolutely no product placement. We weren’t paid by anybody to place products in the movie.” (legendsrevealed.com) Wilson was actually chosen when the screenwriter, William Broyles Jr., was walking on a beach and found a Wilson volleyball washed up on the shore. Despite this, both Wilson and Cast Away benefited from the product placement.

            In an article by Michael L. Maynard, chair of the Department of Advertising at Temple University, and Megan Scala, a PhD candidate at Temple University, called Unpaid Advertising: A Case of Wilson the Volleyball in Cast Away, Wilson received about eleven minutes of screen time. This is the equivalent of over twenty one commercials of thirty seconds. Maynard and Scala estimate that approximately one hundred million people have seen Cast Away either in theaters or at home. This equates to between 1.85 million and 11.5 million in advertising dollars. Wilson did not have to pay for any of this advertising, so they benefited greatly from the use of their product.

            Wilson also benefited from the connection made to the volleyball in the movie. In Cast Away, Noland grows more and more attached to the volleyball. Along with Noland, the audience develops a deeper attachment for the volleyball as well. This is a deeper attraction than the audience would normally develop than watching a generic commercial. The audience connects with Wilson as a friend, which makes them more likely to choose the product at a later date. As the movie is rated pg-13, it appeals to the age range that is most likely to play volleyball. Without paying for any advertising, Wilson appeals to their target audience and creates a strong attachment to them.

            Cast Away benefits from putting Wilson in their movie as well. Wilson gives an ethos argument of credibility to the movie. Having a big brand name allows the audience to assume that this is a quality movie. If they can have a big brand like Wilson, then they must have the money and capability to produce a good movie. It also makes the movie seem more believable. Wilson is the most recognized volleyball brand, so it makes sense that the volleyball is Wilson. In Everything’s an Argument, the 6^th edition, Lunsford and Ruskiewicz state that “showing that you know what you are talking about exerts an ethical appeal…” (26) The audience might have found it strange if the volleyball did not have a brand or was a brand other than Wilson.

            I give Wilson four slurpees for its appearance in Cast Away. The movie did an excellent job of creating an attachment to the volleyball. However, the volleyball was never actually used to play volleyball. Despite this, I still gave it four slurpees for the sheer exposure that the movie gave Wilson. It is an iconic image from the movie, and this alone introduces a lot of people to the brand. Wilson, the volleyball, benefits both the brand and the movie Cast Away. 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00282.x/full

http://legendsrevealed.com/entertainment/2013/04/19/did-fedex-pay-for-product-placement-in-the-film-cast-away/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-365iujWk8

The Dark Knight Rises

Ariela Guerrero

The Mutual Benefit Relationship in Product Placement

            “The Dark Knight Rises” is a movie that became immensely popular, generating a profit of around $530,000,000, it attracted thousands of viewers around the world. A brand that places its product in a movie like this can greatly increase its profits by creating awareness and advertisement. There are several scenes in the movie, in which I could spot brands. People who saw the movie are consciously or subconsciously more aware of these products.

            The most important product placements in this movie are the scenes in which car brands are depicted. For example, at the beginning of the movie Batman rides in his Lamborghini, which Cat woman (Selina Kyle) steals from him. When she is riding the car, she is speeding and looks powerful. Lamborghini benefits from being in this movie because it convinces the audience by logos that if Batman and Catwoman drove it and where fast and powerful, they will be fast and powerful if they have it too. The audience that they are trying to attract is young, professional and successful adults like Bruce Wayne was at some point in his life. However, the movie also benefits from having a Lamborghini appear in a scene like this because it is a highly recognized and expensive brand, so it supports the fact that Bruce Wayne was a billionaire. Another car that appears shortly after in the movie is a Rolls Royce. This was another car that the billionaire owned and it is also a car recognized for its high quality. However, I think that for this car they are trying to attract an older, more elegant audience because in the movie Alfred, who was around 60 years of age, drives it. I believe these two cars are positively represented because they depict power and money. Another product portrayed in “The Dark Knight Rises” is Greyhound Bus, which benefits from being in this movie because of the way it is portrayed. Greyhound Bus appears in times of chaos during the war scene, it is thrown against a huge truck, however it doesn’t break down. I could infer two messages from this. First I think it is an argument of pathos because it appears to people’s emotions. Personally, it appealed to my emotions because it gave me a sense of freedom to have a bus like this one in times of war because it can take you anywhere, it can save you. And second, it is an argument of logos because since it doesn’t get destroyed, it convinces the audience that it is safe.

            During the scene of the football game, several brands are advertised in the publicity posters of the stadium, such as: Heinz, UPMC, Doritos, Xfinity, Under Armour and Bud Light. In his article on Name-brand props in the movies, Martin Smith says that supporter of product placement say “brand-name products and logos realistically reflect the landscape of everyday American life (Smith 2). So, the movie benefits from having these brands that are used by consumers on a daily basis because it indicates that the people from Gotham are regular people like all of us, which is an argument of pathos because they can feel identified. The brands benefit by creating awareness. Other brands in this movie are McDonalds, Honda, GNC, One Oxford, Saks Fifth Avenue and Jos A Bank. Having several well-recognized brands shown through out the movie is an argument of Ethos because it gives the movie credibility.

            The movie might also benefit from depicting this brand because the brands might give them discount or samples. In an article from the economic times, it says “Apple has given away tens of thousands of its computers to those working in the creative community around the world [and] Don Henshall, managing director of Krispy Kreme, views product placement as an extension of the brand's sampling activity” (The Economic Times). Furthermore as Andrew Giagnola said, "With the average production cost of a movie now (more than) $ 26 million, anything that helps hold down ticket prices is valuable" (Smith 1).

I give it a rating of three because I believe that the only the Rolls Royce and the Lamborghini really attract a specific audience and try to send a message about their product. The rest of the brands shown in the movie are just there and there is no demonstration in it.