Product Placement: Difference between revisions

[[File:cit code geass pizza hut.jpg|link=Code Geass|frame|[[Memetic Mutation|Pizza Hut supports the rebellion!]]]]

 

 

Otherwise known as a "plug" or "writing commercials right into a show". The practice of prominently displaying or talking about a recognizable product in a program, in exchange for some consideration from the manufacturer, usually monetary. The manufacturer hopes to cause [[The Red Stapler]] effect, but it far more often results in [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|snarky comments from the peanut gallery]].

For a particular example, see [[Everybody Owns a Ford]].

 

 

'''History - brought to you by delicious ''[[Brand X]]®!'' '''

* ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'''s third installment, ''Solid State Society,'' features two Nissan concept cars which actually were revealed to the public for the first time through the movie.

** One of the concept cars has a numberplate that includes the sequence 3923. [[Bilingual Bonus|Said aloud in Japanese, it's San Kyu Ni San (Thank You Nissan)]].

** When Ironhide gets his alt mode, the camera actually zooms on the GM logo appearing on his front grill.

*** Ironhide might as well be a walking GM ad. Not only is the GMC logo prominently dead center in all his driving scenes, but he's got the logo (split in half) on his shoulders in robot mode.

* Oh my goodness, the freaking Yaris in ''[[Smallville]]''. "Clark, my Yaris gets great mileage." "Your super-speed's out of gas, so take my Yaris." Yaris, ''Yaris'', YARIS. It was almost as bad as the Stride placement detailed below.

** This only scratches the surface of ''[[Smallville]]'''s frequent car product placement. Clark, whose family struggles with paying the bills are frequent plot points, has been shown driving several brand-spanking-new trucks [[Improbably Cool Car|well beyond his means]], to include a shiny red Toyota Tundra in "Progeny" and a shiny blue Toyota Tundra in "Hero" (though maybe he just sprung for a new paint job, cuz ''those'' are cheap). Even worse was Lois Lane using her brand new Ford Fusion to distract a guard in "Solitude" by [[The Guards Must Be Crazy|showing off its amazing features]].

* Cry Wolf was made as the result of a contest hosted by Chrysler. Easy guess what kind of cars everyone owns.

* ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'' had some fun with this, as an entire episode simultaneously hawked and mocked the Scion TC: Killface plans to spread his plans for world domination on ''Live with Mitzi & Verl'', but his first segment got bumped because the hosts were so caught up in discussing the car, then it takes up a good chunk of his second segment as well, before he sarcastically screams that once he takes over the world, "you won't have much use for 17-inch alloy wheels". The studio crew takes this impetus to show ad footage of the Scion behind him as he rants about everyone falling victim to "Scion fever", which the hosts and crowd also take and run with. He then storms out of the studio, and gets splashed with mud by a passing Scion TC.

* Both ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' and ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger]]'' feature various Acura models driven by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. There were even commercials aired prior to the release of ''Thor'' declaring that Acura was the "Official Car of S.H.I.E.L.D."

* In the third season of ''[[The Middle]]'', the "Hecking It Up" episode seems to have basically been written as an extended ad for the Volkswagen Passat starring the show's characters. They made sure to use the remote starter as many times as possible and, at one point, Frankie even mentions the "roomy trunk".

 

=== Computers (''Microsoft® Smartbook i-1500C'') ===

** The Evil AI uses a default text-to-speech voice option on older Macs.

** ''[[WALL-E]]'' uses the Mac boot-up chime.

* ''[[Psych]]'' has, in a few early episodes, the main characters using an Alienware laptop.

* The computer through which L communicates in ''[[Death Note]]'' is a Mac, although the apple logo is never actually visible. Likewise, Light's computer isn't explicitly identified but is recognizable as a Mac G4. Since the series was set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], it's a bit out of date now.

* On the other hand, [[Dexter]]'s MacBook Pro probably wasn't supplied by Apple, since he runs Windows on it.

** I'm curious as to what kind of writing Deb's season 2 boyfriend would need to do that would require an ''Alienware'' laptop.

* ''[[Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad]]'''s computer scenes always showed enough of the edge of the monitor for a very large and prominent Compaq logo to be displayed.

* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' not only uses [[Bland-Name Product|Bland Name Products]] (most of which are seen in the anime), but in the manga we see Kyouya using an Apple computer with the proper OS displayed on the screen. He even has a few recognizable icons such as Skype.

* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED]]'', Clotho Buer can be seen playing with his Bandai [[Wonder Swan]].

* The ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' games have [[Unobtainium|nividium]], a plot point in ''X2'' and ''X3'' that is clearly a [[Shout-Out]] to nVidia. Egosoft insists it isn't, probably to avoid pissing off ATI users.

 

=== Movies (''Alfred Hitchcock's® Psycho'') ===

* The Argentine soap [[Rebelde Way]] doesn't miss a chance to promote some snack food or another. Amusing because it places the characters momentarily way out of character and because it's nearly impossible as a foreigner to determine what's the fuss about.

* ''[[Chuck]]'' gleefully shills for Subway and Red Bull, to the point that they regularly [[Lampshade Hanging|hang lampshades]] on Subway's Five Dollar Footlong special, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/090420.html Real Life Comics].

* Just about every time an episode of ''[[WCW]] Monday Nitro'' cut to the announce desk, a bottle of Surge would be plainly visible, with the label facing the camera.

* At one point, [[D Generation X|X-Pac]] was pretty blatantly shown drinking Hansen's Energy - even on the way down the ramp before a match. In fact, his entrance video briefly featured several closeups of a Hansen's Energy can.

** Infamously, this decision likely led to ''[[Mac and Me]]'', another movie about a kid and his alien buddy that seemed dedicated solely to shilling [[McDonald's]] and Coca Cola at every opportunity.

** M&Ms appear in the [[Novelization]], presumably because they were still in negotiations while it was being written.

* Domino's Pizza boxes can be seen all over the first ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (film)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' movie. This is very deliberate.

** To really drive this home, in one VHS release, the movie is preceded by a Pizza Hut ad.

* And Pizza Hut strikes again in the 4th season of ''[[Mariasama ga Miteru]]'', where the logo is often prominently displayed in the background, even in an amusement park.

* An early episode of ''[[Damages]]'' saw one character give another a gift certificate to Olive Garden, complete with the phrase "When you're here, you're family!" to the laughter of the people ''in'' the show and the groans of the people ''watching'' it.

* ''[[Fight Night Round 3]]'' from EA Games has quite a bit; while usually themed with the sport (boxing), it seems a bit out of place where one cutscene is an actual ad for a Dodge of some sort. And for some reason Dodge has branched out from making things like cars to things like... um, boxing gloves?. In addition to Dodge, The Burger King is an unlockable character. Yes, ''[[Nightmare Fuel|that]]'' [[Nightmare Fuel|Burger King]].

** Also unlockable is "Big E", the [[Scary Black Man|gigantic mascot]] for Under Armor. And his main rival, Goliath, a fat white guy who's a brazenly obvious [[Take That]] at Nike.

* In ''[[Oddworld|Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee]]'', there are SoBe machines where you can restore your health.

** It doesn't help that 1) this [[Broken Aesop|kicks the game's theme in the teeth]] and 2) it was a blatant attempt to keep money flowing into [[Oddworld Inhabitants]] (which closed anyway)

* In ''[[Parasite Eve II|Parasite Eve 2]]'' Coca-Cola was a usable item that restored 20HP and 80MP.

* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' had plenty of product placement (as it was created as part of a family-friendly programming initiative backed by major advertisers), but thankfully it was more often than not very subtle (Rory asks for a Coke...that's as bad as it got). However in season two Pepsico and the WB commissioned a thirty-second ad that had Lorelai and Rory in-character extolling the pleasures of drinking Aquafina bottled water in their usual rat-a-tat conversation style, via a situation where Lorelai was about to get a bottle of water from an...Aquafina stand (OK), but a woman in front of her got it first and instantly won cash instead of Lorelai, which Rory rubbed into her mother pretty hard. It was odd and out of character since the Gilmores are much more associated with coffee rather than bottled-up filtered tap water from Munster, Indiana.

* Pizza Hut really seems to like getting ads into as much anime as possible; in addition to ''[[Code Geass]]'' and ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'', Pizza Hut logos are a regular background feature in ''[[Darker than Black]]''. DtB also features huge billboards advertising the company that sponsors its webcasts, @Nifty, and has the occasional Coca Cola logo as well.

* They also sponsored ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' [[The Movie]], complete with official art of the cast enjoying some delicious pizza. (Nana Mizuki even ordered a delivery just to collect a limited time offer special pizza box... with Fate Testarossa on the cover.)

* A couple of season 5 episodes of ''[[Friends]]'' prominently featured KFC: Joey was eating a bucket of KFC chicken when he stumbles across a nude picture of Monica, and makes references to the bucket all throughout the scene, and in another episode, he bursts in on Monica and Chandler in the bath to ask if Chandler wants some KFC.

** Shaun frequently eats Doritos and makes some exaggerated quip about how great they are.

* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' once based an entire episode around the premise that a Kenny Rogers' Roasters restaurant opened across the street from their apartment building. At first, the placement is inverted, as Kramer is being driven mad by the gigantic garish neon sign that gives his entire apartment a red glow and keeps him up all night. But then, as soon as Kramer actually tastes the chicken, he loves it.

* [[Yakuza]] has quite the number of food and drink product placements, from more obvious ones like Suntory drinks. To actual restaurants such as [http://www.sams-okinawa.jp Sam's] being advertised. The product placement can only go farther

* Billy Wilder's ''One, Two, Three'' has plenty of placement for Coca-Cola...but it's entirely justified, since the film is all about a Coke executive in Berlin.

* A ''[[Community]]'' episode features a KFC-sponsored spaceship simulator. Naturally, this is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]].

** Not to mention a sub-plot in season three involving a character literally named Subway.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GREnyz7YiM The last few seconds] of the "For My Broken Heart" music video show [[Reba McEntire]] ordering an [[wikipedia:Icee|Icee drink]]. (scene begins at 3:15)

* "[[Lampshade Hanging|I would never date]] [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|a guy who didn't]] [[30 Rock|drink Snapple]]."

* ''[[The Ant Bully]]'' featured Jelly Belly jellybeans.

* For some reason, two noodle companies decided sponsor rereleases of Famicom games, thus the existence of ''Kaettekita [[Mario Bros.]]'' and ''[[Gradius]] Archimedes Hen''. This is parodied in ''[[Retro Game Challenge]]'' with ''Rally King SP'', sponsored by the fictional Cup o' Chicken Noodle company.

 

=== Internet (''All The Tropes® Self-Demonstrating Article'') ===

* ''[[Avoid the Noid]]'' for the Commodore 64 and ''Yo!Noid'' for the NES (Domino's Pizza).

** Although, ''Yo! Noid'' happened to be a localized version of ''[[Dolled-Up Installment|Masked Ninja Hanamaru]]'' in Japan. This explains why the abilities and mechanics don't fit in with the Domino's character.

* ''McDonaldland'', a.k.a. ''MC Kids'', for NES, Amiga, and Commodore 64 ([[McDonald's]]) averts this somewhat, in that Ronald McDonald is only an NPC. Even still, it's a game entirely based around Product Placement: if the title didn't give it away, the fact that the [[Follow the Money]] items are the trademark golden arches should.

** There was also ''[[McDonald's]] Treasure Land Adventure'' for the [[Sega Genesis]], developed by [[Treasure]] of all companies

*** [[Top Gear|Arsebiscuits]].

* ''[[Jericho]]'' showed just how good a cell-phone company can really be: Sprint maintained service through 20 or more American cities being nuked ''and'' the resulting remnants dissolving into squabbling factions. (Sprint was a major sponsor of the show.)

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' movie ''Advent Children'' had some rather gratuitous close-ups of Panasonic FOMA P900iV cell phones, which at the time were available only in the movie's native Japan. Some of the usage is humorous; there's a scene where {{spoiler|after a fight, the "Victory theme" from the game is heard... but it's the bad guy's cell phone ringtone}}.

** It should also be noted that this was so effective that it has created demand for this phone in regions where it '''will not even work as a phone''' due to network differences.

** Given that Beamish is ''also'' an Irish beer, this may be both product placement and trying to subvert a stereotype. They could have also gone with Murphy's or Cafferey's. There is more than one popular beer amongst the Irish.

* The 2009 ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' film reboot has kid Kirk on an in-car comm with a prominent Nokia logo on the startup screen.

* Interesting case on ''[[Lost]]'' - During the airing of the Season 3 finale, several forum posters and other live commentators pointed out how glaring the placement of Jack's Motorola RAZR phone was during his off-Island flashback, especially since Oceanic Flight 815 crashed in September 2004, years before the phone was manufactured. {{spoiler|The end of the episode revealed that Jack's story had actually been a flash''forward'' three years into the future, making the product placement a crafty clue.}}

* On ''[[Burn Notice]]'', EVERYONE except for Sam has a Razr, unless they're tearing it apart to make a bomb.

* Near the end of ''[[Open Season]]'' Beth can be seen using a Sony Ericsson cellphone.

* In the video for the 2012 fun. song "We Are Young", great pains are taken to make it obvious the phone that starts the riot/food fight is a Windows Phone, showing the Metro UI as it tumbles in slow motion.

 

=== Sports Stadiums and Events (''The O2® Arena'') ===

** Sometimes habit tends to take over as well. While some (older) White Sox fans continue to call their park Comiskey, others have shortened the official name (U.S. Cellular Field) and have taken to calling it "The Cell".

*** Or "The Joan," after local-girl-made-good Joan Cusack who did a lot of U.S. Cellular commercials. (Likely a dig, as the Cusacks are avowed Northsiders and John frequently leads "Take me out to the ball game" at Wrigley)

** This trend is becoming ever more prevalent in European soccer as many higher-level clubs in various countries move to new, larger stadia which, in contrast to the old stadia generally bearing the name of the road or district in which they were located or the names of prominent figures in the club's early history, are named after corporate sponsors. This causes problems during international competitions due to conflicts with the competitions' own corporate sponsors, which forces such sites as the Allianz Arena in Munich (home of Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich) and the Emirates Stadium in London (home of Arsenal) to be re-named Fußball-Arena München and Arsenal Stadium respectively during Champions' League broadcasts (during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the Munich venue was known as FIFA World Cup Stadium Munich).

*** In the case of the latter, some Arsenal fans refer to the stadium as either Arsenal Stadium or Ashburton Grove, the district of London in which the stadium was built, just as the previous Arsenal Stadium was colloquially known as Highbury. Indeed, if a club moves to a new stadium with a corporate name, fans of the club, particularly those who supported them before the move, may be apt to ignore the name (which, after all, will only last as long as the sponsorship deal with the club) in favour of a more evocative name based on either the location or the history of the club.

* Fans of the Sacramento Kings could tell how much the Maloof brothers wanted to move the team to Anaheim after 2010-11 based on their newest naming rights deal alone. What was the ARCO Arena (named after the gas station operator now owned by BP) became the Power Balance Pavilion, named for a company that manufactured a more fancy version of those [[Schmuck Bait|gold and silver wristbands]] that supposedly give the wearer more energy that used to be sold by pro golfers for $10 in [[infomercial]]s, and predictably has gone into bankruptcy after being sued in a class action to the point where the company admitted [[Very False Advertising|they didn't work]]. They're staying for the 2011-2012 season in Sacramento, but it's probably a [[Pyrrhic Victory]] if the effects of the NBA lockout (which always does a number on any public support for a new arena) kills it.

** Even most of the sports newscasters in the area still slip up and call it ARCO Arena. Not that anyone is correcting them.

* The Chesapeake Energy Arena in [[Oklahoma City]], home of the Thunder (the former Ford Center) may seem a bizarre name as that inland city is 1,200 miles away from the [[Named After Somebody Famous|eponymous bay]], but the oil exploration company sponsoring the arena has always been locally-based, so it actually works out well if you're a local, though there's sure to be confusion among Eastern Seaboarders.

* Ironically, this is actually ''most'' prevalent in college sports. Every college bowl game has its own sponsor, though that sponsor will often change every few years.

* The UFC and other sports often have the fight's ''clock'' brought to you by something. [[Deconstructed Trope|Theoretically]], it costs them money to show you the clock and if no one sponsors it, it won't show up.

* Making this tropes really [[Older Than Feudalism]], popular Roman gladiators endorsed products.

 

=== Anything and Everything (''The Church of Scientology's® "Super Power"'') ===

* ''[[American Dreams]]'' had so many examples it would take too long to list them all. First they had modern musicians singing classics almost every week and then there was, well, just about every product ever listed on the show. Fortunately because the show was somewhat built around nostalgia it tended play better. The scene with a father and son discussing how to eat Oreos seems funny and even sweet when the cookies are a new invention. Although certain things like "Feildings"(AKA Budweiser) being the only beer that seemed to exist even in Viet Nam did tended to bug. Also Sarah Ramos had to get sick of saying "Campbell's Tomato Soup" about halfway through season three.

* Whoever watches ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'' has one product brand in their brain after leaving the theater: ''Windex''.

{{quote|'''Harry Potter:''' Are you sure you don't want any help looking?

'''Luna Lovegood:''' That's all right. Anyway, my mum always said things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end.

* ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off|Ferris Buellers Day Off]]'' features the titular character watching [[MTV]] early in the film. The year it came out was also the year media conglomerate Viacom bought the network, who made damn sure to place its logo in every film they could find.

* ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' made use of this trope in the [[Show Within a Show]] "Tool Time", where Tim and Al often plugged products by the fictional Binford hardware company. One episode dealt with Tim's reluctance to promote an inferior Binford product on his show.

** The most extreme examples of ''[[Smallville]]'''s glut of product placements include a melodramatic locker room scene before the [[Big Game]] where the camera lingers on Clark's Old Spice Red Zone deodorant in "Jinx", the Angel of Vengeance's use of Acuvue contact lenses when supersuited up in "Vengeance" (to which Chloe painfully states "Acuvue to the rescue!"), and a [[Product Promotion Parade]] in "Noir" where Jimmy Olsen plays Chloe a goodbye playlist by hooking up his Apple iPod to her Toyota Yaris before snapping a farewell photo of them using his Nikon Coolpix camera. It's a testament to the durability of product placements that I was able to recall all of these from memory. Ugh.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] on the third season premiere of ''[[Eureka]]''; The new chairwoman of GD announces its first corporate sponsor, as several crates bearing Degree [the deodorant sponsoring the season] logos are wheeled in. Degree is actually sponsoring the show, insisting on heavy placement of ads and an entire upcoming episode where deodorant saves the day.

*** ''Casino Royale'' also has silly product placement for the cars, at the time the film was made Ford owned Aston Martin (as well as Jaguar and Land Rover). As well as the near-obligatory Aston Martin, the Ford Mondeo gets prominently featured. But the worst is that nearly all the background vehicles just about everywhere seem to be shiny new Ford group cars. Just about the only non-new non-Ford car in the film is an old Mercedes, which naturally has a body stuffed in the boot.

*** Product placement is not new to ''Casino Royale''; there is a suspiciously high number of KFC viewings, going as far back as ''[[Goldfinger]]''.

* ''[[Talladega Nights]]: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby'', being a NASCAR film, was chock-full of it. It was, however, taken to ridiculous heights to lampoon the whole practice (while still indulging in it), with a sportscaster noting that the title character "never met a sponsor he didn't like", Ricky Bobby himself noting that one sponsor requires him to always mention them even in his family's mealtime prayers, and selling ad space on his ''windshield''.

** Let us not forget that the film itself is interrupted at one point by an Applebee's commercial. Really. {{spoiler|[[It Makes Sense in Context]], sort of, because at that point, we're watching TV coverage of a race with Ricky and Jean-Gerard getting involved in a very long drawn-out crash.}}

* [[Will Smith]]'s character sure loves telling people about his 'vintage 2004 Converse sneakers' in ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]''. [http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=i_robot That is far from the only product placement...]

* ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' was notorious not only for using Product Placement, but also for having several prominent products fail [http://everything2.com/title/Product+%20placement+%20in+%20%20%01%25%3A+%20A+%20Space+%20Odyssey by the time 2001 rolled around].

** The [[Contested Sequel]] ''[[2010: The Year We Make Contact|2010]]'' features an Apple //c computer and a copy of ''[[Omni]]'' magazine, which went out of print in 1995.

* ''[[Blade Runner]]''—Atari, Pan Am, etc.

* The ''[[Back to The Future]]'' movies. Hoo boy...

** Pepsi Free ([[Hilarious in Hindsight|hilarious now that it's rebranded as Caffeine Free Pepsi]])

** The main theme of I and III resulted in cameo appearances by their artists (Huey Lewis in the first, ZZ Top in the 1880s doing an acoustic version of their song in III).

** Texaco comes to mind; the only location besides the courthouse that's in 1955 ''and'' 2015 Hill Valley. They would probably have worked it into III as well if the lack of gas stations in the wild west hadn't been a plot point.

** Calvin Klein

** Nike

* ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' has a movie agent playing Wii Sports one-handed throughout a rather long phone call.

** And of course, Tivo figures heavily into the resolution of the climax.

* ''[[Basquash]]'', by its nature as a basketball-playing humongous mecha series, has a deal with Nike, to the point where a Nike logo is prominently displayed in the opening sequence.

* ''[[Snakes on a Plane]]'' is positively rife with placements - a character quickly chugs a can of Red Bull, placing the empty can directly in front of the camera before driving off on his bike with very obvious Kawasaki logo in the first few scenes; several characters are shown with high tech objects like laptops including a screen-filling apple logo), [[PlayStation Portable|PSPs]] and [[Nintendo DS]]es; and the movie climaxes in a scene in which the plots resolution is directly linked to one character's gaming past.

* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' somehow makes for that elusive variety of product placement where it's subtle; the [[Cool Shades|Ray-Ban sunglasses]] the film's protagonists wear look cool and integrate into the action without appearing to have been clumsily shoehorned in. In the title song from the film's soundtrack, however, they're clunkily name-checked by [[Will Smith]].

** In the sequel, a background alien is seen eating french fries from [[McDonald's]].

* [[Lady Gaga]]'s "Telephone" contains ''a lot'' of product placement for everything from Virgin Mobile and Plenty of Fish to Diet Coke and Miracle Whip. Compared with how hamfisted it is compared to the placement of stuff like [[Wii]] nunchucks in "Bad Romance", the explanation that it's [[Stealth Parody]] is more likely.

* In ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', as the game progresses billboards and signs advertising all fictional in-game corporations in Manhattan are eventually covered up by propaganda, graffiti or both. However, all the advertisements for Hollywood Video, Gold's Gym, and [[Game Stop]] remain perfect and pristine, even when a total zombie apocalypse scenario is occurring in the heart of Times Square, and literally all the other signs are in some way covered up.

* The movies from the Marvel Studios label seem to exist solely to the purpose of selling products. In fact, all of the films were basically $150 million plus ads made to promote ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'' (perhaps giving that film the most expensive ad campaign ever).

* During the mid-90's the ABC channel was bought by the Walt Disney Corporation. In doing so, they had most, if not all, of their current shows make episodes that involved their characters going on a vacation to Disney World. Most did them without complaint and simply moved on. However, there was one revolt. The cast and crew of ''Roseanne'' didn't like being forced to make an hour-long Disney World commercial (it was a two-parter, but they didn't reach Disney World until part 2.) A little while later, they make an episode that is a thinly-veiled and scathing Take That against them. In it, David gets a job at an amusement park called Edelweiss Gardens, where the brainwashing and conformity jokes come fast and hard (they also give the entire park a German theme with a Hans the Hare mascot, adding in some unsettling Nazi overtones.)

 

* One of the earliest video game examples, the original version of ''[[Pole Position (video game)|Pole Position]]'' had ads for Canon, Pepsi, and a number of other companies. The [[Xbox 360]] Namco Museum is one of the only ports that keeps the product placement in.

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g7fZFSMQDs music video] to the Clazziquai song "Flea" has several shots of a PSP running ''[[DJMAX]] Portable Clazziquai Edition'' (or rather, a prototype as the game wasn't released yet when the video was shot). Not surprisingly, an edited version of the video was used as the intro movie for ''DJMPCE''.

* Racing games are packed with product placement. And fans wouldn't have it any other way, since this gives you the chance to pretend you can afford to drive around in an entire garage of hopped-up cars way beyond your financial means:

** The ''[[Gran Turismo]]'' series is chock-full of in-game advertising, justified because they're the racing teams' sponsors. Example include the Audi R8 (Infineon), the JGTC Loctite Skyline, the Mercedes-Benz 190E (Hugo Boss), the Audi TT-R Touring Car (Red Bull and Walkman), the McLaren F1 GTR Race Car (Petrofina), and the BMW V12 LMR (Dell). And on top of that, there's ''a Gran Turismo 4 ad within Gran Turismo 4:'' the [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Pescarolo_C60_2006.JPG Playstation Pescarolo C60].

** The T-Mobile adverts in [[HP 2010]]

** And to note, musical placement didn't start until atleast Hot Pursuit 2 with songs like ''The People That We Love'' by ''Bush'', and The ''Hot Action Cop'' songs. (Although, the original, dirty lyrics were changed to car-themed ones)

** There was a depressingly large fanboy wankstorm over the announcement of product placement in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'', which involved Axe, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Bon Curry, Doritos, several Japanese magazines including Famitsu, WALKMAN, Uniqlo, ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' and [[Vocaloid]]. The last four references remained in the International versions (WALKMAN is owned by Sony, KojiPro's parent company; Uniqlo is trying to peddle tie-in t-shirts in the States, too; ''Assassin's Creed 2'' spawned an in-game "Straw Box" item too specific to bother changing, not to mention that ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'' poked back at ''MGS'' the same year with a cardboard box gag and an unlockable Raiden costume; and VOCALOID was actually important to the plot) but the rest were removed and swapped with amusing [[Bland-Name Product]] versions. In particular, the replacements for the magazines (now Solid Mag, Liquid Mag, and Solidus Mag) are [[Take That]]s at the original magazines they're based on ("Most of the stories are about men fighting Martians and were written by talentless amateurs"), and the description for the "Cologne" makes snide comments about the Axe advertising campaigns.

* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Shadows of the Empire]]'' on the [[Nintendo 64]] contains a bit of product placement to itself, of all things: during the mission inside the freighter the ''Suprosa'', when Dash locates the supercomputer containing the new Death Star plans, it will greatly resemble an N64 with a ''Shadows'' cartridge plugged in if viewed from a sufficient distance.

* The protagonist of the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games has [[Nintendo]]'s current home console in his/her room, including the Super NES (Gen. I), the N64 (Gen. II), the [[Game Cube]] (Gen. III), and the [[Wii]] (Gens. IV and V).

** Taken to impressive levels in Black and White; the main character has his/her first Pokémon battle in his/her room and everything is decimated afterwards. However, upon examination, the Wii is in the same spot and, when 'talked to', is [[Made of Indestructium|apparently undamaged!]]

* In ''[[Shaun White Skateboarding]]'', you strike out against an oppressive [[Nineteen Eighty-Four]] - esque dystopian regime via the power of skateboarding, which brings color to a monochrome world...as well as Stride gum billboards and Wendy's restaurants, among others. Needless to say, the "fight government oppression via corporate advertising" aspect wasn't well received.

* ''[[Anger Management]]'': There are "[[Establishing Shot]]s" peppered throughout the movie, except all they establish is that the characters are in a neighbourhood that has a lot of billboards advertising the Army.

 

== Parodies - Because we produce the only true ''Quaker® Oats'' ==

 

=== Anime & Manga (''Kodansha's® Akira'') ===

 

=== Film (''Friedberg & Seltzer's® Meet The Spartans'') ===

** There were also two guys whose entire job on the Truman Show was to stop Truman at a place, frame him properly for a camera to include a shot of a certain poster for a few seconds, then let him go. Other product-based oddities abounded in the world as well.

* Spoofed brilliantly in the movie ''[[Wayne's World]]'', as Wayne and Garth rant about not selling out and staying true to themselves, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjXYfTtGas while showing off various products].

* In ''[[Return of the Killer Tomatoes]]'', breaking the [[Fourth Wall]], the director appears to informs the characters that there isn't enough money to finish the film. He blames the (relentlessly) generic products that have been shown throughout the movie to that point. After that, logos appear on various objects and all dialog is loaded with ever-more-blatant product pitches, only ending when a character breaks down mid-spiel and asks "do we have enough money to finish this turkey yet?" The director stops partying with hookers long enough to give the go-ahead.

** More subtly (which is an odd word to apply to this movie) in that scene a nearby roof has the bottom half of a Hooters logo visible.

** Na-na-na, na, na...Neo...Na-na-na, na, na...sporin!

* In another Ahnold movie, ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', at one point the car crashes through a semi-truck clearly labeled "Coca-Cola", which is driving out of what appears to be the bottling plant.

* ''The Adventures of [[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' (you know, [[The Film of the Series]], which [[Discontinuity|doesn't exist]]?) mocks this trope, except when making sure the audience knows that the characters use Hewlett-Packard computers.

** He does feature real cereal brands, like "Fruit Brute" and "Kaboom". Both haven't been produced since the 70s.

* In ''[[Evolution (film)|Evolution]]'', the protagonists discover than the alien menace can be killed by selenium. When they wonder where they are going to get several hundred gallons of it, a couple of slacker students reveal that Head & Shoulders contains selenium sulfide as the active ingredient. Thus, they fill a fire truck with the stuff and use it to save the day. It's done so tongue in cheek (the movie is a comedy) that it's obviously a parody and it culminates with the characters making a faux ad for Head & Shoulders at the very end of the film (supposedly this was suggested by the director's son, [[Jason Reitman]]).

{{quote|'''Ira Kane''': Wow, fighting the alien menace can be tough work.

'''Harry Block:''' And so is keeping your hair clean, shiny and dandruff free.

'''Wayne Grey:''' So it's a good thing we always keep a healthy supply of [all join in], Head and Shoulders, around the house. (Played right before end credits, the three holding the product - one of them backwards). }}

** There are also the Christmas tree air fresheners, but those are used less as product placement and more as part of the surreal reality of the film - they're in ''every'' car in the movie, and the characters notice this.

{{quote|"Get your '''Hanes''' on, lace up your '''Nikes''', grab your '''Wheaties''' and your '''Gatorade''', and we'll pick up a '''Big Mac''' on the way to the '''Ball park'''!"}}

* ''[[Idiocracy]]'' is unique in that it absolutely savages the brands that get placed. For example, Carl's Jr. will take your kids away if you can't pay for your meal (and pays one of the department secretaries every time he mentions them; seriously, he ends most of his sentences with "brought to you by Carl's Jr."), Fuddrucker's restaurant steadily devolves into Buttfucker's, Costco has bloated into a city-sized blight on the landscape with its own transit system, and Starbucks (and others) now offers hookers—family style. Supposedly, Gatorade was going to be the sports drink that had completely replaced water, causing all the crops to die, but they pulled out after they saw how their product was going to be treated, so [[Brand X]] product Brawndo was used in its place.

** The hero still managed to describe the Brawndo in the fountains as "some kind of Gatorade" at least once.

** You want crazy? {{spoiler|The court has advertising banners everywhere, and so do the government offices. The House of Representin' prefers Uhmerican Xxxpress.}}

*** Sadly, that's... [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|not so crazy]], given the infamous appearance of blatant advertising in some privatized schools and prisons in [[Real Life]].

* In ''[[Despicable Me]]'', [[The Rival]] Vector is shown using a [[Nintendo Wii]] in one scene. Makes sense, considering the [[Everything Is an iPod In The Future|design of his house]].

 

=== Literature (''Dan Brown's® Illuminati'') ===

* ''10 O'Clock Live'': Around the time the UK started to allow product placement, Jimmy Carr did a report on the crisis in Libya, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV3-0qZUSU8 but using as many puns on brand names as possible], complete with the corresponding products rolling right by him.

* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'': Two characters meet at Burger King and discuss how a show within a show is getting a big endorsement from the restaurant for mentioning its name. Naturally, the conversation itself features the characters repeatedly saying the name "Burger King" (while cutting away at the restaurant exterior to do a close up on the logo) and hawking the restaurant's services like free drink refills, until even the narrator joins in. Indeed, the writers originally were going to call this episode "Tendercrisp Chicken Comedy Half-Hour," after the sandwich heavily advertised in background signage.

{{quote|'''Jack''': These Verizon Wireless phones are just so popular, I accidentally grabbed one belonging to an acquaintance.

{{quote|'''Liz:''' It's not product placement, I just like how it feels!}}

** Jack got in on the act himself in the [[Live Episode]], shilling for Capitol One:

''(cut to guy wearing cap and shirt saying "Promotional consideration furnished by Capitol One")'' }}

* ''[[Sons of Guns]]'' has the Red Jacket crew using Magpul-brand parts accessories for the majority of their custom-built guns.

* ''[[Top Gear]]'' parodied the concept a couple of times, always starting off with a [[Lampshade Hanging]] citing [[The BBC|BBC]] policy which prohibits advertising:

** In one episode, ''Top Gear'' managed to borrow a Ferrari Enzo from [[Pink Floyd]] drummer Nick Mason, but only under the condition that they [[Enforced Plug|plug his book]]. Jeremy Clarkson then mentions that he told Mason they couldn't do that, but he'll "slide in a couple of references no one will notice". The review segment had Jeremy Clarkson interviewing Nick Mason while both of them are holding the book, in a slightly forced, exaggerated and stereotypical manner not unlike the most blatant plugs on a TV program. Clarkson also used references to Pink Floyd albums in his review of the Enzo, and the Stig had the car's stereo playing ''Another Brick in The Wall, Part II'' while he did the hot lap. At the end of the day, ''[[Top Gear]]'' managed to review the Enzo, Mason got his book plugged, and the audience gets a good laugh out of the blatant product placement on television, everybody wins! Yay ''[[Top Gear]]''!

{{quote|'''Fry:''' Hello, and welcome to "A Bit of Fry and Tidyman's".}}

* Parodied by [[Stephen Colbert]] on ''[[The Colbert Report]]'': His coverage of his own 2008 presidential run was "sponsored by Nacho Cheese Doritos", although Frito-Lay never actually paid him for it, and he spent several months mentioning the iPhone at every possible opportunity in the hope that Apple would send him one for free. Apple did.

** His habit of drinking Sierra Mist, however, is not product placement. It is just the best way to quench your thirst. Ahhh.... refreshing Sierra mist.

* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', John Henry loved to play with his [[Bionicle]]s toys. He would also frequently tell other characters about the mythology of the Bionicle world. It also becomes important to the story: You see, Bionicles have almost exclusively ball-and-socket joints, which are extremely useful. John Henry can't understand why God would design humans with hinge joints instead.

* In the [[Groundhog Day Loop]] episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c hit golfballs through the stargate with name-brand golf equipment prominently displayed. [[Rule of Cool]] win.

** In the episode "Vegas" of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' during an exchange between Sheppard and McKay, McKay tells Sheppard that he knows his favourite flavour of gum (spearmint), to which Sheppard believes to be a bluff. In reaction to this, McKay whips out a slightly beaten-up pack of Stride spearmint gum from his jacket and throws it out on the table in front of him. Nobody says anything about the brand, so it is possible that either this is a typical Stargate subtle product placement, or it was just that a package of Stride gum was what was available to them.

* HBO occasionally has a character in their series watching a scene from an another HBO series. For example, in ''[[The Wire]]'', Omar watched ''[[Oz]]'' and Cutty's roommate watched ''[[Deadwood]]''. There's also a scene where Dukie is about to plug ''[[Dexter]]'' but is interrupted by Michael Lee.

* Given the predominance of Product Placement in the current media landscape, most assume that ''[[Seinfeld]]'' just did it to get money. Acually, the Product Placement in ''[[Seinfeld]]'' broke a lot of sitcom etiquette by actually mentioning specific products, and the writers had to lobby for ''permission'' to use the names of real products. Why? The [[Contemplate Our Navels|Contemplating Our Navels]] conversations that ''[[Seinfeld]]'' is famous for are based on [[Real Life]] diction, and such diction is extremely clunky to recreate with an abstract [[Brand X]]. As an example, one episode involves George Costanza attempting to prove that someone took his candy bar impugning a suspect's description of [[Conviction by Contradiction|candy bars]]. By using actual candy bars, the viewer can base her own experiences with that candy bar in interpreting how the characters on screen react to it. The incidental Product Placement in ''[[Seinfeld]]'' is actually a large reason why [[Product In Placement]] in general has become so popular in the modern age. Prior to ''[[Seinfeld]]'', ad executives were far more worried about negative association than, in retrospect, they should have been.

** One of the clip shows features a two minute montage of the cast mentioning brand names such as Drake's Cakes, Chunky bars, Snapple, Yoohoo, and of course - Junior Mints.

* Parodied in ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'' with Rodney's film having about two hundred extras and two more pages of businesses to advertise in film thanks to Del Boy seeing a money making opportunity. Including a sauna business and an undertakers...

* Back when it existed, the ITC (the UK's Independent Television Commission) once ran [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_5qiwnUMdQ a commercial] lambasting Product Placement, showing a mock Aussie soap scene that focuses more on the beer than the plot. Flash forward to 2010, and the UK is just now drawing up rules for product placement.

* The second segment on ''[[Conan O'Brien|Conan]]'' occasionally involves Conan and Andy plugging a real life sponsor, usually with awkward grins and ''always'' with some sort of ridiculous skit about it.

* One episode of ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' had Malcolm and Reese buying a huge pile of fireworks from a Phantom Fireworks stand, topped off with the massive "Komodo 3000"; The company and the product both actually exist, although the latter is ''probably'' not quite as powerful in real life as it is [[The Deadliest Mushroom|memorably depicted]] in the show.

 

=== Video Games (''Nintendo's® Wii Party'') ===

 

=== [[Web Comics]] (''Penny Arcade®'') ===

* ''[[Nuzlocke Comics]]'' [http://www.nuzlocke.com/?p=259 poked a bit of fun at the concept] after his site introduced ads.

* [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2009/03/02/0038-product-placement/ Oreos], saving squirrels from being eaten since 1912. At least according to the squirrel Sid from ''[[Sandra and Woo]]''.

 

{{quote|'''GAMETRADERS ROBINA'''}}

** Ironically, '''GAMETRADERS ROBINA''' has [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|gone out of business.]]

* [http://nonadventures.com/2009/06/20/the-shills-to-pay-the-bills/ Speaking of Domino's]

* ''[[A Very Potter Musical|A Very Potter Sequel]]'' parodies this with Ron's love of Red Vines - complete with smiles directly to camera and zooming close-ups, as well as Harry and Ron's friendship being rooted in a mutual love of the things.

* "[[Invention Pioneers of Note]]" parodies this in Season 4, which contains multiple instances of forced and awkward product placement, as well as itself being a thinly disguised commercial for a restaurant.

* [[Tobuscus]] manages to parody this trope and play it straight at the same time. His schtick is to get paid by advertisers to produce parody videos about their products, under the theory that humor creates buzz. On the other hand, some of his videos are straight parodies, such as the ''[[FarmVille]]'' series (which almost got him in copyright trouble due to an [[Executive Meddling|overzealous Zynga employee]]). As if that weren't enough, any time a brand name appears in any of his videos or he mentions one in passing, he yells "[[Catch Phrase|Sponsor!]]", whether the appearance is sponsored or not.

{{quote|'''Critic:''' So to put it bluntly, he'll be back after these messages. (Lights start dimming) No, hey what are you doing? That was a joke. It wasn't serious. It wasn't serious. No, hey, what are you doing? STOP! (a real blip ad plays and then the lights come back on) Chester, report!

'''[[Bum Reviews|Chester A. Bum]]:''' We are being intersected by a word from our sponsor!

 

----

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Show Business]]

[[Category:Alternate Reality Game]]

[[Category:Game Show Tropes]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]