Product Placement: Difference between revisions

* 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.

* 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.

** 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.

*** [[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.

* 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.

** 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.

* 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.)

 

=== Video Games (''Rockstar Games's® L.A. Noire'') ===

** 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!]]

 

== 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.

** And their [[Brand X]] product became [https://web.archive.org/web/20131102202520/http://www.brawndo.com/ a real one] some time ago, complete with ads with ''[[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|awesome]]'' voiceovers.

*** 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 Original (''Channel Awesome's® [[Nostalgia Critic]]'') ===

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

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

 

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[[Category:Show Business]]

[[Category:Alternate Reality Game]]

[[Category:Game Show Tropes]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]