A new low in "product placement" (1 Viewer)

[Robin Warren]

Hey, I had a 1981 Fairmont. In 1995!!!

Loved that POS car.

 

[ThomasC]

A movie with an American director starring Marisa Tomei and Heather Graham isn't American? Granted, it was produced by foreign companies, Working Title (Great Britain) and Studio Canal (France), but the movie is set in America.

 

[Ian_H]

"...White Castle fries only come in one size.."


-Ian

 

[Chris]

There was "The Guru", but yeah, the last big (good) movie was not US driven (Bend it Like Beckham).

I won't say the film is terrible without seeing. This year has really been (so far in my viewing) without some of the terrible stinkers of last year.. or maybe I'm blacking them out.. but there are plenty more ahead!

(and yes, Van Helsing was bad, but it wasn't "Druids" type bad..)

 

[Stevan Lay]

What about that ripoff of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid of a movie Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man?

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

I was labouring under this assumption when I originally questioned the person who mentioned this film in relation to HAROLD & KUMAR. At that time, Tiffany's was something lots of people knew about, possibly even because of the film, but a place few could ever imagine visiting.

White Castles in 2004 are a slightly different beast.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I ate five sliders for lunch yesterday.

 

[Nick Sievers]

It was mentioned earlier.

Torque had some funny product placement. When Jaime Pressley and the other woman show down at the end behind one character sits a big Pepsi sign and behind the other their is a big Mountain Dew sign.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

In the light of all the discussion about Breakfast at Tiffanys, one point seems to have been forgotten.

It was a book first.

And I've never heard of product placement in a book.

I suspect Gore Vidal Truman Capote (that'll teach me to talk from memory about a book I haven't read) chose Tiffanys because of its reputation and the image it evokes. And then the title was retained in the film.

(Confession time - I have neither seen, nor read, Breakfast at Tiffanys)

 

[Colin Jacobson]

IIRC, the director claimed in his audio commentary that this WASN'T product placement. I don't remember his explanation - it didn't convince me - but he had one!

 

[Mark Palermo]

I didn't really take that scene in TORQUE as product placement either. Or, at least it's not lacking a strong self-awareness. As we're past the Information Age and into the Too Much Information age, it's interesting how some movies are using advertising as a tongue in cheek comment on the culture their characters inhabit. In TORQUE, it's two girls duking it out for their favourite soda pop (all the kids in that film are essentially at war over their fashion beliefs). MINORITY REPORT, I ROBOT and THE TERMINAL also use real world products as an invasive part of their environments.

At the same time, a lot of movies are just shameless.

 

[DaveButcher]

Breakfast at Tiffany's was written by Truman Capote who also wrote In Cold Blood and was screenwriter on Beat the Devil and The Innocents.

I believe it was meant as irony not as product placement. Same could be said for Harold and Kumar... but I haven't seen it (and probably won't until video), so who knows.

 

[Jay Gunn]

Harold & Kumar's title is definitely fitting, as the characters themselves are huge stoners, and White Castle is one of the most coveted and worshiped havens for those with the munchies. I bet if wasn't for the munchies, there wouldn't even be a White Castle today.

As for a really bad example of product placement, I HATED the semi with the "Stacker 2" trailer in Terminator 3. It was just so huge and so blatant that it completely took me out of the movie.

 

[Ernest Rister]

If you really want to bag on Spider-Man 2 for product placement, look no further than Maker's Mark whiskey, the whiskey of choice of Harry Osborne, and amazingly enough, Maker's Mark is a bottle of whiskey so astute, it always knows when to turn towards the camera so that its label is always clearly seen.

 

[Bryan Ri]

I'll have to look for that next time I see the movie, Ernest. If you remember, is that just in the Planitarium, or also in Harry's apt?

 

[Seth Paxton]

I agree that Whittee Castilee (or the Aluminum Room if you will) is an icon franchise at this point and consider their 24 hour status, the type of food they serve and the fact that you can come up with the 60-70 cents just to at least get one burger after a night of drinking (or other), the destination becomes a big part of the character types and plotline for this story.

How can anyone not know what White Castle is? Shocking to me.



Since Ian started it..

"I chill at White Castle cause its the best"

"Down with Mike D. and it ain't no hassle
Got the ladies of the eighties from here to White Castle"

"We went to White Castle and we got thrown out"

"And I can always make them smile
From White Castle to the Nile"


And that's just from one album.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"I'll have to look for that next time I see the movie, Ernest. If you remember, is that just in the Planitarium, or also in Harry's apt?"

Both!

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I don't know. But then, I'm in NZ, so that's not surprising.

As a big Coen Brothers fan I love The Big Lebowski, and had no idea until I visited the USA a couple of years ago that the In-And-Out Burger that they talk about in the film is a real chain. So one night I had to go and try one, and they were pretty good burgers.

 

[Andrew Kain]

All James bond movies.

 

[Nick Sievers]

I don't live in the US, i've never seen one on a visit but I still knew what it was.