"Thanks Dad, a new Nissan Rogue!" The line from the television show "Heroes'" shark-jumping second season, which spawned a million facepalms from entertainment bloggers across the world, is one of the more groan-inducing pieces of evidence that Hollywood is growing visibly desperate to reach consumers bloated on over-exposure to conventional advertising and with a quick thumb on the remote.
Notably more effective than their sectioned-off commercial counterparts, product placement in films and TV shows take the peer pressure gimmick and shamelessly run with it. All your favorite characters are doing it, so why shouldn't you? Predictably enough, however, consumers are already growing all too wary of the specialized zooms and delicate framing angles that manage to show products on the silver screen. Wariness of commercial manipulation falls into the case of ignorance is bliss, since setting out to look for these specialized insertions in films can have you trembling in your movie seat as you reach for your Coke and M&M's, wondering whether or not the corporation would approve.
Product placement in films has come a long way since E.T. hungrily shoveled Eliot's Reese's Pieces down his alien gullet more than 25 years ago. One might wonder whether audiences were paying for an artistic piece of cinema or a well-produced infomercial with the release of "Sex and the City" over this past summer. The film contained more than 95 separate brand references, from Manolo Blahnik to Cup of Noodles, causing Carrie and the girls to essentially act as stylish, walking NASCARs. That's not to say this sort of saturation doesn't work; Bag Borrow or Steal, the handbag loan company used by Jennifer Hudson's character in the movie, witnessed a 217 percent increase in new memberships after "Sex and the City's" release. I've never really felt the calling to rent other peoples' used purses, but was instead affected by the inclusion of another name in a blockbuster summer release.
As I walked out of "Iron Man," I had no thoughts other than "Robert Downey Jr. is one fine man." and "Gee, I sure could use some Burger King." What could be more hardcore American than just escaping a terrorist weapon manufacturing camp and demanding a Whopper with cheese?
This powerful inclusion of BK went beyond just base admiration of Robert Downey Jr.'s body and patriotism, though. It was one of several ways in which "Iron Man" took product placement to new levels by blurring the line between what's onscreen and what's between. Burger King was, in fact, brought into the movie at Downey's own request. In an interview with "Empire Magazine," Downey related a particularly life-changing incident with said brand. While still living the life of a Hollywood wild child, on a constant drug-induced high and collapsing on strangers' beds, Downey one night pulled into a Burger King drive-through and at that moment, decided to completely reform his life. The actor also paraded around his Audi R8 as featured in the movie; driving it to premieres and around the Hollywood area throughout the film's release period.
However, for every Burger King, there is a counterpart product placement, much like the Nissan Rogue in "Heroes," that can cause an audible groan of discomfort from the audience. One of my personal irkings in this category would have to be the shove-down-your-throat inclusion of orange Tic Tacs in "Juno." The movie was supposed to be a celebration of indie-weirdness, yet in the midst of it all comes orange Tic Tacs, somehow acting as a fuel for Michael Cera's character's anorexia and ultimately a very inconvenient expression of what I guess might be called love.
While "Juno's" sellout can only be described as annoying, nothing compares to the awful Adam Sandler vehicle "Little Nicky" in which the title character, the son of the devil, instantly turns a horde of Satan's armies into loveable and gentle kittens by supplying them with a giant bucket of Popeye's Chicken. The scene climaxes as one of the demons actually yells the line, "Popeye's Chicken is the shiznit!" as butterflies flutter around his head. It's amazing that the brand - and Sandler's career - survived.
Such tactlessness begs the question of what the next level on this spectrum of corporate inclusion can be? Nothing is sacred when money and corporate domination lay in the balance. Even the untouched whimsy of classic action hero Indiana Jones were shattered as he whored about onscreen with the likes of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Harley Davidson. Hey, it could have been a Nissan Rogue.
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
