Product placement has reached its zenith in the new Disney movie, Herbie Fully Loaded. If you want to max out on product placement, just make a movie about some part of life that’s filled with logos.
Like a NASCAR race.
NASCAR, of course, needs many sponsors for each racing team, because keeping a race car tuned and in spare parts is expensive.
But the movie — rather than using Cola Cola brand X placements — jumps right in and has so many products prominently featured I couldn’t count them all.
Tropicana ™ Orange Juice, Nextel ™ the sponsor of the climactic race, Bass Pro Shops ™, Linsey’s Goodyear ™ cap. Heck, BPS gets mentioned in the dialog more than any other brand. It’s one of the sponsors of Herbie racing team, so its logo is in maybe half the shots. (Hmm, I could use a Green Glitter Flavored Bass Jig.)
Oh yes, there’s Home Depot ™, Cheetos ™, Pepsi ™, UPS ™, DuPont ™. The list is almost endless. And the Lohan character’s getting a job at ESPN ™, which is owned by the Disney company.
There’s a New York Times article on all this brouhaha. According to the Times, the movie’s producers needed NASCAR’s cooperation to make the movie and that meant commercial ties galore. It is NASCAR, folks.
If you have kids who like Ms. Lohan or VW Beetles, you can see the movie and experience all those products first hand.
By the way, Volkwagen did not have a product placement deal. If you listen really hard you’ll notice that there is no mention of VW ™ or the Beetle ™ by name in the movie. (VW declined to make a deal because the Herbie model of Beetle is no longer made.)
All this sponsorship has brought out some negative reviews, even according to an industry blog. In fact, one reviewer comented that whole movie looks like a race car driver’s uniform.
I agree. I like product placements in movies. After all, didn’t E.T. eat Reese’s Pieces ™? But this is really overkill, especially in a movie where’s little to watch except those logos and Ms. Lohan’s curves.