Product Placement - Extreme and Unusual Examples

Extreme and Unusual Examples

The 1988 film Mac and Me is notorious for containing an exceptionally large amount of on-screen product-placement. Both Coca-Cola and McDonald's backed the movie financially, leading to product-placement for the two companies (as well as other companies, such as Skittles and Sears) in nearly every scene, including an infamously irrelevant dance number set in a McDonald's restaurant as well as a character who wears a McDonald's uniform throughout nearly the entire film, even when she is not at work.

The film I, Robot, though set in the future, makes heavy use of product placements for Converse trainers, Ovaltine, Audi, FedEx, Dos Equis, and JVC among others, all of them introduced within the first ten minutes of the film. One particularly infamous scene borders into an actual advertisement in which a character compliments Will Smith's character's shoes to which he replies "Converse All-Stars, vintage 2004." (the year of the film's release). Audi invested the most on the film, going so far as to create a special car for the film, the Audi RSQ. It was expected that the placement would increase brand awareness and raise the emotional appeal of the Audi brand, objectives that were considered achieved when surveys conducted in the United States showed that the Audi RSQ gave a substantial boost to the image ratings of the brand. The Audi RSQ is seen during nine minutes of the film, although other Audis like the Audi A6, the Audi TT and the Audi A2 can be seen sprinkled throughout the film. I, Robot was ranked "the worst film for product placement" on a British site.

The film 17 Again makes heavy use of product placement featuring cereals, sandwich fillers, chips, stereo systems, and automobiles.

In the 2000 film Mission to Mars, logos for M&M's and Dr. Pepper fill the entire frame, in some instances (such as packets of Dr. Pepper floating past the camera).

The 1999 film adaptation of Inspector Gadget features a billboard for Yahoo!, which fills most of the screen as it falls down to Yahoo!'s promotional sound effect.

The film Demolition Man makes heavy mention of Taco Bell, which in the film's setting is the only restaurant chain left in society. The film uses this to comic effect but never disparagingly.

The film The Island, directed by Michael Bay, features at least 35 individual products or brands, including cars, bottled water, shoes, credit cards, beer, ice cream, and even a search engine. The film was highly criticized for this. In the movie's DVD Commentary track, Michael Bay claims he added the advertisements for realism purposes.

The comedy film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby also contained a high amount of product placement, as a parody of the large amount of sponsorship in the sport itself. Characters repeatedly mention brands under the disguise of NASCAR sponsorship. The movie contains possibly the first instance of an actual television commercial in a movie. It was intended to mock the controversy with NASCAR fans under the Unified Television Contract 2001-06 where they criticised the excessive number of commercial breaks during races.

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, a massive cinematic flop from 1987, prominently featured Pepsi in a scene where the titular characters steal a Pepsi delivery truck.

Bill Cosby's film Leonard Part 6 was widely criticized for its Coca Cola product placements, as was The Wizard for Nintendo products. The latter film contains a somewhat ironic example of misguided product placement; during a scene where a character uses a Nintendo Power Glove, he exclaims "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad."

The film Catch Me If You Can makes heavy handed use of a Sara Lee placement by mentioning it six times throughout the movie.

The 1992 film Lethal Weapon 3 features a gigantic illuminated Coca-Cola sign which can be seen after the film's first scene where a building is blown up by a bomb.

The 2001 film Evolution features product placement integral to the entire film. When mutated lifeforms attack Earth, the characters use a large amount of Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo as a source of selenium disulfide, which is poisonous to the creatures. The actors hock Head & Shoulders shampoo in the final scene of the film.

The 2000 film Cast Away features a massive amount of FedEx and Wilson Sporting Goods product placement, in many cases as integral to the story, including a Wilson volleyball which Tom Hanks' character names "Wilson." In one scene, Hanks' character repeatedly yells "WILSON! WILSON!"

The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats contains an amount of blatant product placement which verges on self-parody, as most of the shots in the movie contain visible brand names and logos. These include brands such as Puma, Target, McDonalds, America Online, Revlon, Aquafina, Target, Starbucks, Motorola, Sega, Kodak, Advil, TJ Maxx, and many others. This appears to be done ironically, as the plot of the film revolves around subliminal messages in advertising. The film's general message can also be construed as an anti-consumerist one. The producers neither sought nor received compensation for featuring the brands in the film.

The Japanese animated series Code Geass is sponsored by the Japanese branch of Pizza Hut. Despite the fact that the series is set in an alternate reality, at least one main character is depicted ordering and receiving a Pizza Hut pizza on several occasions. The company's logo also appears throughout the series, made still stranger by the fact that Pizza Hut is taken as a symbol of oppression by the Holy Britannian Empire.

The 1994 comedy North features Bruce Willis as a Federal Express truck driver in one of his numerous cameos in the film, dubbing FedEx "guardians of your most important packages and priority communiques". In his highly negative review of the film, film critic Roger Ebert made special light of this scene.

The 2009 film Star Trek, in a scene where young James Kirk drives and crashes an old corvette, he operates a Nokia touch-screen smartphone. Before the car crashes, audiences will hear the Nokia trademark ring tone. The Finnish phone maker is even offering Star Trek applications.

The film The Cat in the Hat (2003) contained product placement where all residents of the town drive a Ford Focus.

The video game Darkened Skye was funded by Skittles to include product placement whereby magic spells are performed throughout the use of Skittles candy.