Product Placement - Product Displacement

Product Displacement

According to Danny Boyle, director of film Slumdog Millionaire (2008), the makers had to resort to something he calls "product displacement" when companies such as Mercedes-Benz refused to allow their products to be used in non-flattering settings. While Mercedes did not mind having a gangster driving their cars, they objected to their products' being shown in a slum setting. This forced the makers in post-production to remove logos digitally, costing "tens of thousands of pounds".

Similarly, in the film The Blues Brothers (1980), portions of the defunct Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois, were reconstructed in façade and used as the scene of an indoor car chase. Signage belonging to tenants of the mall when it was operational (1966–1978) was in some cases removed and replaced with that of other vendors; for instance, a Walgreens would become a Toys "R" Us.

In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and several other TV movies involving ill-fated long-distance train rides, all Amtrak logos were removed from the train.

In Pixar's Cars (2006), sponsors of the original NASCAR vehicles were replaced with fictional or parody brands. As all characters are vehicles, many invented products are automotive aftermarket items positioned as pharmacy or medical brands (such as "Clutch-Aid" or "Leak Less"). The "Junior #8" car is sponsored by Dale Earnhardt Inc., displacing Dale Earnhardt Jr's original NASCAR sponsor Budweiser to avoid advertising beer to children in a animated Disney film. A Piston Cup trophy win is portrayed as a means to win a lucrative Dinoco oil company sponsorship, much-coveted in a world populated entirely by automobiles. "Piston Cup" is a parody of a NASCAR trophy, once named "Winston Cup" to circumvent regulations on direct advertising of tobacco.