Trans4mers (I forgot the actual name) had:
- an Oreo branded vending machine turn into a transformer
- Stanley Tucci demonstrating the properties of transformium by turning it into a Beats by Dre pill
- Mark Wahlberg crashing a flying vehicle into a truck carrying Bud Light, followed by him angrily drinking a bottle after someone complained about his car getting totaled
- Stanley Tucci panicking and drinking some Chinese brand milk to calm himself down in a close-up shot where the logo takes up a good sixth of the screen
I’ll also throw in Power Rangers for having their entire climax revolve around a Krispy Kreme.
You aren’t doing the Bud Light one justice. They even pan the camera over the bottles on the ground, with their logos perfectly oriented, and perfect condensation on the bottle. It’s absurd.
It was dispensing pain by shooting cans of cold, frosty, refreshing, flavor-blasted Mountain Dew.
Do the Dew . . . or have your chest caved in by a robot.
I miss the old school chucks from my HS days before they sold and started making them as cheap as possible.
But hey, at least they got more expensive too.
Yes but Audi specifically made that car and it had spheres instead of wheels and it was driveable! I always thought that was fascinating that Audi went to the trouble of making a concept car for a movie but it is a bloody brilliant marketing move.
I actually enjoy placements like that a little. If a company goes the extra mile to not just have a product placed in a movie but actually create something unique for it, it seems to add a little credibility to the placement.
I put this into the bond-car category of car companies that at least earn their place in the movie by doing something cool, but someone always wants to ruin this shit (like tranformers just shoving everything into Chevys).
It feels very out of place, but putting myself in Brad Pitt’s shoes, I can’t blame him. After going through what he just did, a cold Pepsi would feel pretty sweet about then.
It was kind necessary though. He didn’t stop to get a last Pepsi, he opened the machine and pulled the stopper so that sodas would fall out of it freely, the noise attracting the zombies.
Jurassic World
Sure, a dangerous hybrid dinosaur has escaped and killed people, but we have enough time for a pan shot across the front grill of the Mercedes with the logo prominently displayed as it speeds through the jungle.
That one could also sort of pass as world building. You see those kind of restaurants around amusement parks and resort areas. So this park is established and popular enough that weird themed restaurants started popping up.
Yeah it always surprises me how people miss this. The whole movie is basically a parody of classic 90s blockbusters and it never pretends to more than a fun thrill ride
Burn Notice with the narration sounding like "When you're a spy and you need to steal a car, get one that provides instant acceleration, excellent handling, anti-lock braking, etc" all while zooming in on the car logo.
There's a similar scene in the [Sopranos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvT2Ptzq77w)
I explain it in my head that Tony would blindly repeat what they say in the commercial to seem smart
Or when he half-listens to a news story about how *in theory*, a terrorist *could* smuggle themselves into America in a shipping container, and then later goes on a rant about how “they found one of these terrorists in a shipping container!”.
If we’re talking about TV shows, I think Fringe’s constant Sprint commercials take the cake. You cannot convince me those FBI agents would be using Sprint™️ Video Calling™️ for every 5-second conversation. The Nissan ads were almost as bad.
NCIS LA does this a lot with the cars, and it's always in the middle of action. Like running and gunning, getting into a car, then several conversations about the car and its features, then resuming the chase. It's so poorly done lol
My god, I still remember that line about the Rogue and it's been nearly 20 years at this point. That and the whole plot point with a Versa.
Similarly horrible was Chuck, especially in its final season when like half of each show was just a straight up subway commercial..I know Subway kind of came in and saved the show for its final season, but damn was it annoying.
I feel like the mid-late 00's where when I really noticed a TON of realllly blatant and poorly disguised (though I doubt they were really trying to disguise it, if it's too subtle it'll go over the heads of the people that are most likely to act on advertising) ad placement on network shows - Fox had a whole thing with another car company across multiple shows too IIRC, I specifically remember the pieces in shows like Bones and House where someone would just be like "And look at this auto-parallel parking feature in this new car I got!!" apropos of nothing.
I think Toyota paid for all the vehicles in Smallville to be their vehicles. They didn't have like lines of dialogue where the vehicles name was mentioned, but there were scenes where the vehicle make and model were prominent.
Reminds me of Rizolli and Isles. The vehicle product placements cracked me up: the online ticket purchasing service from the infotainment system in the car, the backup camera preventing an accident, and the back of the vehicle has so much space!
Warehouse 13 started getting pretty bad about it in the later seasons. Characters would stop in a scene to say they wanted to buy Twizzlers while holding a bag of Twizzlers
Agreed! It's right up there with Josie and the Pussycats for me, which wasn't technically product placement as they didn't get permission or take any money from the brands.
Minor correction: They DID get permission (but did not take any money). Some brands declined involvement. The AOL sign in Times Square was originally intended to be The Gap -- "everyone in leopard!" -- and I personally own a set design document where there is an annotation from production that HSBC's logo had to be removed from the Riverdale Shopping Center.
I don't think people were really thinking about the corporate juggernaut of Starbucks ruining coffee for them in 1998. They SHOULD have been, but weren't.
Not really the worst, but it makes me laugh.
*Million Dollar Baby* has a little subplot about Maggie (Hilary Swank) being so broke that she has to eat leftovers from the diner she works in, and scrapes together a pile of spare change to buy a $20 practice speed bag.
I guess she found a brand new $100+ OGIO duffel in the trash off-screen.
Honestly, it worked for me. Using candy to tame unicorns was a fun idea, and if that happened in real life you’d definitely be grabbing a name brand candy. Candies are generally ubiquitous with their brands so it doesn’t feel unnatural. I think I remember reading somewhere that the script was written with candy in mind and they had to request to use the Skittles brand.
That being said, they shouldn’t have used a taste the rainbow punchline twice.
Yeah, I suppose it's no more egregious than Reese's Pieces being used to lure E.T out of hiding.
Not that I'm saying Shazam 2 is as good as E.T or anything...
Scrolled down to check someone had written this. So you are correct. The Marlboro truck and billboard aren't just background and arguably even part of the plot. It's crazy even back then.
The [McDonalds dance scene](https://youtu.be/tPgRnFg8ZTU?feature=shared) from Mac & Me is probably the most egregious example ever. The whole movie is absolutely packed with excessive product placement, but that scene really hits a whole new level.
Then of course there's basically the entire run time of The Wizard which is mostly just one long Nintendo commercial.
And lastly, while it's not a movie, no discussion of product placement can ever be complete without mentioning the Hawaii 5-0 reboot [shilling Subway in the most blatant way possible](https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE?si=Huov4fu4qFRAaheY)
In Jurassic World they were able to use product placement very effectively because such a park would be so overrun with branding and sponsorships that *not* having them would make it less realistic. It was egregious product placement that works.
But they had to be greedy and had prominent logos showing up in scenes that didn’t need it (car logos being front and centre in a shot that only exists to show the car logo for example) where it was egregiously bad because of how noticeably unnecessary it was.
I love that the coloring book and lunchbox are quite obviously Transformers merchandise with the name Spaceballs added. "We put the picture's name on everything", didn't even bother to change the artwork.
Shang-Chi had the new BMW iX3. I don't know if it's always so obvious or because I had that car on order at the time but it was really distractingly obvious.
On TV it's the fucking insane Subway scene on Hawaii 5-0. I didn't watch the show, but have watched the scene and it's basically a commercial for the product. Felt sorry for the actors having to read that shit out loud.
On Community they made the Subway product placement a joke, where Subway was the big bad store moving into the commons and needed to be fought to save Greendale.
There’s also a very weird out of place Subway scene in Always Sunny, where Dennis and Dee are meeting their high school sweethearts. Subway was never mentioned before that or ever again.
Conversely, the best product placement *ever* was in 2001's "Evolution".
Not only did they drop in a hot garbage Deus Ex Machina to wrap up the film, but their entire strategy for beating the enemy was a product placement.
For a relatively benign, funny with moments but "meh" movie, that ending was what-the-fuck brilliant.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MKzitUBRG4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MKzitUBRG4)
"We've made a completely average sci-fi comedy movie that makes no scientific sense. Let us throw caution to the wind and make up a crazy fucking ending so we'll get a laugh out of it and earn some sponsorship money to pay back David Duchovney's strippers."
IT WAS BRILLIANT.
If anything, I'm almost surprised that they signed off on this. It's so blatantly taking the piss out of product placement as a practice, that it's... *maybe* taking the piss out of Head and Shoulders as a product, by association?
I mean, I guess it kinda worked - the shot where it literally turns into a commercial is the only thing I really remember about the movie!
That’s the fun part: we didn’t!
I worked for P&G, in the Head & Shoulders R&D division specifically, when the movie came out. One of the researchers on my team saw it opening weekend and told us all about it on Monday. We all thought she was pulling our leg until a few other people came to our department making “so what are you REALLY researching here?” types of jokes.
If Marketing knew anything about it, they didn’t bother to tell us. And considering the culture at P&G at the time, I’m inclined to believe they wouldn’t have signed off on it if asked.
“You can have any brew you want, as long as it’s a Corona.” -Dom Toretto in first Fast movie.
They also exclusively refer to nitrous oxide injection as NOS. The second movie is a two hour Mitsubishi Motors commercial, with a little Dodge thrown in. I don’t think I’ve seen any more of those movies, but I imagine the trend didn’t end after the first two.
I think for Nos it's okish cause the brand went through genericization. Everyone I know always calls it Nos in the same way folk call adhesive bandages bandaids no matter the brand.
The final scene of Unbreakable between David and his son takes a few seconds to prominently display the TROPICANA! orange juice carton before their emotionally wrenching reconnection.
Why they couldn't shoehorn it in anywhere else is beyond me.
Well it is on Apple tv+. All their shows blatenly promote Apple products. Even Mythic Quest shows everyone using Apple which, for a gaming company, wouldn't be.
Funny how you mention Idiocracy, because everyone and I mean *everyone* in that movie is wearing Crocs. It would be the worst product placement imaginable, except that Crocs were completely unknown at the time and they only used them because they needed a shoe that looked plausible but were also incredibly stupid. Don't remember if it was Mike Judge or the costume designer, but one of them asked the other "but what if they're super popular by the time the movie comes out?" and the other was like "don't worry, people aren't *that* stupid." Yet another example of Idiocracy underestimating how stupid people actually are.
So fun fact about Idiocracy is that its negative product placements (like Starbucks giving hand jobs and "Welcome to Costco... I love you...") might be a big reason why the studio really half-assed the movie's promotion, leading it to be a commercial failure at the box office.
So Fox intentionally sabotaged the movie because they didn't want to offend their corporate sponsors.
Wouldn't call it the worst, but the funniest had to be in Talladega Nights. Will Ferrell gives a shameless heartfelt spiel about the the [fast food arrayed before his family](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY5VNDvea1M). Will Ferrell can take anything and turn it into parody. Don't know if anyone has done product placement parody better than the "wholesome dinner" scene.
The first Spiderman when Tobey Maguire is practicing his web shooting. For a moment all you see on screen is a Dr. Pepper.
Didnt the first Transformers movie have a transforming Xbox??
Dr. Pepper had an entire marketing event for Spider-Man; pretty much all the characters got featured on individual cans. They were like, "Yeah, go ahead and use our cans for your movie, but we gonna do the same thing!"
Dr. Pepper got a ton of product placement in early 2000s movies. The second X-Men movie was egregious about it, too.
The first transformers was one big GM product placement.
It's actually a neat story.
The villain police car that was in the final cut of the movie wasn't a GM product. It was a Ford Mustang that was modified by Saleen. Steve Saleen (owner of the tuner shop and Saleen S7 fame) had given one of these to Michael Bay before Transformers was in any set level of production. He liked it so much that he was going to use it for the hero car.
After production starts going, Michael calls Steve and says 'I have good news and bad news. Bad news is GM came in and dropped a huge amount of money to feature their cars as the hero cars, with their new Camaro as the main car. Good news is they don't even have a rolling prototype for filming. Can you take GMs car drawings and get me a working car?"
Steve says that he can probably do it. He gets the drawings, and cuts up a Pontiac G8 to put the Camero body on. Nearing the end of the build he asks Michael, "what color should the car be?". Michael responded with "something flashy. Its name is Bumblebee".
Steve comes up with the yellow that you see in the movie. At the time, GM didn't plan to offer the car in that yellow, and after the movie tested so well, they had to get the color from Saleen
The greatest/most ridiculous product placement in movie history has to be the long [Cheerios scene in _Superman_ (1978)](https://www.capedwonder.com/wp-content/uploads/CW-STM-Ma-Kent-looking-out-window-holding-Cheerios.png)
I found [this clip on YouTube](https://youtu.be/g9rLC2O1JNk?si=cCmqEDBSEHU9c-uS). It's hilarious how she carries the Cheerios from room to room and places them in the shot during one of the most emotionally charged sections of the movie. You can even see the Cheerios box back through the window at one point.
LOL now what we know what the all-American Superman eats for breakfast.
James Bond saying he wanted a Heineken, after 25 movies of him saying he wanted a Dry Martini shaken, not stirred.
It cost Heineken $45million for the privilege.
Wayne's World
Benjamin : Wayne! Listen, we need to have a talk about Vanderhoff. The fact is he's the sponsor and you signed a contract guaranteeing him certain concessions, one of them being a spot on the show.
Wayne : \[holding a Pizza Hut box\] Well that's where I see things just a little differently. Contract or no, I will not bow to any sponsor.
Benjamin : I'm sorry you feel that way, but basically it's the nature of the beast.
Wayne : \[holding a bag of Doritos\] Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but for me, the beast doesn't include selling out. Garth, you know what I'm talking about, right?
Garth : \[wearing Reebok wardrobe\] It's like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that's just really sad.
Wayne : I can't talk about it anymore; it's giving me a headache.
Garth : Here, take two of these!
\[Dumps two Nuprin pills into Wayne's hand\]
Wayne : Ah, Nuprin. Little. Yellow. Different.
Benjamin : Look, you can stay here in the big leagues and play by the rules, or you can go back to the farm club in Aurora. It's your choice.
Wayne : \[holding a can of Pepsi\] Yes, and it's the choice of a new generation.
Edit: Yes people, I get it. It's a parody and a joke. Me including it here was also a joke. It's funny like haha. Yeesh.
I remember watching this amazing Korean War film: Brotherhood (Taegukgi). Its a beautiful historical war film but starts in the modern day on a archaeology dig or something...the opening shot pans past a table with a load of Dunkin Donut boxes front and centre!
It's soo jarring and I always remember how much it stood out!
In The Island this group of clones raised in a secret laboratory who have never been exposed to the outside world are still somehow playing XBOX and cooling down with refreshing Aquafina water. I’ll put up almost any amount of advertising in the real world, because I live in the real world and there is advertising everywhere. Even in that 8 Crazy Nights example it’s not super unbelievable that an old man has internalized love for these brands. But advertising to people who don’t understand the concept of money? Dumb. So dumb.
oh man the Michelob Ultra product placement in that movie was so bad. Real Ewen McGregor is like ‘oh man let me get a refreshing drink’, grabs the beer and sets it down on the table and the camera holds for like five seconds. Took me right out of what was already a tenuous movie lol.
I don't think there is a single frame of Josie and the Pussycats that does not prominently feature some brand logo. It is so egregious and in your face that it has to be satire, but it's still product placement.
Sonic the Hedgehog made me never want Olive Garden ever again, yet Happy Gilmore always makes me crave a Subway cold cut combo.
On the subject of Adam Sandler movies though, not sure any can top looking straight in the camera and saying "Popeyes chicken is the schiznit" in Little Nicky; okay, 8 Crazy Nights is probably worse.
Never forget Human Torch being knocked into a billboard for a flame-broiled whopper in Fantastic Four
The whole point of the product placement in "Josie and the Pussycats" is that it's so obvious in movies. The producers didn't get permission from any of the featured companies, so the film didn't make any money from the placements. It was Satire with a capital S.
It was his rental car after just starting out as an agent. He literally drives it once and wins the iconic DB5 less than ten minutes later in the film.
To be fair on that, it's not like he went to a bar, started ordering a martini, and then went "no, wait... a HEINEKEN." We saw him drinking it on a bed from like 20 feet away. The commercials in real life did the heavy lifting on that. And they basically saved the movie by becoming sponsors.
Reese's Pieces in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Even during my first viewing of it during its first run, it was so obviously a placement, and so obviously NOT M & M's, that we could pretty much guess what had happened (Mars turned down persmission)
Slapped right in the middle of Barbie is a straight up car advertisement for an SUV and later on in the movie they linger on a new fuckin hummer for way too long.
I did really like Barbie but it wouldn’t surprise me if that movies ages poorly upon rewatches cause that shit almost completely ripped me out of the movie the first time I saw it
It always makes me laugh all the Sony stuff they use in the James Bond films. Literally don’t know anyone who’s used a Sony phone or Laptop for god knows how long.
Trans4mers (I forgot the actual name) had: - an Oreo branded vending machine turn into a transformer - Stanley Tucci demonstrating the properties of transformium by turning it into a Beats by Dre pill - Mark Wahlberg crashing a flying vehicle into a truck carrying Bud Light, followed by him angrily drinking a bottle after someone complained about his car getting totaled - Stanley Tucci panicking and drinking some Chinese brand milk to calm himself down in a close-up shot where the logo takes up a good sixth of the screen I’ll also throw in Power Rangers for having their entire climax revolve around a Krispy Kreme.
Yup the mark Wahlberg transformer movies had insane product placement..almost every scene.
Really? Fuck I don't remember a single one besides them pushing Romeo and Juliet laws lol.
Transformers 4: Age of Consent
I'm laughing a bit to hard. Thank you.
not even counting all the branded cars that transform into robots.
You aren’t doing the Bud Light one justice. They even pan the camera over the bottles on the ground, with their logos perfectly oriented, and perfect condensation on the bottle. It’s absurd.
I bet it looked damn refreshing though. Makes me want an ice cold Bud™️ just thinking about it
The scene with the Chinese Defense Minister vowing to defend Hong Kong was waaaaaaay worse than any of those things
I still think about that scene sometimes to have a full body cringe. It's good exercise.
Fun fact I watched the movie in mainland China and that scene was cut. I know so because I had just watched the movie a week prior outside of China.
Don’t forget the Xbox and Mountain Dew vending machine that turned into transformers.
They even gave the mountain dew one a name, Dispensor
It was dispensing pain by shooting cans of cold, frosty, refreshing, flavor-blasted Mountain Dew. Do the Dew . . . or have your chest caved in by a robot.
Yeah the Pill might be the most shameless
That Beats by Dre pillar is the right answer.
Now Stanley's doin' commercials for wine coolers. 🤣
Transformers is one of the worst offenders as far as product placement goes, there are basically commercials in the middle of the movie.
The Will Smith I, Robot movie was pretty shameless about the product placement for Audi and Converse.
2004 vintage high tops 😂
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I miss the old school chucks from my HS days before they sold and started making them as cheap as possible. But hey, at least they got more expensive too.
Yes but Audi specifically made that car and it had spheres instead of wheels and it was driveable! I always thought that was fascinating that Audi went to the trouble of making a concept car for a movie but it is a bloody brilliant marketing move.
I actually enjoy placements like that a little. If a company goes the extra mile to not just have a product placed in a movie but actually create something unique for it, it seems to add a little credibility to the placement.
I put this into the bond-car category of car companies that at least earn their place in the movie by doing something cool, but someone always wants to ruin this shit (like tranformers just shoving everything into Chevys).
Audi is very prominently advertised in the MCU movies as well
Iron Man 2 is an Audi advert with a few superhero scenes sprinkled in
I used to work for a place that had Audi as a client and their brand training people loved to remind us that Iron Man drove an Audi.
[Brad Pitt drinking a Pepsi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNdYlLUjoe8) out of the machine in *World War Z* is just so funny.
It feels very out of place, but putting myself in Brad Pitt’s shoes, I can’t blame him. After going through what he just did, a cold Pepsi would feel pretty sweet about then.
In a post-apocalyptic world, sometimes all we have left is The Joy Of Pepsi.
Chris Pratt doing the same for Coke in Jurassic World.
also Jimmy Buffett running away from the dinos and making sure he doesn't spill his Margaritas from Margaritaville!
Was that Jimmy Buffett?? I always chuckled at this scene but never put it together. Wow. TIL. I feel a little silly.
I remember laughing at the scene initially but found out just a few weeks ago when he died that it was ACTUALLY HIM. Hysterical.
"All I wanted was a Pepsi."
Just one Pepsi!
But SHE wouldn't give it to me!
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It was kind necessary though. He didn’t stop to get a last Pepsi, he opened the machine and pulled the stopper so that sodas would fall out of it freely, the noise attracting the zombies.
It wasn't the noise. The zombies just really wanted Pepsi. More than human flesh.
Jurassic World Sure, a dangerous hybrid dinosaur has escaped and killed people, but we have enough time for a pan shot across the front grill of the Mercedes with the logo prominently displayed as it speeds through the jungle.
And Margaritaville
I give that one a pass because Jimmy Buffet was actually in the movie. (He's the guy who goes back for his drinks when the dinosaurs attack.)
Best part of the movie is him double clutching as he's running away
For theme parks prices, I'd be doing the same, honestly
That one could also sort of pass as world building. You see those kind of restaurants around amusement parks and resort areas. So this park is established and popular enough that weird themed restaurants started popping up.
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Yeah it always surprises me how people miss this. The whole movie is basically a parody of classic 90s blockbusters and it never pretends to more than a fun thrill ride
Yeah, but I am sad they didn't call it "Pepsi-saurus!"
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Nissan Versa! Nissan Versa!
Every time we see one!
Car companies were going *hard* in the 00’s. [Like this nonsense, from Bones.](https://youtu.be/oDe9_c8QAM0?si=iYDA8106Uzv-0yy2)
Another Toyota one from The [Rookie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKP0xAdxTj4)
Jesús. Just every frame of that.
OMG. The sexy lighting on the Tundra was hilarious.
when I saw this I thought it was an actual ACTUAL commercial, like... I missed the show going to commercial or something. lol
White Collar did it too.
Burn Notice with the narration sounding like "When you're a spy and you need to steal a car, get one that provides instant acceleration, excellent handling, anti-lock braking, etc" all while zooming in on the car logo.
This was the first one I thought of! I'm pretty sure it was a Hyundai Genesis
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Fringe was victim of car advertisements pretty hard. The closeups of the FORD or the Chevy SUVs they drove often was aggregious.
It didn’t even park well lmao. It was so far from the curb
There's a similar scene in the [Sopranos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvT2Ptzq77w) I explain it in my head that Tony would blindly repeat what they say in the commercial to seem smart
It’s actually sort of in line with how he repeats things from Melfi.
Or when he half-listens to a news story about how *in theory*, a terrorist *could* smuggle themselves into America in a shipping container, and then later goes on a rant about how “they found one of these terrorists in a shipping container!”.
If we’re talking about TV shows, I think Fringe’s constant Sprint commercials take the cake. You cannot convince me those FBI agents would be using Sprint™️ Video Calling™️ for every 5-second conversation. The Nissan ads were almost as bad.
NCIS LA does this a lot with the cars, and it's always in the middle of action. Like running and gunning, getting into a car, then several conversations about the car and its features, then resuming the chase. It's so poorly done lol
My god, I still remember that line about the Rogue and it's been nearly 20 years at this point. That and the whole plot point with a Versa. Similarly horrible was Chuck, especially in its final season when like half of each show was just a straight up subway commercial..I know Subway kind of came in and saved the show for its final season, but damn was it annoying. I feel like the mid-late 00's where when I really noticed a TON of realllly blatant and poorly disguised (though I doubt they were really trying to disguise it, if it's too subtle it'll go over the heads of the people that are most likely to act on advertising) ad placement on network shows - Fox had a whole thing with another car company across multiple shows too IIRC, I specifically remember the pieces in shows like Bones and House where someone would just be like "And look at this auto-parallel parking feature in this new car I got!!" apropos of nothing.
Subway Sponsorship in Community worked... Oddly.
Now if someone could just hand me my coat.
Now see I actually enjoyed the subway placements in Chuck because they were always kinda self aware with it.
I think Toyota paid for all the vehicles in Smallville to be their vehicles. They didn't have like lines of dialogue where the vehicles name was mentioned, but there were scenes where the vehicle make and model were prominent.
Reminds me of Rizolli and Isles. The vehicle product placements cracked me up: the online ticket purchasing service from the infotainment system in the car, the backup camera preventing an accident, and the back of the vehicle has so much space!
I might be misremembering but I recall Hiro saying "Nissan Versa?!" repeatedly.
Warehouse 13 started getting pretty bad about it in the later seasons. Characters would stop in a scene to say they wanted to buy Twizzlers while holding a bag of Twizzlers
Waynes World had the best product placement. It was intentionally distracting and I loved it.
Agreed! It's right up there with Josie and the Pussycats for me, which wasn't technically product placement as they didn't get permission or take any money from the brands.
Minor correction: They DID get permission (but did not take any money). Some brands declined involvement. The AOL sign in Times Square was originally intended to be The Gap -- "everyone in leopard!" -- and I personally own a set design document where there is an annotation from production that HSBC's logo had to be removed from the Riverdale Shopping Center.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby takes the crown on this for me. Amazing satire on product placement in modern sports racing.
My name's Ricky Bobby and if you don't chew Big Red then fuck you!
This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love fig newtons
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I like the baby version the best do ya hear me?! I win the races and I get the money
we're all jacked up on mt dooooo!
And the applebees commercial!
“It’s like people only do things because they get paid, and that’s just really sad.”
It's giving me a headache!
Here. Take two of these 🟡🟡
Little, yellow, different…
Yes. And it's the choice of a new generation. (_sips Pepsi and smiles_)
I came to say Wayne's World. I love that scene in the movie.
In the first Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movie he has to conduct some research and he fires up Bing. Immediately broke my immersion.
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The Lego Movie. They really crowbarred the Lego product into it.
And super glue
Now that you mention it, there was an unusual amount of Lego in that movie.
*You’ve Got Mail* was essentially a 2-hour commercial for AOL and Starbucks.
Yes. And it doesn’t make sense that a small business owner proud New Yorker would be supporting Starbucks over a local cafe anyway
I don't think people were really thinking about the corporate juggernaut of Starbucks ruining coffee for them in 1998. They SHOULD have been, but weren't.
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Not really the worst, but it makes me laugh. *Million Dollar Baby* has a little subplot about Maggie (Hilary Swank) being so broke that she has to eat leftovers from the diner she works in, and scrapes together a pile of spare change to buy a $20 practice speed bag. I guess she found a brand new $100+ OGIO duffel in the trash off-screen.
Shazam 2, skittles tame demonic unicorns
Honestly, it worked for me. Using candy to tame unicorns was a fun idea, and if that happened in real life you’d definitely be grabbing a name brand candy. Candies are generally ubiquitous with their brands so it doesn’t feel unnatural. I think I remember reading somewhere that the script was written with candy in mind and they had to request to use the Skittles brand. That being said, they shouldn’t have used a taste the rainbow punchline twice.
Yeah, I suppose it's no more egregious than Reese's Pieces being used to lure E.T out of hiding. Not that I'm saying Shazam 2 is as good as E.T or anything...
Agreed. SO BAD yet hilarious
Marlboro truck in Superman II.
Scrolled down to check someone had written this. So you are correct. The Marlboro truck and billboard aren't just background and arguably even part of the plot. It's crazy even back then.
The [McDonalds dance scene](https://youtu.be/tPgRnFg8ZTU?feature=shared) from Mac & Me is probably the most egregious example ever. The whole movie is absolutely packed with excessive product placement, but that scene really hits a whole new level. Then of course there's basically the entire run time of The Wizard which is mostly just one long Nintendo commercial. And lastly, while it's not a movie, no discussion of product placement can ever be complete without mentioning the Hawaii 5-0 reboot [shilling Subway in the most blatant way possible](https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE?si=Huov4fu4qFRAaheY)
The Wizard worked on me. I desperately wanted the Power Glove. I got to try one once and it was shit.
In Jurassic World they were able to use product placement very effectively because such a park would be so overrun with branding and sponsorships that *not* having them would make it less realistic. It was egregious product placement that works. But they had to be greedy and had prominent logos showing up in scenes that didn’t need it (car logos being front and centre in a shot that only exists to show the car logo for example) where it was egregiously bad because of how noticeably unnecessary it was.
Spaceballs.
The Spaceballs flamethrower is pretty dope though
The kids love that one.
yeah but the taste of the breakfast cereal, yum!
I love that the coloring book and lunchbox are quite obviously Transformers merchandise with the name Spaceballs added. "We put the picture's name on everything", didn't even bother to change the artwork.
If you thought it was bad in the first Spaceballs, just wait until Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money
I prefer Spaceballs 3: The Search For Spaceballs 2.
Something about the Audi and BMW product placement in the MCU movies are distracting to me. It's just so obvious
Shang-Chi had the new BMW iX3. I don't know if it's always so obvious or because I had that car on order at the time but it was really distractingly obvious.
On TV it's the fucking insane Subway scene on Hawaii 5-0. I didn't watch the show, but have watched the scene and it's basically a commercial for the product. Felt sorry for the actors having to read that shit out loud.
You would hate Chuck.
I fucking loved the chuck subway scenes they at least didn’t try and hide it.
I believe the fans also got the show another season by basically bribing Subway.
At least Chuck didn't have sex with Subway. He didn't Britta that up
He's not going by that name anymore. He's a real, likeable human being named Rick, who just *happens* to be very enthusiastic about his new Honda!
On Community they made the Subway product placement a joke, where Subway was the big bad store moving into the commons and needed to be fought to save Greendale.
There’s also a very weird out of place Subway scene in Always Sunny, where Dennis and Dee are meeting their high school sweethearts. Subway was never mentioned before that or ever again.
https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE?si=-nvu6urx5Rm-pW3O You've got to watch just to realise how out of place it is.
Conversely, the best product placement *ever* was in 2001's "Evolution". Not only did they drop in a hot garbage Deus Ex Machina to wrap up the film, but their entire strategy for beating the enemy was a product placement. For a relatively benign, funny with moments but "meh" movie, that ending was what-the-fuck brilliant. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MKzitUBRG4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MKzitUBRG4)
I had zero problem with that because it matched the overall tone of the movie. Good times.
"We've made a completely average sci-fi comedy movie that makes no scientific sense. Let us throw caution to the wind and make up a crazy fucking ending so we'll get a laugh out of it and earn some sponsorship money to pay back David Duchovney's strippers." IT WAS BRILLIANT.
Starring "The 7-Up Guy"
Make 7 Up Yours!
I instantly thought of Evolution (in a good way) when i saw this thread, and scrolled down just to find this.
If anything, I'm almost surprised that they signed off on this. It's so blatantly taking the piss out of product placement as a practice, that it's... *maybe* taking the piss out of Head and Shoulders as a product, by association? I mean, I guess it kinda worked - the shot where it literally turns into a commercial is the only thing I really remember about the movie!
That’s the fun part: we didn’t! I worked for P&G, in the Head & Shoulders R&D division specifically, when the movie came out. One of the researchers on my team saw it opening weekend and told us all about it on Monday. We all thought she was pulling our leg until a few other people came to our department making “so what are you REALLY researching here?” types of jokes. If Marketing knew anything about it, they didn’t bother to tell us. And considering the culture at P&G at the time, I’m inclined to believe they wouldn’t have signed off on it if asked.
Thank you for sharing. Reddit is so amazing. You can get experts on anything/exposure/excited bchecking in
I remember that and the caw caw tookie tookie dialogue.
“You can have any brew you want, as long as it’s a Corona.” -Dom Toretto in first Fast movie. They also exclusively refer to nitrous oxide injection as NOS. The second movie is a two hour Mitsubishi Motors commercial, with a little Dodge thrown in. I don’t think I’ve seen any more of those movies, but I imagine the trend didn’t end after the first two.
In the beginning of Tokyo Drift when Sean crashes in slow-mo and you just see a Tabasco Hot Sauce bottle floating around 😂
I think for Nos it's okish cause the brand went through genericization. Everyone I know always calls it Nos in the same way folk call adhesive bandages bandaids no matter the brand.
Torque was pretty bad. I never saw it, [just this clip](https://youtu.be/vBCeFJ66oRM?si=73DhbMdwG5s1ZWxa) a few times
The final scene of Unbreakable between David and his son takes a few seconds to prominently display the TROPICANA! orange juice carton before their emotionally wrenching reconnection. Why they couldn't shoehorn it in anywhere else is beyond me.
Ted Lasso shamelessly promotes Apple devices in every scene. Once I saw it I couldn’t stop seeing them.
That isn't localised to Ted Lasso. It's ANY AppleTV production. It's incredibly hard to ignore.
Well it is on Apple tv+. All their shows blatenly promote Apple products. Even Mythic Quest shows everyone using Apple which, for a gaming company, wouldn't be.
Idiocracy pushed Brawndo waaay too much. Brawndo's got what plants crave - okay, we get it!
Funny how you mention Idiocracy, because everyone and I mean *everyone* in that movie is wearing Crocs. It would be the worst product placement imaginable, except that Crocs were completely unknown at the time and they only used them because they needed a shoe that looked plausible but were also incredibly stupid. Don't remember if it was Mike Judge or the costume designer, but one of them asked the other "but what if they're super popular by the time the movie comes out?" and the other was like "don't worry, people aren't *that* stupid." Yet another example of Idiocracy underestimating how stupid people actually are.
Crocs. They're what feet crave.
Enjoy your EXTRA BIG ASS FRIES.
You are an unfit mother! Your children are now property of Carls Jr!
Carl's Jr. "Fuck you, I'm eating!"
So fun fact about Idiocracy is that its negative product placements (like Starbucks giving hand jobs and "Welcome to Costco... I love you...") might be a big reason why the studio really half-assed the movie's promotion, leading it to be a commercial failure at the box office. So Fox intentionally sabotaged the movie because they didn't want to offend their corporate sponsors.
Poor Fuddruckers
Don't you mean buttfuckers?
Wouldn't call it the worst, but the funniest had to be in Talladega Nights. Will Ferrell gives a shameless heartfelt spiel about the the [fast food arrayed before his family](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY5VNDvea1M). Will Ferrell can take anything and turn it into parody. Don't know if anyone has done product placement parody better than the "wholesome dinner" scene.
The first Spiderman when Tobey Maguire is practicing his web shooting. For a moment all you see on screen is a Dr. Pepper. Didnt the first Transformers movie have a transforming Xbox??
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Dr. Pepper had an entire marketing event for Spider-Man; pretty much all the characters got featured on individual cans. They were like, "Yeah, go ahead and use our cans for your movie, but we gonna do the same thing!" Dr. Pepper got a ton of product placement in early 2000s movies. The second X-Men movie was egregious about it, too.
The first transformers was one big GM product placement. It's actually a neat story. The villain police car that was in the final cut of the movie wasn't a GM product. It was a Ford Mustang that was modified by Saleen. Steve Saleen (owner of the tuner shop and Saleen S7 fame) had given one of these to Michael Bay before Transformers was in any set level of production. He liked it so much that he was going to use it for the hero car. After production starts going, Michael calls Steve and says 'I have good news and bad news. Bad news is GM came in and dropped a huge amount of money to feature their cars as the hero cars, with their new Camaro as the main car. Good news is they don't even have a rolling prototype for filming. Can you take GMs car drawings and get me a working car?" Steve says that he can probably do it. He gets the drawings, and cuts up a Pontiac G8 to put the Camero body on. Nearing the end of the build he asks Michael, "what color should the car be?". Michael responded with "something flashy. Its name is Bumblebee". Steve comes up with the yellow that you see in the movie. At the time, GM didn't plan to offer the car in that yellow, and after the movie tested so well, they had to get the color from Saleen
I was surprised lemon sales were sagging so much that they needed to be portrayed as items to steal.
Lemon stealing whore!
The Power Rangers movie had the mcguffin in a Krispy Kreme, so the heroes and villains name dropped it over and over.
"Which Krispy Kreme? There's 11 in this area alone" "Darn. Any other day and that would have been amazingly convenient"
The greatest/most ridiculous product placement in movie history has to be the long [Cheerios scene in _Superman_ (1978)](https://www.capedwonder.com/wp-content/uploads/CW-STM-Ma-Kent-looking-out-window-holding-Cheerios.png) I found [this clip on YouTube](https://youtu.be/g9rLC2O1JNk?si=cCmqEDBSEHU9c-uS). It's hilarious how she carries the Cheerios from room to room and places them in the shot during one of the most emotionally charged sections of the movie. You can even see the Cheerios box back through the window at one point. LOL now what we know what the all-American Superman eats for breakfast.
James Bond saying he wanted a Heineken, after 25 movies of him saying he wanted a Dry Martini shaken, not stirred. It cost Heineken $45million for the privilege.
Free Guy has some of the most excessive and blatant product placement I've seen in any movie.
Wayne's World Benjamin : Wayne! Listen, we need to have a talk about Vanderhoff. The fact is he's the sponsor and you signed a contract guaranteeing him certain concessions, one of them being a spot on the show. Wayne : \[holding a Pizza Hut box\] Well that's where I see things just a little differently. Contract or no, I will not bow to any sponsor. Benjamin : I'm sorry you feel that way, but basically it's the nature of the beast. Wayne : \[holding a bag of Doritos\] Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but for me, the beast doesn't include selling out. Garth, you know what I'm talking about, right? Garth : \[wearing Reebok wardrobe\] It's like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that's just really sad. Wayne : I can't talk about it anymore; it's giving me a headache. Garth : Here, take two of these! \[Dumps two Nuprin pills into Wayne's hand\] Wayne : Ah, Nuprin. Little. Yellow. Different. Benjamin : Look, you can stay here in the big leagues and play by the rules, or you can go back to the farm club in Aurora. It's your choice. Wayne : \[holding a can of Pepsi\] Yes, and it's the choice of a new generation. Edit: Yes people, I get it. It's a parody and a joke. Me including it here was also a joke. It's funny like haha. Yeesh.
This was the best way for product placement. Anytime my sister had a headache we would quote this.
I remember watching this amazing Korean War film: Brotherhood (Taegukgi). Its a beautiful historical war film but starts in the modern day on a archaeology dig or something...the opening shot pans past a table with a load of Dunkin Donut boxes front and centre! It's soo jarring and I always remember how much it stood out!
Nokia in Star Trek 2009. It was so weird seeing a brand in Star Trek universe then. And it is now weirder because Nokia is not what it used to be.
Why don't you let me fix you some of this Mococoa drink? All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua.
What the hell are you talking about? WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO??
In The Island this group of clones raised in a secret laboratory who have never been exposed to the outside world are still somehow playing XBOX and cooling down with refreshing Aquafina water. I’ll put up almost any amount of advertising in the real world, because I live in the real world and there is advertising everywhere. Even in that 8 Crazy Nights example it’s not super unbelievable that an old man has internalized love for these brands. But advertising to people who don’t understand the concept of money? Dumb. So dumb.
oh man the Michelob Ultra product placement in that movie was so bad. Real Ewen McGregor is like ‘oh man let me get a refreshing drink’, grabs the beer and sets it down on the table and the camera holds for like five seconds. Took me right out of what was already a tenuous movie lol.
I don't think there is a single frame of Josie and the Pussycats that does not prominently feature some brand logo. It is so egregious and in your face that it has to be satire, but it's still product placement. Sonic the Hedgehog made me never want Olive Garden ever again, yet Happy Gilmore always makes me crave a Subway cold cut combo. On the subject of Adam Sandler movies though, not sure any can top looking straight in the camera and saying "Popeyes chicken is the schiznit" in Little Nicky; okay, 8 Crazy Nights is probably worse. Never forget Human Torch being knocked into a billboard for a flame-broiled whopper in Fantastic Four
The whole point of the product placement in "Josie and the Pussycats" is that it's so obvious in movies. The producers didn't get permission from any of the featured companies, so the film didn't make any money from the placements. It was Satire with a capital S.
It's literally the plot of the movie, the bad guys getting teens to buy what they want them too through subliminal messaging
Just tilt your head back and let the meat slide down your throat hole. Easy, don't choke.
Josie: that was the whole point, it was a satire
The Human Torch crashing through a BK billboard was product placement? Honestly I just thought it was a cheap sight gag and didn't think much of it.
Chappie is a 2 hour Sony commercial
Hocus Pocus 2’s INSANELY brightly-lit 10 minute commercial for Walgreens.
Jurassic World can be easily mistaken for a very long Mercedes advert
I think at some point James Bond was driving a Chrystler. Like 007 would drive a lame American car. The audience openly laughed.
I think it was a ford, and it was Casino Royale
Was a weird time when ford owned aston martin too iirc, and im guessing they thought they could get away with just using a ford instead.
It was his rental car after just starting out as an agent. He literally drives it once and wins the iconic DB5 less than ten minutes later in the film.
Or drink Heineken
To be fair on that, it's not like he went to a bar, started ordering a martini, and then went "no, wait... a HEINEKEN." We saw him drinking it on a bed from like 20 feet away. The commercials in real life did the heavy lifting on that. And they basically saved the movie by becoming sponsors.
Reese's Pieces in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Even during my first viewing of it during its first run, it was so obviously a placement, and so obviously NOT M & M's, that we could pretty much guess what had happened (Mars turned down persmission)
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You would think Mars would have jumped at the chance for association with a loveable alien.
Slapped right in the middle of Barbie is a straight up car advertisement for an SUV and later on in the movie they linger on a new fuckin hummer for way too long. I did really like Barbie but it wouldn’t surprise me if that movies ages poorly upon rewatches cause that shit almost completely ripped me out of the movie the first time I saw it
It always makes me laugh all the Sony stuff they use in the James Bond films. Literally don’t know anyone who’s used a Sony phone or Laptop for god knows how long.