Product Placement
I was just watching the beginning of The Island. I haven’t watched it far enough to know if it’s good or not, but something struck me and forced me to jump up from my smoky daze and post something.
Why is it that companies pay for product placement in movies about dystopian futures? In The Island, everyone lives in these uber-sterile constructions, monitored down so far as even their urine ever time they urinate, and generally can’t show any emotion without a visit from the “police”. However, during their relaxing swims, they wear Speedos. When they need a drink of water, they drink Aquafina.
I just don’t understand that kind of product placement. Are they meaning to imply that their products are so good they will still be there when everything else has gone to absolute shit? That somehow, they will survive when the government even controls your emotions, because you will have no choice but to drink Aquafina? Doesn’t that give a bad impression to their brand name?
In the first 15 minutes of this movie, I’ve discovered the future is divided into at least 4 groups. The people at large, the “man”, Aquafina, and last but not least, Speedo. It just seems like maybe someone needs to review the plots before they pay for the product placement…because I’m never gonna look at a bottle of Aquafina the same again.
Update: So I started the movie again when I finished this post. The very next scene, we learn that the government gets to control what you eat for breakfast. So I assume they get to control what you drink to…like water. Aquafina, the official H20 of the dystopian future. Something makes me think that’s not what they were aiming for when they bought this placement.
So the film continues…and you find that instead of real life boxing, they have a sort of crazy virtual reality boxing, that is run on, the X-Box? WTF? This movie, while interesting so far, seems like a protest movie against the global domination of corporations and how bad that could be, while at the same time corporations have paid huge amounts of money to make sure their products get mentioned instead of competitors. It’s really weird. Scary kinda….actually forget kinda…it’s real scary.
January 20th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I tend to think that companys paying for product placements generally don’t care what the film is about. They’re going for consciousness saturation, in which you are bombarded with their logo so much that when you think of the product, you naturally think of the brand. Much like how Xerox has become a verb within modern English, and how Starbuck’s is swiftly replacing the word “coffee.” Soon, instead of stopping for a drink of water, we’re going to want to stop for a drink of Aquafina. You’re right, it’s definitely freaky, and a surefire way for me to avoid buying their products.
I’ve never understood the concept of buying bottled water to begin with though…