Poll: Are you annoyed by Product Placement in Movies/TV?

[babinro]

Fairly straightforward question here. I've notice that a lot of the internet personalities I follow like to reference or mock the existence of product placement whenever it makes an appearance in TV shows or Movies they review.

Man of Steel seems to be one particular standout example of product placement that seems to have genuinely hurt the experience for some people.

My stance on issue has always been that I'm fine with it. In most cases I don't take notice unless the characters start talking about how much they love (insert product placement) or if run into a situation where there's a parking lot scene where all the cars are Toyota's. In other words it really has to stand out or feel out of place for me to even begin to care.

If you have a movie where 3 scenes happened to have a pepsi can sitting in the background then I'm not going to have negative impact on my experience. If someone is on a computer or using a cell phone and I can see the brand I'm okay with it because that's exactly the kind of thing I expect to see in reality.

There are even times when product placement can ENHANCE the experience since opening a fridge just to show generic coloured beverages without labels will take you out of the immersion just as easily as 'bad' product placement mentioned above does.

 

[Saulkar]

It only bothers me if it is brought to the forefront and has absolutely no place in the story or scene whatsoever. Furthermore it seems impossible to a character drinking a beverage to not make it look like a fragging commercial. No class or tactfulness whatsoever.

Spoiler: I just want to smack him with a rubber duck for that

 

[Scarim Coral]

Most of the time no.

Yes I saw that Canon scene in Man of Steel but it ddn't bother me too much. Heck one of my favourite anime is Tiger and Bunny which is about superheroes but they all have REAL product sponsor on their clothing (like one of them got Amazon prinsted on his body).

Snip

Yeah, that one of the examples when product placement did bother me!

 

[Dalisclock]

Most of the time no, unless it's blatant and Intrusive. I've actually had my immersion broken by something that presumably supposed to be the real world, and everything is weird off-brand or even generic products(ie a can of soda that just says "Soda").

Edit: Intrusive, not instructive.

 

[sanquin]

I don't even notice like 90% of the product placement really. Only the really obvious ones. And even then I just go "well, that was unneeded..." and enjoy the rest of the movie/series/whatever.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

It was just really Man of Steel for me. The way that in some scenes company logos were more vibrant than the namesake of the movie, and were even somehow obscured by smoke (looking at you, iHop and Sears) irked me so much.

There were a few others, like Orange Crush (wtf is Orange Crush?) in Michael Bay's TMNT and Bing (why Bing?) in Amazing Spider-mans 1 and 2.

But usually I don't notice it, such as the predominance of Chevy vehicles in Marvel movies.

 

[McElroy]

Usually no, but I did roll my eyes a few times during Chrysler Catalog 2014 With Steve Rogers.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

This is one of those things about movies that i have no idea why people complain about?

I mean especially in movies that takes place in the real world I mean Seinfeld mentions products like Pepsi and Juinor Mint and no one bats an eye?

And besides such scenes with Product placement only lasts few seconds.

 

[TrulyBritish]

Most of the time I don't notice product placement. I think the only time I've been bothered by it is when it's shoved straight in your face, there's some Sandler film where it literally feels like the movie stops to show you an advert for a cruise. Then there's the scene in 8 Crazy Nights where shopping mall mascots come to life in a musical number, although I don't think Sandler was paid for that.
Oddly enough I'm far more annoyed by it being the other way round. Seeing adverts on TV which contain references to current films. Yes, I'm looking at you Sky Fibre (I liked Inside Out but hated those ads) and you Turkish Airlines (For their Dawn of Justice promotion).

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

It can be annoying when you watch something and you start thinking wait a minute... every car in this scene is a dodge/ford/chevrolet/volkswagen/whatever. Other than that, I don't even notice it.

 

[Zhukov]

I don't even notice it. Goes right over my head. Even if it's really blatant.

Remember that I, Robot film? The one in which the main character, played by Will Smith, orders a pair of "vintage" Converse All Star sneakers? ("Vintage" because the film is set in the future.) Then has a chase sequence with multiple shots of said shoes? Then has other characters complement Will Smith on his vintage footwear on two different occasions?

Yeah, well, I didn't even notice that until someone pointed it out to me.

 

[Mr. Matt]

It depends how it's done. The world we live in is resplendent with corporate logos, and it would be unrealistic for nothing in a movie to have some branding on it. But it can be done well, or badly. Consider two scenarios:

Scenario A: A handsome man enters. He sees somebody bleeding out on the floor, and pulls out his phone to ring for help. He quickly puts the phone up to his ear to make the call. As he does so, the viewer notices that it happens to have an Apple logo on the back, but the camera doesn't focus on it particularly while the call is made.
Conclusion: This is fine. If anything, it's more jarring when people have brandless products, as that's not realistic.

***

Scenario B: A handsome man enters. He sees somebody bleeding out on the floor, and pulls out his phone to ring for help. Before making the call, he holds the phone with the tips of his fingers and the camera zooms right in on it, catching every minor detail, and holds that view for ten seconds.

Conclusion: Nope. This isn't how people use phones in emergencies, nor did the close-up help the viewer - we know what phones look like. This type of product placement is just jarring.

 

[CaitSeith]

Not really. But I can see why it annoys other people.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

This is one of those things about movies that i have no idea why people complain about?

I mean especially in movies that takes place in the real world I mean Seinfeld mentions products like Pepsi and Juinor Mint and no one bats an eye?

And besides such scenes with Product placement only lasts few seconds.

I'm in the same boat. It doesn't even occur to me that something is product placement. Like if there's a scene in New York's Time Square and there's the big Apple store in the background, to me that's not really product placement. Because there really is a big Apple store in Time Square. I mean what do people expect? Edit that out?

Baffles me.

 

[Nazulu]

No, it really hasn't. It was only when I started watching critics on Youtube that I found it irritated some people a lot.

I look out for them for fun now, and even then I don't care. However, even though I didn't see Man Of Steel, I can see how those ads would be annoying. They're brought out with brighter colours when it's usually bleak. That's not blending in.

 

[COMaestro]

Usually I don't notice them, but occasionally you'll find a shot that is obviously lingering on some product for just a little too long. It's those that might make me roll my eyes and wish they'd just hurry up and continue with the movie.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

It depends. If it's in the background, or used in a funny way that doesn't jar the end user, then I'm fine with it. If it's obvious placement, it just sucks.

Here's two examples from I Robot:

Good: Hero opens the door and is practically assaulted by a loud "GOOD MORNING YET ANOTHER ON TIME DELVIERY BY FEDEX" robot before he just shoves the robot out of the way with a "Out of my face, can opener". This works because a) It helps show his personality and his hatred and distrust of robots, and b) it's a funny way to show just how much robots are being used in society.

bad: The goddamn shoes. Ok, fine, you see him lace up those shoes with the brand in plain view, not too bad. Then he puts them up on his momma's table and casually mentions the brand. Then later his superior tells him "nice shoes" as a sort of sarcastic goodbye. THEN he gets upset that his shoes got ruined in a massive car accident that nearly killed him.

TOO MUCH. STAHP IT.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I mostly don't care since I already know whether or not I like most of the products being advertised. I'm aware of these brands and don't really feel like I'm being SOLD anything. In fact I kinda feel like things happening on-screen are a bit more real when I see real-world brands in the background. Then there are scenes like those in Space Jam or Wayne's World. On the one hand, Wayne's World has a 2-minutes scene about selling out that shows off a bunch of brands that I thought was pretty damn funny. On the other, Space Jam just had Wayne Knight lean into a room and spout off several established brands which just wasn't all that funny despite it being essentially the same kind of joke.

When I wound up watching Man of Steel last week it did make Smallville seem like more of a real place when Superman flies Zod from Sears through a 7-11 and into an iHop. It should have been a Denny's though so somebody could have referred to the attack as a 'Grand Slam'. I don't see the product placement in Man of Steel as being a problem until we get to Metropolis which is a "real-world city" that doesn't have a single McDonald's. Someone above mentioned how the ads were more colorful than the movie itself and that's also a valid point...Man of Steel had a very odd mixture of white, grey, black and other really dull tones until you got to those logos.

 

[Fox12]

Anything that takes me out of the experience is bad.

You want to have an inconpicuous can of Pepsi in the background of a scene while the character's talk? That's fine, I guess. I probably won't even notice.

But if I just paid to see your stupid movie, then I don't want to see a commercial in the middle of it. In other words, if they work the product placement into the script, interrupting the story, then I'm done.

Spoiler

Gotta love those Hot Wheels

 

[Zontar]

Most of the time I don't. Seeing real world restaurants, products and brands makes things feel more authentic then a bunch of generic brand items or seeing every shot have a strategically placed hand or turned item to prevent the item's logo from being seen.

While some movies and shows do take it too far, most don't and do it well enough to not bother me. Hell Blade Runner was a big deal in this regard because having ads for Coke in a movie in a way that felt real was a new thing. Then again so was ramen being eaten by an American.