When did films become glorified commercials?

[Fox12]

So, I went to the theater today to go see Thor with my friend, and while I was there I saw commercials for LIFE magazine the movie, LEGO the movie, and, I kid you not, Coca-Cola polar bears the movie.

This is following in the footsteps of Battleship the movie, and the upcoming Monopoly movie. There will also, evidently, be a Hungry Hungry Hippos movie. Three films based on board games.

We've all joked about films being filled with product placement, but now it feels like films have actually BECOME product placement. Companies have now realized they can make us pay them for their advertisements. I've said before that I don't take films very seriously as an art form (take that Roger Ebert) but the level of corporate sell out has become embarrassing.

So, let me ask you Escapist, what are your feelings about films become glorified corporate commercials? Do you feel like films have gotten significantly worse in quality, or are you actually looking forward to these movies?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Eugh. We see enough shoehorned in advertising in features these days. I really hope the general public does us all a service and don't see these kinds of flicks en masse. The second these movies start making large profits the floodgate will be open and we'll see them pushing this concept to the absolute limit. I bet they're dreaming of a world that accepts such movies as normal.

That said, out of the list, I do want to see a LEGO movie provided its in glorious stop-motion. I'll probably end up seeing it with my nephew as we both adore playing with the stuff.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Eugh. We see enough shoehorned in advertising in features these days. I really hope the general public does us all a service and don't see these kinds of flicks en masse. The second these movies start making large profits the floodgate will be open and we'll see them pushing this concept to the absolute limit. I bet they're dreaming of a world that accepts such movies as normal.

That said, out of the list, I do want to see a LEGO movie provided its in glorious stop-motion. I'll probably end up seeing it with my nephew as we both adore playing with the stuff.

I'm pretty sure the LEGO movie is CGI, not stop motion, but it looks amazing all the same. They managed to get the movie rights to bring in the licensed sets, so it manages to do the kinds of things that makes being a kid with a pile of legos so awesome, which could normally never happen in a movie. Check out the teaser:


As for the rest, it's hardly all movies we're talking about, and if you'll notice these "commercials" are mostly for toy lines -- this is the same complaint people were making about cartoons in the 1980's, and for the same reason. Neither Hasbro nor Lego are any stranger to this sort of thing, and they're the two companies today doing it the hardest. Hasbro actually has their own TV channel that you may have heard of (hint: think cartoon ponies), and Lego is plastered all over Cartoon Network, having had at least one regular show at any given time for the last several years, and with random specials getting aired periodically. Then there's that Bionicle thing they had a decade ago...

Point is, toy companies have been doing this for a long time, the only recent change is that we're seeing more theatrical movies than we used to, although even then, both Transformers and G.I. Joe got a theatrical movie back in the day. And I'm not talking about the live action ones, I mean a pair of animated films that were released in the 80's.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I've said before that I don't take films very seriously as an art form (take that Roger Ebert) but the level of corporate sell out has become embarrassing.

Maybe if you tried watching something not-made in the past 15 years and not-American. Un chien andalou, Aguirre der Zorn gottes, Le locataire, Das himmel uber Berlin, Fitzcarraldo, Les 400 coups, La belle noiseause, La historia oficial, Viridiana, El dependiente, Stalker, Nostalgia, La Dolce Vita, Blow-Up, Nosferatu, Cabinet der Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse der Spieler, Metropolis, Frenzy, Morderstwo, Sedmykrasky, Peeping Tom, Shichinin no Samurai, Yojimbo, Dersu Usala, Rashomon, Onibaba, Haxan...

 

[IGetNoSlack]

So, I went to the theater today to go see Thor with my friend, and while I was there I saw commercials for LIFE magazine the movie, LEGO the movie, and, I kid you not, Coca-Cola polar bears the movie.

Ok, when you say "LIFE magazine the movie", I assume you mean "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", correct?

It's an adaptation of a 1939 James Thurber short story about a man who daydreams a lot.

That is no way a commercial for LIFE magazine. The fact that Mitty works for LIFE magazine is, in my opinion, irrelevant. LIFE could have been replaced with literally any other print publication on the planet and the story would've still made at least a bit of sense.

You're missing the point of the story. The point of the story isn't "Look how awesome LIFE is!". It's about a man trying to reconcile his escapist fantasies with the world he exists in. Framed against the backdrop of an attempt to get a photo for LIFE's final issue.

The LEGO movie, OK you have a point on that one.

 

[Fox12]

I've said before that I don't take films very seriously as an art form (take that Roger Ebert) but the level of corporate sell out has become embarrassing.

Maybe if you tried watching something not-made in the past 15 years and not-American. Un chien andalou, Aguirre der Zorn gottes, Le locataire, Das himmel uber Berlin, Fitzcarraldo, Les 400 coups, La belle noiseause, La historia oficial, Viridiana, El dependiente, Stalker, Nostalgia, La Dolce Vita, Blow-Up, Nosferatu, Cabinet der Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse der Spieler, Metropolis, Frenzy, Morderstwo, Sedmykrasky, Peeping Tom, Shichinin no Samurai, Yojimbo, Dersu Usala, Rashomon, Onibaba, Haxan...

I've seen classic and foreign films before, many of which are quite good. But the fact that you have to look at films from fifteen years ago to find anything even half way decent is the entire problem. My point is that there has been a disturbing trend towards increasingly shallow and artificial film making. When compared to literature cinema, so far, has been a pretty petty competitor in terms of real depth.

 

[Kolby Jack]

If a movie is entertaining, what does it matter that it features a corporate brand? If "The Great Taco Bell Caper" is the greatest movie ever filmed, should it still be lambasted just for featuring a major corporation? Besides, that lego movie looks awesome.

 

[EeveeElectro]

I thought Battleship was awful. Even Liam Neeson couldn't save it.

Surprised it's taken them this long to make a Lego movie, it's always been so popular.

I don't have much hope for the other movies and probably won't see them...

On a similar vein, the advert for Union J in the middle of Kick Ass made me hulk out D:<

 

[frizzlebyte]

So, I went to the theater today to go see Thor with my friend, and while I was there I saw commercials for LIFE magazine the movie, LEGO the movie, and, I kid you not, Coca-Cola polar bears the movie.

Ok, when you say "LIFE magazine the movie", I assume you mean "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", correct?

Haha, seriously? Yeah, that's not an ad for LIFE magazine.

It also doesn't help that LIFE hasn't been around since 2000.

And that Coca-Cola Polar Bear movie is seven minutes long, and on YouTube. It's not a feature film.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I thought this was going to be about films selling other films, like all the Marvel ones are doing, or how the new Hunger Games ended, things like that. But I was wrong, and it's about movies being made about things that aren't really movies. Haven't seen the LIFE Magazine one, unless you mean The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which I'm interested in seeing, but not sure what it is, except what I've read in the above commenter. I honestly thought the Polar Bears one was just a commercial, and didn't realize it was an actual preview. The Lego Movie should totally be a thing, however. I'm all there. I mean, it's not like I won't be buying Legos anyway.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Since the Wizard!

Spoiler

The most intensely inane hour and a half Nintendo commercial ever made!

Dang, beat me to it.

But yeah, the 80's were far worse for this sort of thing. The Saturday morning cartoons in those days were just as bad. They were basically half-hour long advertisements for toys, then during the breaks they'd show commercials for said toys. It was the ultimate wet dream for marketers everywhere. It got so bad that the feds had to step in, eventually culminating in the Children's Television Act of 1990 to dial things back a notch.

The 80's were overrated.

 

[Yopaz]

I've said before that I don't take films very seriously as an art form (take that Roger Ebert) but the level of corporate sell out has become embarrassing.

Maybe if you tried watching something not-made in the past 15 years and not-American. Un chien andalou, Aguirre der Zorn gottes, Le locataire, Das himmel uber Berlin, Fitzcarraldo, Les 400 coups, La belle noiseause, La historia oficial, Viridiana, El dependiente, Stalker, Nostalgia, La Dolce Vita, Blow-Up, Nosferatu, Cabinet der Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse der Spieler, Metropolis, Frenzy, Morderstwo, Sedmykrasky, Peeping Tom, Shichinin no Samurai, Yojimbo, Dersu Usala, Rashomon, Onibaba, Haxan...

Pretty sure this is the point he's trying to make. That movies being made now are hard to distinguish from ads.

OT: I'm not really surprised by the Lego one. They have already made quite a few Lego games and movies already.

 

[FalloutJack]

Zoop

Battleship is not a glorfied commercial, unless it's to enlist in the navy, which I doubt. It technically falls under the same column as Clue, a movie based upon a boardgame. (Personally, I wanna see a Shadow Hunters movie, but that's just me.) Anyway, it doesn't really count, no more than you think Pirates of the Caribean is going to make the Disney ride any more popular.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I've said before that I don't take films very seriously as an art form (take that Roger Ebert) but the level of corporate sell out has become embarrassing.

Maybe if you tried watching something not-made in the past 15 years and not-American. Un chien andalou, Aguirre der Zorn gottes, Le locataire, Das himmel uber Berlin, Fitzcarraldo, Les 400 coups, La belle noiseause, La historia oficial, Viridiana, El dependiente, Stalker, Nostalgia, La Dolce Vita, Blow-Up, Nosferatu, Cabinet der Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse der Spieler, Metropolis, Frenzy, Morderstwo, Sedmykrasky, Peeping Tom, Shichinin no Samurai, Yojimbo, Dersu Usala, Rashomon, Onibaba, Haxan...

I've seen classic and foreign films before, many of which are quite good. But the fact that you have to look at films from fifteen years ago to find anything even half way decent is the entire problem. My point is that there has been a disturbing trend towards increasingly shallow and artificial film making. When compared to literature cinema, so far, has been a pretty petty competitor in terms of real depth.

Well, you don't have to look for anything released 15 years ago, there are plenty of brilliant movies each year. Recently we had movies like Take Shelter, Of Gods And Men, Anti-Viral, The Skin i Live in, Place Beyond the Pines, Melancholia, We need to Talk About Kevin and a shitload of other stuff^^.

Heck, Godard even made an incomprehensible artistic statement with Film Socialisme recently,it was complete rubbish but still critically acclaimed.

 

[Kapol]

It's not really all that surprising. Popular IPs like those you mentioned are easy ways to lure people to the theater. As mentioned, the 'Life' movie was likely 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,' which isn't really an ad at all. It uses the way Life Magazine ended as a setting for what looks to be a pretty good movie to me. It's like saying that The Social Network is an ad for Facebook. It's tied to Facebook, yes. But it isn't about how good the service is, or how you should use it.

And it's been common for a while. It's just mostly geared towards children. There are a lot of movies, even good ones, that solely exist to sell toys. The same with television shows. That's not a new thing.

As for the mention of Battleship and Monopoly, those aren't ads for their respective games. They're using the names to try to advertise their movie. Meaning that the movie Battleship wasn't made for you to go buy the board game Battleship. Battleship was made because they thought they'd get more people to see it because Battleship was also the name of a board game. It isn't a 'chicken and the egg' problem.

I haven't seen the LEGO or Coke trailers, so I can't comment much on them. Though I will say that that's not new for Lego. Hell, there are a lot of games based on Lego already. Many of them pretty good. Think about that, there were bigger games based on the IP before a big movie. Plus, Lego actually works surprisingly well as an IP for other forms of media. They offer child-appropriate movies to have violent content and even some fun with the whole idea.

 

[Signa]

I'm not sure about ads and product placement (I heard that shit Adam Sandler movie about his twin sister had that in spades), but movies in general have been shit to me. I canceled my Netflix subscription back in '08 for financial reasons, and now that my job is giving me more money that I know what to do with, I still can't be bothered to re-up it.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Zoop

Battleship is not a glorfied commercial, unless it's to enlist in the navy, which I doubt. It technically falls under the same column as Clue, a movie based upon a boardgame. (Personally, I wanna see a Shadow Hunters movie, but that's just me.) Anyway, it doesn't really count, no more than you think Pirates of the Caribean is going to make the Disney ride any more popular.

Calling it Battleship implied, to me, that it would involve just the one Battleship; presumably just closeups of all the shiny military bits. Either that or an updated American take on Das Boot, which is unlikely.

 

[FalloutJack]

Zoop

Battleship is not a glorfied commercial, unless it's to enlist in the navy, which I doubt. It technically falls under the same column as Clue, a movie based upon a boardgame. (Personally, I wanna see a Shadow Hunters movie, but that's just me.) Anyway, it doesn't really count, no more than you think Pirates of the Caribean is going to make the Disney ride any more popular.

Calling it Battleship implied, to me, that it would involve just the one Battleship; presumably just closeups of all the shiny military bits. Either that or an updated American take on Das Boot, which is unlikely.

And because (I'm guessing) you're younger, that would make sense. I am, however, 32 and closer to the times of game's popularity, with - at various times in my life - the big electronic version, the fold-out version, the travel version, the computer game version, and even times of simply mocking up the game on paper and pencil when me and my brother were really bored. But Clue and Battleship are similar in that they are the tales of boardgames expanded.