Cinema and Corporate Marketing -Iron Man
By PhilosoGuy at 25 April, 2010, 8:35 pm
You may have seen a recent advertisement on television. It initially appears to be a preview for the latest installment of Iron Man. One-liners about power, speed and sex appeal are cut with shots of Iron Man in action, shooting hot jets of energy out of his palms, or with his assistant/lover Gwyneth Paltrow making out with his mask and then throwing it out of an airplane. I was thinking, “OK…playing up the (undeniable…yeah right) sex appeal of a man in a red metal suit. Good marketing…” Only thing is, the next part of the commercial cuts to Robert Downey, Jr. getting into a white Audi and that is when you realize that the whole commercial has been for the new Audi sports car.
I have nothing against commercials for automobile manufacturers…However, I am concerned about the new trend in cinema and television for product placement and corporate marketing to play an influential role in the design, cinematography and, even worse, plot of films. I saw a movie the other day and, for no reason at all, in the middle of a conversation, someone asked what time it was just so that they could cut to a close up of a woman’s watch (it was a Rolex or something). Or when alcohol and beer are cleverly positioned in a prominent position in a scene, drawing the viewer’s attention to a specific brand. Transformers and Transformers 2 (some of the worst trash to come out of Hollywood in the last 5 years) revolved around Chevy’s new Camaro. In the course of making a movie or television show, the choice of alcohol, car, city…etc. is determined by the highest bidder? I can imagine John Favreau asking an assembled group of auto makers to make their bid for Iron Man’s car. Has it come to this?
Most importantly, what does this mean for film in general? Is the art of filmmaking compromised when commercialism influences what filmmakers do, and thus, what we see?
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As a rule I don’t generally watch movies with a “2″ in the title unless specifically recommended by someone; thus avoiding a lot of disappointments. But I’m a snob.
I agree in general re tacky product placements… the Nokia device in the recent Star Trek being one of the most clunky I’ve seen for a while.
However you do need to have a car in order to have a car chase, so leave Transformers alone! That was a good movie – dumb, destructive escapism for boys like me who are of the generation that had transformers as kids.