MONTREAL/February 28, 2006—
On Oscar night, the prize for best product placement in a movie should go toÖ Brokeback Mountain
In the foreground, two cowboys with frustrated emotions; in the background, one beer and two brand name sodas. Brokeback Mountain is a great story, beautifully told. But do we really need to be reminded repeatedly that they all drink Budweiser? And what about that huge, luminous Coke machine sitting across from Ennis while he eats his apple pie? More curious still, why is Coke's arch rival Pepsi in the same movie?
Could it be a negative placement, intended to disparage the competition? The Pepsi logo is, after all, seen on a wall in a rundown Mexican town where Jack goes cruising for sex. As a sophomore might say, ëIs Pepsi, like, gay or something?' (The big, red, shiny Coke machine is never actually seen in the frame with Ennis, but instead looming over his straight ex-girlfriend and her new beau.).
ìProduct placement in the entertainment world has become big business ñ roughly $3.6 billion annuallyî says Matthew Soar. ìBut we need to distinguish between true ìmarketingî placement and products which are used as plot devices. The communication studies professor has been studying this expanding area as the head of a small research team based at Concordia University, Montrèal, Canada. His team has also recently launched Brand Hype, a new online media literacy resource about product placement in the movies, a sequel to the award-winning video Behind the Screens: Hollywood goes Hypercommercial.
ìWe live in a ëhyper-commercial' culture that is increasingly colonized by advertising ñ from posters in public washrooms to temporary tattoos branded on the foreheads of cash-strapped university studentsî, adds Soar.
Amidst all this ëad creep', marketers must find new ways to focus audience attention on the brands they need to promote. Enter the big screen, where brands are not just part of the pre-screening commercials, but are woven into the very plotlines of the movies we pay top dollar to see. ìAs movie audiences we're captive to these kinds of ads, and it's inevitable that they have an adverse effect on the kinds of movies that get made in Hollywoodî, says Soar.
For further information please contact, Matthew Soar, assistant professor of communication studies at (514) 848-2424, ext. 2542, or at msoar@alcor.concordia.ca.
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Source :
Tanya Churchmuch
Senior Media Relations Advisor
Concordia University
