Just finished watching 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold' . It's by Morgan Spurlock, the guy who made Super Size Me.
To be honest it was a real let down. It's biggest flaw (aside from being boring) is that it doesn't really inform the viewer of anything. It's just a series of him meeting with companies (often times over the phone) and the companies declining to sponsor the film.
There's maybe 10 minutes total throughout the whole movie where they actually talk about how placement works, why people do placement, how much it costs, etc.
About the only funny moment in the film was when he was talking to the marketing folks at Ban deoderant and he asked them what would be one word they would use to describe their product and they sat there in silence with no answer. You see that kind of thing go on all the time in the corporate world (showing how a lot of people who work in marketing really don't know what the hell they are doing - trust me, they aren't bright enough to take over the world with nefarious product placement strategies).
Anyway, the film was very one dimensional and didn't delve in to anything of substance. It felt like Morgan simply filmed a bunch of meetings and called it a film, a real let down given his Super Size Me documentary was quite good.
As for product placement, I've never seen what the big worry was. People say that it warps the minds of viewers and creates a false reality where people associate their value with the brands they've been brainwashed to buy through advertising.
I don't buy it for one second. McDonalds is popular because their food is cheap and people like the taste (not me mind you, I haven't eaten at McDonalds in over 10 years). McDonalds is popular because you can't travel 5 miles in any direction across the entire Western hemisphere without seeing one. It gets back to the four P - price, product, placement, promotion - yes, marketing matters, but it's not the only thing.
I see soda on tv and movies endlessly, but I don't drink soda in my real life (because I don't like soda). I drink milk all the time and yet I don't think I've ever seen milk in a movie or tv show (at least not that I can remember, although I'm sure I've seen a Santa movie or two with a milk scene in it).
You can entice people to give your product a try, but if they don't like it, they won't keep buying it.
And for whatever damage product placement may have (which is almost none in my opinion), there's just as many off-setting mechanisms in society countering that effect. Before I buy any product I always go online and check review sites and see what journalists and users have said about the product. I never buy something based purely on the marketing.
This is actually why I think PR is more valuable than marketing (although they are both important). You might catch people's attention with marketing, but when they turn to the media to fact check your claims before spending their money, they had better find supporting evidence there.
Product placement can be damaging when we are talking about cigarettes or alcohol being placed in television or movies that youth are exposed to, I'll definitely agree with that. But aside from booze and smokes, people make way too big a deal over this stuff.
If at some point we see Obama doing a Visa commercial, ok, then you can start to worry. Until then though the sky is not falling.
Maybe that's why the movie was so boring to me, because there's no real story here.
Trust me, if product placement were enough to ensure product success in the market, everyone would do it. Of those that actually do it, they don't spend nearly what you think they do on it - it's a tiny sliver of their marketing budget.
There are TONS of marketing agencies out there that wish product placement and other marketing tactics DID brainwash users. If it did they'd be able to charge 100 times what they do for their services because they'd be able to guarantee successful product adoption / uptake. At very best marketing can merely remind a consumer that they exist in the market and for first time viewers get them interested enough to give the product a try.
Beyond that though, a product's success will be determined by how people actually feel about the product when they use it.
To be honest it was a real let down. It's biggest flaw (aside from being boring) is that it doesn't really inform the viewer of anything. It's just a series of him meeting with companies (often times over the phone) and the companies declining to sponsor the film.
There's maybe 10 minutes total throughout the whole movie where they actually talk about how placement works, why people do placement, how much it costs, etc.
About the only funny moment in the film was when he was talking to the marketing folks at Ban deoderant and he asked them what would be one word they would use to describe their product and they sat there in silence with no answer. You see that kind of thing go on all the time in the corporate world (showing how a lot of people who work in marketing really don't know what the hell they are doing - trust me, they aren't bright enough to take over the world with nefarious product placement strategies).
Anyway, the film was very one dimensional and didn't delve in to anything of substance. It felt like Morgan simply filmed a bunch of meetings and called it a film, a real let down given his Super Size Me documentary was quite good.
As for product placement, I've never seen what the big worry was. People say that it warps the minds of viewers and creates a false reality where people associate their value with the brands they've been brainwashed to buy through advertising.
I don't buy it for one second. McDonalds is popular because their food is cheap and people like the taste (not me mind you, I haven't eaten at McDonalds in over 10 years). McDonalds is popular because you can't travel 5 miles in any direction across the entire Western hemisphere without seeing one. It gets back to the four P - price, product, placement, promotion - yes, marketing matters, but it's not the only thing.
I see soda on tv and movies endlessly, but I don't drink soda in my real life (because I don't like soda). I drink milk all the time and yet I don't think I've ever seen milk in a movie or tv show (at least not that I can remember, although I'm sure I've seen a Santa movie or two with a milk scene in it).
You can entice people to give your product a try, but if they don't like it, they won't keep buying it.
And for whatever damage product placement may have (which is almost none in my opinion), there's just as many off-setting mechanisms in society countering that effect. Before I buy any product I always go online and check review sites and see what journalists and users have said about the product. I never buy something based purely on the marketing.
This is actually why I think PR is more valuable than marketing (although they are both important). You might catch people's attention with marketing, but when they turn to the media to fact check your claims before spending their money, they had better find supporting evidence there.
Product placement can be damaging when we are talking about cigarettes or alcohol being placed in television or movies that youth are exposed to, I'll definitely agree with that. But aside from booze and smokes, people make way too big a deal over this stuff.
If at some point we see Obama doing a Visa commercial, ok, then you can start to worry. Until then though the sky is not falling.
Maybe that's why the movie was so boring to me, because there's no real story here.
Trust me, if product placement were enough to ensure product success in the market, everyone would do it. Of those that actually do it, they don't spend nearly what you think they do on it - it's a tiny sliver of their marketing budget.
There are TONS of marketing agencies out there that wish product placement and other marketing tactics DID brainwash users. If it did they'd be able to charge 100 times what they do for their services because they'd be able to guarantee successful product adoption / uptake. At very best marketing can merely remind a consumer that they exist in the market and for first time viewers get them interested enough to give the product a try.
Beyond that though, a product's success will be determined by how people actually feel about the product when they use it.
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