The end is nigh: product placement in Curious George
Filed under: Animation, Family Films, Newsstand, Movie Marketing
For a variety of reasons (basic human decency
obviously not among them), product placement is unusual in animated films. Among other things, it takes so long to make
most animation that a company's advertising goals or products could change completely between the film's inception and
its release. In addition, since animation is often used to make films set in fantastic worlds, product placement tends
to be pretty damn hard - I mean, what are you going to advertise in, say, Shrek?
Or The
Incredibles? Thankfully for all of us, the answer so far has been "not a damn thing."Curious George, however, is changing things. Yes, it's a sweet, innocent movie, aimed solidly at the preschool set. But five-year-olds have parents, dammit, and they're trapped, looking at the screen for 90 minutes - why not throw some Dole logos up there, for their viewing pleasure? Or, say, an animated Volkswagen Touareg? Maybe a US Postal Service bag or two? Yep, they're all there. Oh, and if you happen to buy a Dole banana any time soon, it's likely the thing will feature one of a million stickers telling you to see the movie. Seriously. I think the world is coming to an end.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-08-2006 @ 12:47PM
Elrond Hobbert said...
Hey give them a break. They need to make money somehow off this turkey. It's not coming from ticket sales...
Reply
2-08-2006 @ 1:39PM
jer said...
As for the animated Tuareg, I'm not sure I find that as too much of a problem. Afterall, people in the movies typically live in the same universe that we do, and drive the same sorts of cars. I haven't seen the movie, but I assume the person driving the Tuareg fits the description of someone who would actually drive one of those things? It's like a high priced stock brocker guy, he's GONNA drive a Beemer, you know?
Moving on the the US Postal Service, I don't have a problem with that either. I mean, it's not like you have a choice of which mail handling service you're going to choose, you're pretty much stuck with the monopolistic US Postal Service. Showing a mail carrier in a story doesn't scream product placement to me.
Now Dole, on the other hand, pisses me off. That sort of thing is completely uncalled for.
I loved Curious George as a kid, but this movie doesn't seem at all like the stories it is 'ape'ing.
Oh also, seeing 'original sountrack by Jack Johnson' sold the deal for me. As if looking horrible weren't enough a reason to skip this one, that was.
Reply
2-08-2006 @ 3:47PM
Duane said...
I don't think it's that big of a problem. If there's going to be a produce market with pineapples and bananas anyway, then go ahead and stick Dole stickers on them. It's when George goes to grab a generic banana and the man in the yellow hat says "Oh, no, George, you don't want *that* banana! That's not a *Dole*. Here, try this Dole banana, Dole makes the best bananas!" that I see a problem.
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2-08-2006 @ 4:45PM
Corey Atad said...
What are you talking about? Shrek may not have had any product placement (at least i don't think it did), but Shrek 2 had tons of product placement. When the audience sees a Farbucks logo, they know it is really just the Starbucks logo. That is product placement my friends, and Shrek 2 had way too much of it.
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2-08-2006 @ 5:00PM
bl said...
George goes Corporate!
Reply