Movie & TV sell-outs: When tech product placements go bad

Nate LanxonMon 23 June, 2008 4:17pm

You know the Independence Day VHS came with an ad for Apple laptops right before the start of the movie, cut with shots from the film?

Nick HideMon 23 June, 2008 5:16pm

Was it something like the ad that's linked to in the second paragraph? ;)

AnonymousMon 23 June, 2008 7:25pm

Y ddnt you include the appearance of apple macs in 'I Am Legend', i died a little when is saw Will Smith use them, still a minor stain on a awesome movie.

AnonymousMon 23 June, 2008 8:06pm

Yeah that was awesome in I am Legend where he's recording on an iMac! I mean he's got the whole of NY to himself, could pick any machine and goes for the Mac, classy :)

I'm sure the real 'Matrix Phone' did have a spring loaded slider?? I remember using a nokia phone that worked exactly the same unless it was a later model or something??

weetanhopsMon 23 June, 2008 9:12pm

How come on CSI they can always manage to zoom in on the ONE detail that solves the entire case. I'm serious - one time they managed to spot a hair from the other side of the room... WTF

AnonymousTue 24 June, 2008 10:26am

What about SONY in all them james bond films, not taking a dig out of 007 but sony do take the micky. Every phone, laptop and gadget is sony made. Even the camers used to shoot the film are made by sony.

Nate LanxonTue 24 June, 2008 10:40am

To the above poster, you should really check out page two of this very feature...!

AnonymousTue 24 June, 2008 10:53am

And then you've got Aaron Sorkin's tribute to Apple in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Not only are all the laptops Macbooks but, Steve Jobs get a mention as well.

AnonymousWed 25 June, 2008 1:05pm

What? No Wayne's World?!

AnonymousWed 25 June, 2008 6:10pm

You missed an entire network that makes its name for this. In the U.S., the CW network blatantly placed product placement in every single show. Smallville is one of the worst. I mean they even named evil organizations and secret projects after the item to get the name said many times.

Like how many times did we hear "it must be Project Scion!" and then have them jump in the car waiting outside?

Not tech, but they also had an entire episode take place in a Stride gum factory and involve stride gum that gave you superpowers!

It was horrible.

AnonymousThu 26 June, 2008 4:28am

V for Vendetta had all JCV TVs and Dell PCs in the 'future.' And the director made sure to pan over the each logo before getting to the image on screen. I usually don't mind a little product placement, but for a movie all about breaking down the establishment, that really killed it.

mohammed.jiwaThu 26 June, 2008 12:49pm

What about the X-Files?
First real cell-phone placement - the then brilliant Motorolla Star-Tac; as well Ford cars??

mohammed.jiwaThu 26 June, 2008 12:54pm

When tech product placements go bad... what was bad about the battery in the Matrix?? EVERYone recognises Duracell - it was perfect. And don't get me started on all of you who have forgotten the whole Nokia 8110 slide phone issue that was raised back then - Nokia DID bring out a click to slide phone, but it didn't look a thing like the 8110, however it was advertised as the movie tie-in phone.
What's amazing is that the Matrix took a phone, about 2 years old - and made it so cool in an age when there was GPRS coming out, and coloured screens just around the corner.
Nokia 3210 anyone??? haha

CartmanFri 27 June, 2008 9:57am

Nokia did really well from the Matrix movie - I made a killing modifying 8110s to have the pop-out action (until they brought out the phone which actually did do that). It made Nokia cool so when the sequel came out Motorola/Samsung (can't remember which) were keen to get in on the action but the phones they made were so horrible it didn't have the same effect for the brand.

Tombraider was another Sony Ericsson sell out - using Sony Ericsson phones and bluetooth hands frees. They even made the phone an integral part to the movie with laughably fast data transfer and TV out with video calling - if only.

neil.weightmanFri 27 June, 2008 1:01pm

No wonder the staff at CTU replace their hardware so often - if mine required as many reboots as theirs I'd be looking for a replacement as well. Or maybe they're using Windows...