It used to be that movies included product placements. Now it seems product
placements are taking center stage with the movie in the background. Or at least this is what appears to be happening with
"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." The NASCAR racing movie from Sony Pictures is less about racing, and more about product endorsements. Well before production, Sony pitched top sponsors, and the result is a movie crowded by product placements from ten different companies including Sprint Nextel, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Coca-Cola Unilever, and Interstate Bakeries (Wonder Bread.) According to
The Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) Sony pitched the story line and gave potential advertise considerable latitude in writing their products into the script. The Journal calls the result the “most in-your-face efforts ever to cross-promote consumer brands in a movie.”
Marketing Blurb will take our wife or girlfriend to dinner and skip this movie.
Photo Credit: The Wall Street Journal
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