CASE ASSIGNMENT: Product Placement

Product placement is nearly ubiquitous in movies today. Heineken recently paid nearly $45 million to MGM and Sony Pictures entertainment so that it could be prominently featured in the 23^rd installation of the James Bond film franchise, Skyfall. This amount, nearly one-third of the entire production budget, meant that James Bond would no longer suavely approach a bar and order a martini, shaken not stirred, as hes done for more than forty years. Instead, he would now order a Heineken beer. Luxury automaker Acura signed a multi-year, multi-picture deal with Marvel Studios to have its cars featured in comic book-based films like Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and The Avengers 2.

However, not all is great with having a product featured prominently in a movie. Take, for example, the 2012 film Flight. Throughout the movie, both before and after he crashes an airplane, Denzel Washingtons character is shown drinking heavily, with the Budweiser logo displayed prominently. This came as quite a surprise to parent company AB InBev, which was not given any form of advance notice that its product would appear in the movie. We would never condone the misuse of our products, and have a long history of promoting responsible drinking and preventing drunk driving, said Anheuser-Busch Vice President Rob McCarthy. It is disappointing that Image Movers, the production company, and Paramount chose to use one of our brands in this manner. The company asked Paramount Studios to blur out or remove digitally the Budweiser logo from all DVDs, television presentations, and online streams of the movie.

Guy Lodge, The Skyfalls the Limit on James Bond Marketing, The Guardian, October 23, 2012, www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/oct/23/skyfall-marketing-james-bond (Accessed March 25, 2013); Joe Flint and Mark Olsen, Budweiser in Flight Leaves Anheuser-Busch with a Bad Aftertaste, Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2012, www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-budweiser-flight-20121106,0,1130173.story(Accessed March 25, 2013); John Pearley Huffman, Driving the Avengers Acura NSX Roadster, Edmunds, April 17, 2012, www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/driving-the-avengers-acura-nsx-roadster.html (Accessed March 25, 2013).

1. Can product placement change consumers' deeply rooted values and attitudes? Explain.

2. What are some results marketers can expect from product placement? What should they not expect?

3. Provide some examples of virtual product placement. Are they effective? Why or why not?

4. What are the benefits of products placement? Are there disadvantages?