I've notice that a lot a people seem to have a problem with product placement in movies and I don't get it. Reviewers like the Nostalgia Critic for instance tend to point out thoses scenes with a Coca-Cola truck in their reviews as if they are ruining the movie.So what's the problem with product placement?

They like Pepsi better?

Honestly it's just advertising,  We see it everyday literally everywhere.  I don't really understand why it bugs people.  Now, the commercials they started adding in with the previews at the movie theaters, those are annoying.

Because it's usually so blatant a business move and so irrelevant to the actual movie that it can take viewers out of the experience.  Imagine if you're totally immersed and suddenly the movie slaps you with some propaganda for a real-world soda company.  A lot of viewers don't like it because it can remind them of the real world and real world business, and movies are designed to escape reality.

Some do it secretly, while some just do it out front like Transformers 4, which i loved how they did it

A lot of times it can really take you out of the movie. Sometimes its alright (like advertising when the setting is in a big city), but if the main character or someone else steals a Coca-Cola truck for instance, it can be pretty jarring. All you can see is this big truck saying "Look at me! Buy Coke!", instead of focusing on the main character battle evil aliens bent on stealing grass or whatever.

I'm usually fine with product placement, as it helps establish for me that the film/game/whatever I'm currently watching/playing takes place 'in the real world'. But in some movies, it's excessive as hell. Case in point, Man of Steel threw product placement at you left and right during one particular fight scene.

 

Superman just smashed through a 7-Eleven! Oh, the horror!

 

Oh! Now the Kryptonian is battling his way through an IHop!!

 

The local Sears was completely destroyed by the super-villainy of the evil aliens!

 

Watch out, military helicopters! The evil Nam-Ek is going to destroy you with this U-Haul van!

 

You see what I'm talking about here?

Edited July 22, 201411 yr by Kaweebo

There's a difference between "establishing a link between the viewer and the action going on in the film by using familiar products" and "Red Lobster paid us $1.5 million in cheddar biscuits so we have to shamelessly promote them by sticking a logo in your face".

A little product placement in a movie isn't bad......but they shouldn't be so blatant and so numerous that you suddenly feel like you've been sucked into a Superbowl Ad.