Product placement in film/television

I was bored and I had a newspaper to read while I was flying from Sydney to NZ, so I opened it up and I saw an article about product placement in media today. After reading a rather lengthy rant by a disgruntled James Bond fan about Heineken becoming James Bond's official drink or something like that (I'm jetlagged - forgive me), I got thinking - does product placement bother you? Is it something that you can just brush off, figuring it as just a fact of the modern world, or does it annoy you to your very core? Does the very sight of a Coke bottle in a television show make the bile in your stomach rise to your throat? Please, do share.

Heineken? REALLY? Okay, that REALLY bothers me. JAMES BOND NEEDS HIS VODKA MARTINIS! THIS IS THE LAST STRAW! You don't destroy a tradition just for lame product placement, EVER - if you want product placement, do it with the freaking VODKA. I'm sure Cubby Broccoli is rolling in his grave right now knowing what his heirs are doing... RIP.

Product placement typically, however, does NOT bother me, unless 1) it destroys a tradition or mainstay that is necessary for series continuation (see rage above), 2) it's done to a point of extreme annoyance, or 3) it's extremely out of place and obviously so. Subtle product placements that make sense are fine, like beverage cups or specific brands of computers or labels being shown, but if it's not subtle, it's bad. If it destroys a tradition like vodka martinis, it's bad. If it's extremely annoying, then it's bad.

Yes, I believe you have now seen my livid side :-X

In a nutshell: it's bad if I notice it. That takes me out of the movie and I want to be engrossed in a movie.

I can enjoy it if it's badly done. Like a game of count-how-times-product-placement-comes-up. Still would rather it wasn't there because it's probably unnecessary to the movie.

If it is noticeable, spoken, a part of the plot.... yeah bad.

If someone is drinking a Coke, well people drink Coke in the real world, so no biggie

I was actually just talking with my sister about this the other day. She paused a recording of some show that she watches, and it was a scene where it was a hockey player sitting alone in the dressing room. The first thing that caught my eye was how many Gatorade logos were on the screen (including cups, bottles, a poster and a towel, I counted it 11 times). Other things like hockey sticks, gloves and even the uniforms themselves had their company logos covered up, some fairly poorly.

Honestly, it doesn't bother me when there's product placement in a movie/TV show, but when you begin to notice instances like that, it goes a bit overboard.

It annoys me when it's blatantly obvious, like if a character says something like, "Oh yeah I just really love my new Nike(TM) shoes!"

No. Just...no.

On the contrary, I do like when real world products are included into TV shows whether it's product placement or not. It makes the show feel much more real, especially if it's supposed to be like a show that's supposed to exist in our universe as we know it, or a fake documentary. (Like the Office. I prefer that Michael and crew go to Hooters, not a made up rip-off called Scooters or something)

I don't see how product placement would bother me unless it's shoved in my face 24/7 and it becomes impossible to ignore.

Product placement can make a tv show feel more realistic with recognisable names, although it can be mis-used, especially if the product become a plot point/device.

I've been watching ''Ghost Adventures'' in LivingTV on Sky.
They use an iPod as a method to catch ghosts, but they had to rid of the apple logo and refer to it as a 'MP player'.

Not sure if that would count. Or is that name placement.

The only others I've seen is
Cola = Coca Cola
Pear Software = Apple Company
MiniHard = Microsoft.

Forgotten where these are from though.

Product placement in British TV only became legal last year, and whenever a company has received money to advertise a product within a show, a little 'P' icon needs to be shown whenever the show comes back after a commercial break. Sometimes my friends and I will spot the P and try to guess which products paid to be advertised in that particular show. (One time it was a hotel on The X Factor, which was kind of amusing!) But, as most other people have said, so long as it's not ostentatious, then I have very few issues with it. Advertising revenue is going down the toilet, so if this is a way for TV production companies to make money, then more power to them... so long as it isn't in your face.

Oh, and the Heineken-James Bond thing. Heineken paid for a third of the film's budget for, essentially, a 10-second advertisement. If I were Barbara Broccoli, I sure as hell would not turn that down. Martinis be damned!

Doesn't bother me to much, no. Actually when it's really obvious I can't help but find it kind of funny ... but that can kind of wreck the mood if it's a serious action movie or what not.

I find it more funny when they have knockoff names. One anime I was watching was huge on this, they drank Popsi and went to Shall gas stations and etc etc. I thought it was the funniest thing.

I can't think of a single time I was bothered by product placement though so I guess it doesn't mean much to me.

To be honest, I've noticed alot of shows actually going out of their way to pay to use products in their programs.
Like CSI, one of the new series, they've got alot of real life products in their compared to any previous series, even websites too, usually they'd used fake ripoffs of MySpace, FaceBook and YouTube, but now they've got it all in their.
Me being me, I'm thinking how much they had to pay to share copyright laws.

It doesn't bother me if it's subtle- for example, seeing a Coke truck in the background, or Gatorade sign in a stadium. I actually kinda like that; it makes things feel a bit more real.