US Airways and Product Placement

[InternationalShannon]

So I was watching 2010 and Im sure anyone who works at US noticed the big tail sitting there while the world fell apart around it. I found that entertaining because it was very fitting, what with US being like a gigantic cockroach...but I know that had nothing to do with why it was in the frame for like 20 seconds....it was there because someone in our company paid to have it there, and probably paid exhorbitantly.

I am curious as to whether that was a responsible allocation of funds considering the only people that seemed to have notice it were the employees that saw the movie and mentioned it. Does it really inspire people to go buy a ticket because they saw that plane in the movie?

What is spending boatloads of money to have your tail on the film attempting to say? And even more entertaining was the choice of films to place the airplane in. The captive audience sees how much chaos and hell is going on and then there's a US Airways plane sitting in a frame in an airport scene for a really long time. What is the point of putting that plane in there? So that when things suck at the airport you automatically think US? All I remember in that movie was things sucking, blowing up, and the US tail.

Seems to me like it might be smarter to focus on putting those plane to work in movies that don't simply use expensive distractions to sell tickets and leave customers walking out trying to figure out if they just got ripped off......OMG wait...I think I just "got it".........

Oh and bother way, here's something else I can't figure out.....

 

[ChockJockey]

Do you mean 2012?

2010 is the sequel to the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[BoeingBoy]

So I was watching 2010...

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that every product shown in a move wasn't necessarily paid product placement - the studio/director/whoever used some things (especially in the background) as local "flavor". What realism would a scene at CLT have without US airplanes, for instance.

How many movies with exterior scenes at somewhere like LAX have you seen that didn't have planes from various airlines in the background?

Jim

 

[freedom]

i haven't seen the movie yet , but just think if they used our company's logo without permission ! CHA CHING BABY! call up those lawyers and let's take care of our Q1 revnue in one sitting!!!

 

[redheadtempe33]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that every product shown in a move wasn't necessarily paid product placement -
Jim

You are correct. I once asked a friend who is a junior exec at Disney, what huge sums of money Apple Computers pays for their products to appear in so many television shows and movies. $0.00. He told me film producers will usually ask permission of the companies (Apple, US Airways), and permission is given nearly 99% of the time. Free advertising.
Of course, companies do pay to have products placed (I remember some Bill Cosby movie in the 80's where a can of Coke was the most obvious case of product placement in history), but my friend stated that it is the exception, rather than the rule.
I would imagine only when the product is seen in a negative way (see a movie called Fearless - chilling depiction of a plane crash), do movie producers make up a fake airline (like Oceanic in Lost).

 

[SS255]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that every product shown in a move wasn't necessarily paid product placement - the studio/director/whoever used some things (especially in the background) as local "flavor". What realism would a scene at CLT have without US airplanes, for instance.

How many movies with exterior scenes at somewhere like LAX have you seen that didn't have planes from various airlines in the background?

Jim

This particular scene is set at LAS. Now I suppose one could argue that the presence of a US tailfin at LAS was considered realistic at the time the scene was shot, but perhaps would no longer pass muster if the exact same scene was shot today. This film was in post production for about a year.

 

[PITOCC71]

The fact that the makers of "2012" even think that US will still be around in 2012, at least as US Airways, completely amazes me!

 

[EyeInTheSky]

The fact that the makers of "2012" even think that US will still be around in 2012, at least as US Airways, completely amazes me!

Good one!

Later,
Eye

 

[CactUS Mech]

The fact that the makers of "2012" even think that US will still be around in 2012, at least as US Airways, completely amazes me!

Why so negative???

 

[back2CLT]

I believe Turkish Airlines sued the studio who produced I Am Legend due to there being a scene in which a radio is broadcasting a report of a Turkish Airlines crash, saying they were liable for defamation.

The thing was, apparantly what was played in the move was the actual archived broadcast of an actual TA fatal crash (I believe Flt 158 in 1983).

 

[CynicalResAgent]

I wonder about Castaway. FedEx was prominently featured and they crashed..... oh, also what about "W-I-L-S-O-N!!!!! I'm sorry wilson" does a bloody volleyball count as good product placement?