So I was just wondering what you guys think about product placement in movies lately. I know it's not something new, but when I watch older movies (say even 90's movies) it doesn't seem anywhere near as prevalent as it is now.

For example, last weekend I saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and it was filled with Apple products. I mean one of Tom Cruise's gadgets was an iPad, they all used iPhones and Mac laptops... But right now I'm watching the original Mission Impossible and I don't really notice any product placement at all.

Is it just me, or once it becomes incredibly obvious does it distract from the movie for you guys? I mean once I notice a pattern I spend the entire movie just picking the stuff out and you get taken away from the movie, if even just a little bit.

When did we start paying for commercials in our movies? Why do we let it happen? Are video games next? (I'm sure it already exists in some games, but I can't think of any off the top of my head).

It distracts me if the Apple icon is held right up to the screen and every other word out of the actors' mouths is "iPhone".

Otherwise, no. If people are using products that would be used in the situation, and they aren't making a big deal about using it, it doesn't matter.

Don't watch that many movies, but it is getting kind of ridiculous in music videos. It's hard to tell the difference from commercials a lot of the time. There was some Eminem video recently where he's rapping about how tortured and committed he is, and then he has product placement for a watch. OK, so in fact you are just in it for the money. Or some Bieber song about how he doesn't want anything for Christmas, packed full of advertisemants for random crap (have only watched a few seconds of that). Or a Jennifer Lopez song that looked like a Fiat commercial, and then she does a Fiat commercial which is exactly the same as the music video. The songs are of the quality of commercial jingles, the videos look just like ads, you might as well be watching infomercials.

The product placement I remember most vividly was in some C-grade Home Alone knockoff. It had a scene where the villains were jumping around on cigarette packages they threw on the floor to avoid the alarm, and the camera zoomed in on one of the packages, staying there for an absurd amount of time so we could see exactly what kind of cigarette brand it was. And that was a movie for children!

I heard the next Bond movie is going to have up to half its budget covered by product placement.

I don't mind product placement in films as long as it's never the focus. If someone is using an Apple computer in the background then that's fine but if the view is fixed on the apple logo for a few seconds for no reason then it starts to get annoying.

90% of all computers are Macbooks. The other 10% run a "custom" OS.

Don't like either product placement or the excesses of advertising in general. Sad thing is, I can still remember the more amusing ads from many years ago when they still showed some restraint, before the time they'd reached saturation point, whereas nowadays I don't really think much beyond "that's really annoying" before I switch off and would be hard-pressed to name any advertising campaigns of recent years. I don't know if I'm typical of others, but certainly as far as I'm concerned, the "carpet bombing" approach to advertising has been an utter failure. I already take steps to avoid excessive advertising on TV, radio, DVDs, magazines, websites and so on, often by just avoiding them altogether, and if this becomes more prevalent then films will become another form of entertainment I no longer bother with.

The computers in The Vampire Diaries are all running Windows 7

I love "custom" operating systems though, especially the ones used by hackers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjXYfTtGas

I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a Windows computer in a movie. There's been a few times I've seen something XP-ish, but then it'll make magical beeps and do something very un-windows-like.

Tangential note: this is one of my favorite PC scenes in a movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFUlAQZB9Ng

The funny thing is, that is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaRHU1XxMJQ.

I know it does, that's why it's my favorite PC scene

Epic!

Blimey, I'd forgotten all about Silicon Graphics and their weird and wonderful suite of programs! I had an Indy for a while but lent it to a friend and she never returned it. I must admit the clip in question had me fooled and looked more like standard Hollywood alternative reality than what I'd expected to see; cool that it was an actual interface after all, but only a bit...

The film where I first remember being consciously aware of blatant product placement was in Dracula 2001. Not a brilliant film by any stretch, it just played like one massive Virgin ad. Character worked at Virgin megastores, slept in a Virgin t shirt, drank Virgin coke, some guy got slammed into the side of a Virgin van, there was a Virgin music video...
Although, the fact that I haven't seen that film in years but I still remember all that means it must work.

Well, it depends on what product it is, If its something that poor people can't afford, I will welcome it.
Why? because I have money and that makes me better than people.

I don't mind it, really. I mean, there are brands in real life, so it makes sense to have them shown in movies too, so as long as they don't zoom in on the logo and freeze the frame for half an hour. I've seen it in games too, but I forgot which ones.

I can't directly link to it because of language, but check out the Red Letter Media review of Adam Sandler's latest sellout-fest, Jack and Jill, to get some idea just how bad product-placement has become (and how it's always been with some film makers...)

Nothing ruins suspension of disbelief like "covert operatives" using Apple products.

Especially considering the CIQ issue and how much information Apple tracks...

When the aliens come back for revenge in Independence Day 2, they'll bring Norton Antivirus.

A weird one is Demolition Man, where they changed all the Taco Bell product placement to Pizza Hut after the movie was finished, for release overseas. It's really obvious and strange, with dubbing in different voices, bad computer graphics, and such.

I find it really annoying and it seems to be getting more noticable. I mean I watched an episode of Sanctuary, (terrible show don't watch it) and they had to escape a monster but it could only recognize their face to attack them, and they escaped thanks to the wonderful new iphone 4 and it's front facing camera.

Nice! lol

Cracked has some more http://www.cracked.com/article_16574_the-10-most-shameless-product-placements-in-movie-history.html for you.