Truth revealed

In the following post, the term product placement will be used a lot. Product placement is a form of advertisement where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, TV shows, or news programs.


I was looking through movie trailers when I noticed the sequel Fast and Furious 6. While watching, just the trailer, contained unbelievable amounts of product placement; the movie contains that multiplied by a hundred. If one were to watch the entire movie they probably wouldn’t notice any of the product placements in it. But after having learned about product placement and its role in the media, it’s hard not to notice it anymore.



An action movie like Fast and Furious probably costs the producers millions of dollars to make, $160 million dollars to be exact. And then I remembered a film I once watched. The greatest movie ever sold. That film showed us how a producer can fund their entire movie solely on the income they receive from companies requesting product placement. Product placement achieves success and profit for both sides. The producer will get the majority of the budget for their movie, and the “investor”, lets say, gets their product advertised, while making sure people can’t skip it like a regular Ad. Both side’s benefit, and both sides get millions or even billions back in profit.



If we consider just the cars used in Fast and Furious 6, and set aside all other brands being advertised to us in the movie, we still find a great deal of product placement. The owners of those companies are paying millions to have their cars used in a movie like Fast and Furious. Think of how much increase in sales they’d achieve. And the movie would just look good for having mind-blowing cars like these in it, and of course, having most of it’s budget already taken care of. So everyone comes out a winner.



The funny thing is, the person who owns the car company, might also belong to the same organization that owns the production studio. In that case neither of them have to spend any money whatsoever because they’d be working as a synergy. They’re benefiting each other, multiplying profits by thousands, and not spending a dime out of place. That’s how the culture industry works. You never know which companies or corporations are working under the same umbrella, and most of the time they shock you. But at the end of the day, they have profits pouring in, and we have no idea where the money we pay actually ends up. We probably don’t even care where it ends up, as long as the process of spending it brought us joy and entertainment.