In some of the biggest Hollywood movies, scenes are filled to the brim with corporate logos and products. The Brandcameo Product Placement Awards allow us to see just how blatant this advertising is, and we now have our winners for 2015.
Every year Brandcameo puts out a list compiling the most egregious uses of product placement from the previous year. Their most recent list gives Transformers: Age of Extinction the award for Achievement in Product Placement in a Single Film, as the movie featured 55 different brands. The film was also given the award for worst product placement for its terrible and blatant Beats scenes.
Apple was the company with the most product placement last year, appearing in nine of the 35 films which were #1 at the US box office. Brandcameo identifies as an example the Apple Store scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
It's not just the major blockbusters that use product placement though. The awards also point out The Theory of Everything and its scene where Stephen leaves Jane a box of Tide detergent.
Other major examples of product placement mentioned include Dodge in Nightcrawler and REI in Wild.
Also mentioned under Unwanted Product Placement was Pangu Plaza in Transformers: Age of Extinction. Apparently the hotel paid $1.6 million to be featured in the film but they were only mentioned in passing. There was even a lawsuit about this, according to the LA Times.
Brandcameo's awards are a pretty funny way to take a look at how movies handle brand advertising, in some cases extremely blatantly like in Transformers. The question though is does this kind of product placement actually bother you? In the Theory of Everything scene, for example, would it be better for the film to have its own, fake brand detergent rather than Tide, one that people actually use?
But when it's blatant, it can definitely really take you out of the movie when you realize you're being advertised to. There is definitely a subtle, effective way to do product placement, but Michael Bay sure isn't doing it.