Licence to Shill

Special Interest Games
#1

We all know that the budget has to be gathered in somehow and it would be naive to suggest that Global Product Partners don’t have their uses as a result; but there’s subtlety, and then there’s…not. Which of these seems the most egregious and downright lazy promotion of grim consumer tat for $$$?

Licence to Shill
  • Definitely Kentucky. Not Miami. Not Buckinghamshire. Look at the “restaurant” name. Look at it, damn you (Goldfinger)
  • Pulsar - it’s a digital watch! With red characters. And…is that all it does? (Live and Let Die)
  • Mementos from Thai holiday. Wooden elephant - check. Drowned child - check. Crotch itch that won’t go away - check. AMC Hornet? Definitely, as long as I can fit it into the hand luggage (The Man with the Golden Gun).
  • British Airways inflight meal (Moonraker)
  • 7-UP sprayed… everywhere (Moonraker)
  • Bollinger RD - The best! (It’s really, really not) (The Living Daylights)
  • BMW Z3: The Ultimate What’s-That-Absurdly-Horrid-Thing-Doing-Here? Machine (GoldenEye)
  • Eau dear, you appear to have smashed a tank through all that Perrier. Water disaster! (GoldenEye)
  • Why does Bond crash the car into Avis? Q doesn’t actually work for them, y’clown. (Tomorrow Never Dies)
  • Shave away your trauma - instantly! (Die Another Day)
  • Eat my OMEGA, bitch (Casino Royale)
  • The World’s least likely Virgin (Quantum of Solace)
  • You Sony Live Twice. Or several dozen times (Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. And Skyfall. And Spectre)

0 voters

3 Likes
#2

Omega is being mocked in its use there…the other 7 films its blatant product placement…but Casino Royale is mocking

1 Like
#4

Thanks for another witty poll Jim. Just what was needed.

2 Likes
#5

Oh yes; dishonourable mention, definitely.

1 Like
#6

Or the attempt at making a serious scene take place inside a Ford Ka in Quantum of Solace. Man, that film is a mess. F*** you, Marc Forster. (sorry have to get in my daily dig at QoS’s embarrassingly bad director).

1 Like
#7

The name is Oh-mee-gah…

2 Likes
#9

I had Oh’s and Ah’s for that scene at my hometown cinema. Might be because my hometown hosts one of two German Ford factories. I assume there were some Ford workers present who the started telling families and friends that this is the big thing on which they’ve been working for the past few months. They’ve been running extra shifts through that year to get enough of these ready for when they started selling them. The prototypes used in the film, however, wher Built in Cologne.

The difference between the Beetle, the Duck (as the 2CV is called in Germany) and the GE ZAZ on one hand and the Mondeo and the Ka on the other hand is as simple as that: the former were cars that were decades old when use in the film, they were meant for comic relief. No one would have paid or demanded money for that, whereas the Mondeo and the Ka were brand new at their time and a genuine product placement.

2 Likes
#11

The model that would have been promoted in 1981 would have been the “Charleston” model (two-color paint). The 2CV6 used in the movie could have been built anytime between 1974 (when they started using the rectangular headlights) and 1981. Possible that it was brand new, possible that it was parked in Rémy Juliennes backlot for several years before. It was equipped withethe engine of a Citroën GS.

Citroën had a “007” model, yes, but it was just the basic model in yellow wih the stickers on it. It was also possible to just buy the stickers, in case you already had a yellow 2CV. But I’m not certain if any money changed hands, or if they just used the occasion.

1 Like
#12

According to Tesche’s book Citrœn Cars Ltd did a limited run of 300 yellow ones with the decals - but I cannot for the life of me remember any promo of these. Every once in a while I ran into one, but they all were conventional European models - I’m not even sure if the 2CV was ever offered for left-hand traffic.

At any rate I don’t think it was a product placement deal like we’d usually expect them today, with knots and bolts and screen time meticulously ironed out in the contract. Supposedly the chase was originally written for the Lotus but road conditions on the ground in Corfu made them change the vehicle - easier to blow up a Lotus model than damage one or several during the actual chase.

#13

Don’t forget the British Airways ‘we’ll take more care of you’ sign in Rio. :rofl:

1 Like
#14

To be honest I actually quite like Bonds use of the Mondeo and think it does suit the character at that point of the film. He was still yet to ‘become the Bond we know’, still yet to acquire the Aston Martin, yet to get his tailored tux… I actually think it serves a nice juxtaposition. Whether that’s the intent or it was just a pure marketing ploy I’m not sure!

#15

I notice that I’m absolutely naively unaware of so many brands depicted in Bond films.

Bodes well for the intended effect of product placement. “Oh, I was supposed to buy that, too?”

1 Like
#16

One might argue there are two basic branches of product placement, the garden variety that involves the product shown in the film for a certain sum and perhaps some production freebies (though freebies may also be whole fleets of cars, plus modifications). And the weapons grade promotion partnership where the actual Bond actor is involved in shooting clips with the article and the company can run an entire marketing campaign with them.

The latter may have started with Seiko and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, though I cannot say for sure. It’s of course a much higher profile we’re bound to notice as compared to a brief glimpse of a company logo. These days the films are analysed to a ludicrous degree by ‘stuff’ experts like Zaritsky, and in that particular niche fans are tracking the most obscure and briefly-seen items. Horses for courses.

#17

I actually am all for it if it allows the production to spend more money to put on the screen.

If what’s up on the screen actually is only put up there because the money is given… well…

So far, it never took me out of a Bond movie. I just expect stuff to be used by Bond. And MR, IMO, makes splendid fun of it while still fulfilling its obligations.

2 Likes
#18

There are the strangest product placements at times. I remember that people were bewildered when the news broke that New Holland had a marketing deal for CR - for the loader used in the opening chase with Molakka.

The KUKA laser robots from DAD (used by and on Mr Kil) were a product placement. I’ve seen tie-in adverts for those.

2 Likes
#19

Agreed. Most of the time the product placement feels authentic because it’s embraced as part of Bond’s own brand - just like how he has a specific preference about shaking martinis. Everybody knows Bond usually drives an Aston, shoots a Walther or wears an Omega or Rolex. I find it’s usually the other brands like Avis or Sony that draw more attention to product placement.

2 Likes
#20

Shilling is possibly what they mean when they say “when in doubt, go back to Fleming”

“For the soda he always stipulated Perrier, for in his opinion expensive soda water was the cheapest way to improve a poor drink.” - From A View To A Kill

1 Like