ABSTRACT
Crocodile Dundee and a friend pull into the drive-through of a Wendy's restaurant in his latest movie. In his usual flippant style, Dundee places an order and says, “Thank you, Wendy.” He then chats with his friend about the availability of late-night cuisine. This scene is written into the script so that viewers hardly notice that they have just seen an advertisement for Wendy's restaurants. Product placement, the act of directly mentioning or displaying a product's brand name in a movie or television program, is now one of the fastest-growing forms of promotion used by advertisers. Marketers see the format as a way to more closely target the segments they want to reach. Although they cannot be assured that their potential customers will see a particular television commercial due to remote controls and TiVo, when someone is watching a movie or television program where the product is written into the script, it is difficult to escape. Movie producers see the format as a way to offset some of their production expenses. Minority Report with Tom Cruise received $25 million in product placement fees, which represented one-quarter of its total production cost. In the James Bond movie Die Another Day, Ford Motor Company reportedly entered into a $35 million marketing deal with MGM to promote three of its brands. Apparently the format has great success. In Goldeneye, James Bond drove a BMW Roadster, replacing his usual Aston Martin. Sales of the BMW Roadster were reported to have significantly increased after the movie was released.
