5 Times an Automotive Product Placement Really Worked
The marketing practice of product placement bridges two conflicting sides. Side A: It’s a part of storytelling that places products for authenticity. It could be a movie, TV show, book, game, or what have you. To make things realistic, the storytellers employ real products, not invented fakes.
So, it follows that unless a placed product is intrinsic to the story — like that classic GM TDH 5303 public bus for Keanu’s heroics in Speed — it should blend into its environment, not stand out. When you’re noticing the curtains, the romance scene isn’t lighting sparks.
Side B: Product placement is also a form of subtle advertising in which brands pay to appear in stories. It works when the product silently says something about the character, reflecting their personality.
When it’s forced to the forefront, you notice. No wonder some people call product placement embedded marketing. Ultimately, the practice works when Side A retains precedence over B.
But B knows money talks. “We need a car,” some greedier storytellers say. “Who wants to pay the most for their car to appear here?” We’ve all seen clumsy and embarrassing hard-sell placements that chew the scenery and then leave a bad taste in viewers’ mouths. Here are my picks, as a marketing professor, for movies where art and commerce work together successfully (and one that’s so bad it deserves to be studied).
Aston Martin DBS in Casino Royale
Here’s one you’ve seen. The Aston Martin DBS in Casino Royale might seem a bit flashy for a spy at first, but it’s on brand for Bond’s high-rolling cover. (Still, wouldn’t you love to see, for once, Bond undercover as a guy delivering newspapers at 6 a.m. from an old minivan?) Moreover, when Bond rolls the DBS to avoid crushing his crush, he metaphorically drives the story forward. Both characters end up in the villainous Le Chiffre’s clutches. That’s the formula: Product as plot device and/or product as reflection of character. Here, you got both. Now let’s watch the crash.
PS: It’s cool how the filmmakers couldn’t roll Bond's grippy and balanced Aston Martin. They succumbed to employing an air cannon to launch it.
Mercedes-Benz in Last Orders
One you probably haven’t seen: Last Orders. What a cast: Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtney, and others you’ve seen as baddies in Star Wars or Marvel spinoffs. In a nutshell, four Cockney friends drive from Sowff Lundn, innit, to scatter the ashes of their deceased friend Jack in the sea. Jack’s “funeral chariot” is his adopted son Lenny’s Mercedes-Benz sedan. You never learn what year or model, only that it’s a Mercedes because that’s what matters. It symbolizes that Lenny’s made it, shedding his working-class status in a Thatcherite dream. Reflective of the character, the placement is loudly prominent — it sticks out — but that’s integral to the story. They don’t roll it, but the movie’s a great date night nonetheless.
Ford Mustang in Bullitt
The yardstick by which all others are measured: Bullitt from 1968, with Steve McQueen, advanced car chase scenes from being part of a story to being, ostensibly, the story. As franchises like John Wick and The Fast and Furious prove, many people (albeit mostly car people) will watch something with little more character development than a deep sneer when shifting gears. Even Buddy Guy hasn’t boosted Mustang’s image like this classic chase.
Mini in the Italian Job
Ever seen the original Italian Job? Who cares why these guys are being chased around the Piazza Castello in Turin? It just makes you wish you drove one of those classic Mini Coopers down subway steps, drifting across freshly washed marble floors in endless cloistered arcades. But again, the product is intrinsic: only Minis could execute the story’s heist and fit through tight urban spaces during the exciting escape scenes. Try doing this in a Suburban.
Ferrari in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Finally, on the surface, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off shouldn’t work. It’s such naked fanboying, but consider the context: The king of high school ticks off his bucket list early, playing hooky in early June in a borrowed 1961 Ferrari 250 GT. Ferris, this walking id who constantly breaks the fourth wall to give speeches to viewers, earns our permission to follow his fancy. How could this rule-flaunting trickster not borrow and destroy his friend’s dad’s real baby, the Ferrari, which gets rubbed with diapers? The car literally moves the story forward and reflects the character: it’s adorable, and it’s trouble. As Ferris’s sister might say, “Nobody puts that baby in the corner of a garage.” In truth, the Ferrari was a replica. But even that leaked fact tracks with the story. It’s a whimsical fantasy.
Honda Civic in Slow Horses
The un-product placement: Jackson Lamb’s Honda Civic in Slow Horses. Marketers pay untold millions to feature their wares in worldwide hit TV shows. But sometimes you wonder whether, given the option, they’d pay to be left out. MI5’s least civic-minded spy drives a Civic that the British would call clapped-out. Except it looks like the clap might be left in. Indeed, so unappealing is this dirty yellow heap, we couldn’t find any footage on YouTube. Thankfully, there’s Top Gear.
