Illustrator Aled Lewis created a clever series on product placement. What he does is combine movies/shows with brands that have been showcased in them. On a design standpoint I feel like he does a great job of working in the elements of the brands logo into text that never existed with it. In the above piece, for example he used simply the top portion of the Pizza Hut logo with the same text font but with the title "Wayne's World". The two are flawlessly incorporated to the point where the brand is totally recognizable. For someone who never watched Wayne's world, they would still be able to recognize the Pizza Hut portion and font to see that Wayne's World is somehow associated with Pizza Hut. In the context of the whole series the view can make the assumption of Product placement of Pizza Hut in movies/shows.
I personally love the series because I always look for product placement, probably because I hate it so much. I at times feel it is annoying to be bombarded with product placement advertising in movies. Sometimes it works because it is not so obvious but at other times I feel like it is just too much. I might be alone on the annoyance factor but I say leave the advertising to the commercials and not in the movies or at least some companies should try to not be so obvious that you were paid to put the product into the script or even just in the camera frame. I get enough advertising in commercials and everywhere I walk. For some reason I think the worse product placement is seen in music videos because there are times where the product has nothing to do with the song it is just there because companies pay for them to be there. Others work somewhat well. Wayne's World and Pizza Hutt worked well because the product of pizza worked so well with the lifestyle and character of the main people in Wayne's World. Whoever decided to incorporate the two at least blended pizza into the story line. The other piece for iRobot was a covered in product placement. The converse sneakers and the fedex packages that seemed to stand the test of time in the futuristic world of iRobot was too obvious. Not to mention his audi car that was just as futuristic. The frame that focuses in on the audi emblem as he drives away was just to obvious.
Nonetheless, these prints prove how much product placement can be seen and it has come to the point where it isn't subtle anymore. We have become experts in this world of advertising, we critique advertising now rather than just letting it take over our lives.
Here is a link to his series on Conspicuous Product Placement.
It's impossible to get away from advertising! have you seen the trailers for the new Morgan Spurlock documentary on product placement? the entire thing was funded by advertising and product placement. It's interesting, but I was reading a critic's review in the red eye and he made a good point--why is this news? I think we are so used to product placement and brand names that we are desensitized. Although, those logos by Lewis are pretty cool! I just have a feeling that they are stating the obvious: brand names are everywhere. C'mon, this is corporate America!
ReplyDeleteI came across Aled Lewis designs before and they are very interesting to look at. The T-Shirt designs and illustrations are amazing.
ReplyDeleteThis is really cool, I think the Aled Lewis designs work because the products in the tv shows/movies go with the characters some how or with the movie. I really like the American Idol design with Coca-Cola it blends so well because Coca-Cola is one of their sponsors.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about product placement. The Ford cars or whichever they were in first Transformers was past obvious, I actually thought in the middle of the movie that I wanted to change the commercial because it looked so staged and I realized I was still watching a movie. When companies can successfully pull it off, big kudos to them.
ReplyDeleteIt is almost scary how well product placement works to incite us to buy, well, it actually is scary. I used to wear those shirts that had the coca-cola logo on it or the pepsi logo on it and one day it occurred to me that I really hate being a billboard for these companies, and worse, paying them to be a walking billboard.
ReplyDeleteI might be strange, but I don't mind product placement. Actually, I think it's funny sometimes how hard they try to fit it into a show.
ReplyDeleteIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a great example of product placement in action. Maybe you've never noticed it before, but watch an episode - you will notice!
That's a pretty cool series! It's a pretty stark reminder of the way that entertainment and advertising are so closely entertwined.
ReplyDeleteI hate product placement in movies, for the most part it is terribly obvious and just annoys me when I notice it. However, there are some exceptions like you mentioned that make it work.
ReplyDeletegreat example of juxtapose! thanks for sharing this : )
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this. It is a nice visual treat.
ReplyDeleteProduct placement, I agree is getting bad, but unfortunately it's just something we have to live with!
ReplyDeleteI also think that there is too much, but sometimes you fine something and think that its amazing right there and your negative thoughts go away.
ReplyDeleteI also think that product placement is over the top and very obvious. I enjoy the one piece on American Idol and Coca Cola. I used to watch American Idol and would get frustrated at how obvious the product placement was. The cups on the judges table were so large it was all you could focus on!
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