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Product placements may soon be added to classic films
- maxwell 5y agoOr: why I hodl/keep buying every 20th century movie I care about on tape/disc and archiving DRM-less digital files. What's Amazon going to do to the MGM back catalog? And note the nascent free video exodus beginning with the upcoming removal of "Charlie Bit My Finger".
- sumtechguy 5y agoI too am doing the same. I own hundreds of these things. The part where I am a bit 'afraid' is they just decide 'who buys dvds anymore'.
- MikeUt 5y agoOr your smart TV will detect what you're watching and add product placement from its library (using an offline cache if necessary). https://www.vice.com/en/article/mg7ek8/youre-going-to-need-an-ad-blocker-for-your-next-tv https://www.vice.com/en/article/mg7ek8/youre-going-to-need-a... https://clearcode.cc/blog/ott-advertising/ https://clearcode.cc/blog/ott-advertising/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/18/you-watch-tv-your-tv-watches-back/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/18/you-wat...
- maxwell 5y agoGood point. I've been happy with our current 2016 LG device but will only buy dumb TVs/monitors/panels going forward.
- arkitaip 5y agoCan't wait for Rosebud to be the latest Ford EV Truck.
- hprotagonist 5y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1PJTY9AVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1PJTY9AVA oh, wait, that's terrible. i quit!
- arkitaip 5y agoOh man, The Critic was amazing!
- stuaxo 5y agoRemember when the internet was going to be this amazing thing ? These days it seems to be a machine for making me think "FFS" an increasing amount of times a day.
- low_common 5y agoIt still is an amazing thing.
- nathanaldensr 5y agoIt's true: it is, but you have to strip away all the shit that's been piled on top to find the beauty. It reminds me of beautiful natural places like Yellowstone that have been ruined by over-tourism and careless people.
- FridayoLeary 5y agoI think the World Wide Web is amazing. I can gripe about Google, Amazon, Big Tech all day, but at the end of it, their products and services are fantastic.
- munificent 5y agoThis doesn't have anything to do with the Internet. Corporatism and wealth consolidation is the problem here.
- kragen 5y agoThe internet makes it practical to distribute and archive the uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts, even when it's illegal.
- tablespoon 5y ago> The internet makes it practical to distribute and archive the uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts, even when it's illegal. Not really. If "uncorrupted versions of these cultural artifacts" are illegal, what the internet does is make it easy to track down the people sharing them for punishment. The internet is far more amenable to automated surveillance at scale than the offline world.
- Arubis 5y agoWe'll always have <strike>Paris</strike>Cincinatti, the affordable tourist destination
- Tajnymag 5y ago> Mr Beringer says that the next leap forward will be the ability to digitally add product banners to live sports or concert broadcasts "in real time, or milliseconds after". Hasn't that been possible for quite some time now?
- dewey 5y agoYea this has been happening in F1 broadcasts for a while already.
- helsinkiandrew 5y agoWeaving a product into a film or television program may be just about acceptable - whether payed for or not (the Modern Family Apple episode or advertising in Blade Runner stand out). But adding/replacing ads in “classic” well regarded movies really destroys any notion that these are works of art or classics in any way.
- nathanaldensr 5y agoDo we need any more reason to completely abandon mass media movies, music, etc.? If nothing is sacred to them, why should it be to me? I am well aware of the history of product placements, but this just brings the reality to the forefront: you and I are viewed as nothing more than marketing targets and advertisement receptacles. It's dystopian.
- 1cvmask 5y agoJust another variant of deepfakes. All movies are “fakes” by definition. They also retrofit ads into live sporting events covering other billboards for over a decade now. None of this is new in fact. Some people might even prefer the tracking part: “So if you like wine then the hero of a film could be drinking a particular bottle that you might be tempted to try. Or if you are teetotal the star might be sipping on a bottle of branded water.” - Wonder how they will redo the dystopian The Running Man with ads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(1987_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(1987_film) - And while at it we already edit text and whitewash news and books. How about adding product placements from finance companies to The Merchant of Venice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice
- cblconfederate 5y agoOpen the pod bay doors, Alexa
- gmac 5y ago“Ah crap. Alexa! Open the pod bay door.”
- creaghpatr 5y agoHow far away are we from adding product placement to reprints of art like the Mona Lisa, Sistine Chapel, etc?
- minikites 5y agoHow long until product placement creeps into everyday speech? https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertari... >“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
- keiferski 5y agoI can't remember which book, but I'm pretty sure Phillip K. Dick incorporated this somewhere too.
- FridayoLeary 5y agoNo issue with movie product placements in general, though they are sometimes a little bit absurd. Film makers should be a little bit more discerning. But i think to revise old movies is unacceptable. For one thing, the actors/ directors may not have agreed with the ethos of the products they are "advertising". And i think it would be plain vandalism almost revisionism. I don't particularly want to watch the great escape and be forced to see a great big "drink heineken" sign, or a billboard promoting Amazon Prime. It's a no from me.
- MikeUt 5y agoNow do it with books.
- rwbt 5y agoPeople don't read as much anymore, so I think books are safe for now.
- boomboomsubban 5y agoSimilar things have been done, the German edition of one of Terry Pratchett's novels contained advertisements for soup shoved in the middle of the story.
- FridayoLeary 5y agoI can't wait. The Cat in The Hat will be using Flash spray. Saruman will harm the environment with CAT excavators. Harry Potter... OK they already are milking the franchise for all its worth. At least the copyrights expire eventually.
- mnouquet 5y ago> Saruman will harm the environment with CAT excavators Because all that infra you rely on builds itself magically !
- hackerbabz 5y agoMovie studios are conspiring to remove any last bit of guilt I had about pirating.
- Mordisquitos 5y agoIndeed. I started rewatching Community on Netflix some months ago, and I noticed the general synopsis said "(One episode of Season 2 is not available.)". I assumed that with so many brands and cultural references that are parodied there may be some weird legal reason why they couldn't distribute a specific episode, either in Spain or in general. When eventually I got to Season 2 I compared their episode listing with that on Wikipedia, and saw that the unavailable episode was S02E14, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. At first I thought it had to be some weird copyright challenge from D&D... but no. It was because the comedically unlikeable character of Ben Chang obliviously and with no bad intent makes what is a cultural faux-pas in the USA, for which he is criticised, as a minor side joke in the episode [0]! And of course Netflix, in their infinite cultural sensitivity, decided to make the episode unavailable worldwide, as if Netflix users in Spain should even give a damn about a minor American cultural taboo being played for laughs. Thank God that file sharing of copyrighted files is not illegal in Spain [1], so I was able to carelessly download such an objectionable and immoral episode via The Pirate Bay! Hello Torrent my old friend... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(Community)#Removal_from_streaming_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_aspects_of_file_sharing#Spain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_aspects_of_file_sharing#...
- minikites 5y agoAnother example of capitalism's relentless pursuit of value extraction from anything and everything with no consideration given to the side effects, because money is the only way to measure success and importance in our society. We should be building a society for the benefit of everyone, instead of building a society optimized for value extraction for the benefit of a small few.
- gxqoz 5y agoIt's worth keeping in perspective what's already done to many films. Namely, air them on television in an edited form with lots of commercial breaks. This was certainly not the original intention of the directors--at least until modern times.
- gxqoz 5y agoOr even more egregious the channel logos and promos that routinely appear over content. It had been a long time since I had watched linear TV and saw one of these again. I forgot how annoying they are.
- me_me_me 5y agoOn odd occasion I would watch a movie when visiting my parents, every single time I am just shocked when commercials pop up, and it lasts for ever. I can't believe I was used to that. Now its just unacceptable.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- NovemberWhiskey 5y agoI don't mind product placement where it's credibly part of the artistic vision of the director - the classic examples here from my point of view include the Atari placement in Blade Runner. The things that stick out like a sore thumb are where there's an element that has clearly been scripted by the advertiser to inject into a script. Like: we're in a police procedural TV show and the detective's interactions with the GPS/entertainment system on vehicle Brand X suddenly become a focal point of dialog or the scene. That stuff's just obnoxious.
- pwinnski 5y agoThis is... yeah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQYwFND7rHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQYwFND7rHE
- ElFitz 5y agoFeels a bit too 1984 to me…
- nutshell89 5y agoI wonder if / how this sort of thing might be implemented in video games (like classic micro console releases or video game remasters).
- jackcarter 5y agoDavid Lynch on contemporary product placement, 14 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4wh_mc8hRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4wh_mc8hRE
- keiferski 5y agoPerfect. His take on watching movies on your phone is great too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0
- keiferski 5y agoA possible and troubling outcome of this may be that "controversial" scenes are removed from classic films entirely, because advertisers don't want to be associated with them. We've already seen disclaimers added to movies that are "problematic" like Gone with the Wind or Breakfast at Tiffany's. When push comes to shove, will Media Co. turn down millions from Coke just to keep a 30-second scene in a film? I'm not optimistic.
- altcognito 5y agoCant even point out offline that Taiwan is an independent country with self determination, they are going to be ok with selling a couple cokes.
- silicon2401 5y agoThis is why I got into piracy. I don't have to care what modern woke politics dictate as allowable or not, nor do I have to deal with corruptions of art from their original forms for the sake of advertisement or profitability.
- mc32 5y agoI don’t like any product placements —but even less so when they’re injected after the fact. I don’t care if I “recognize” a car being a Toyota, if it’s necessarily incidental to the scene. I do care that things may be artificially plastered in a scene, whether cereal box in a movie before breakfast cereals were a thing or a billboard on a building for a brand that didn’t exist. At that point it’s not a film and it becomes an advertising cartoon. It’s a bit repulsive to be honest.
- handrous 5y agoI agree that products just being in movies doesn't bother me, but the so-common-it's-getting-tropey waist-height shot focused primarily on the car's (logo'd) grill as it approaches to a stop directly in front of the camera is starting to bug me quite a bit.
- gelert 5y agoI agree that removing scenes or adding product placement into existing works of art is very troubling but I'm not sure I would equate that to adding disclaimers to the start of a film. In my mind it's like an age rating - it's additional information which gives someone the information they need to decide if a film is appropriate for them or their family.
- Grollicus 5y agoSo then the next piratebay will have the -original, the -coke and the -redbull version?
- fredley 5y agoNot related this directly, but it brings to mind the whole saga around the (failed) attempt to remove the rat from the final scene of The Departed: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/warner-bros-shuts-down-kickstarter-remove-departed-rat-copyright-1202047850/ https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/warner-bros-shuts-down-kic...
- tpl 5y agoI just don't understand why an advertiser would risk doing this. Seems like it could very wrong if the inserted material rubs people the wrong way. It reads as a tacky thing to do to me.
- kingaillas 5y agoI remember reading a satirical article about a remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey, redoing all the product placement (of which there was a lot more than I noticed: https://everything2.com/title/Product+placement+in+2001%253A+A+Space+Odyssey); https://everything2.com/title/Product+placement+in+2001%253A... basically replacing defunct companies with newer/modern counterparts. Can't find it, but I don't think it was The Onion. Anyway... good lord stuff like this might actually happen.
- darepublic 5y agoWe continue to develop our ability to turn inward from the world, to shut out or edit what we don't like about it and construct ever more convincing fantasies by tricking our brains. Advertisement wants to be there with you in your most private thoughts, manipulating your private fantasies.
- notafraudster 5y agoThis has been proposed as a technical possibility for a long time -- and yes, it is a terrible possibility! And yes, you can find an example of it happening, like the Chinese TV example! -- but "may soon" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the title. They talked to a couple of business people who said, more or less, "making money is good". They reaffirm the technology is good. There's no real evidence they're in discussions with any actual studios or there are any actual advertisers planning to do this. There's no discussion of how the logistics would work in terms of streaming services. The only western example given in the article is Modern Family, which I'm pretty sure is referring to contemporaneous product placement (e.g. an episode was shot without product placement, but the intent was always to key it in in editing) I don't think this is impossible and if it happened I would be frustrated and angry. But let's hypothetically say that I'm right, and this is not going to happen. That would make this article almost definitionally clickbait: a remote possibility is brought up with an infuriating headline designed to share, and the comments section is filled with people who clicked and are riled up emotionally. I think both journalists and people sharing things should be as conscious as possible about this and not participate in the click-attention game. (I recognize a certain irony in commenting to say that no one should react to this, when I'm reacting to the reactions.)
- munificent 5y agoThis is what it looks like when a handful of giant corporations run the world.
- me_me_me 5y agoGo ahead, push more people into piracy and then cry how those evil people pirate stuff cuz they hate big media...
- marcodiego 5y agoAlthough I'm a bit scared of the advertisement industry, I'm hopeful this can turn out to be good. Most product placement are very subtle and non-intrusive, so they don't bother me too much. It may eventually lower the price of streaming services because it is a new revenue stream and may possibly enable a service were costumers don't have to pay for, like old non-cable TV but without intervals. Also, this creates incentives for preservation and re-launch of classic films. Ideally this could trigger a flow where producers create content; post-producers gather resources from advertisers pay the producers, digitally place products and distribute to consumers. If every step is healthy, it can even get to the viewers without the need to pay for it. This could be a boom for entertainment in poorer countries where a good deal of the population can't pay for streaming. Some people simply wouldn't mind watching a five year old blockbuster with product placements if they don't have to pay for it. Of course, it is possible that I'm being optimistic here... we'll have to see how this turns out.
- robbyking 5y agoI sometimes prefer subtle product placement. It looks weird when a character asks for a "beer" at a bar or a "pack of cigarettes" at a bodega. It would feel much more natural they just asked for a pack of Camels.
- the_local_host 5y agoI'd prefer blatant product placement, e.g. Kermit the Frog emerges from Greedo's corpse in the "Han Shoots First" version of "Star Wars", looks directly at the camera, and tries to sell the audience cigarettes.
- HKH2 5y agoWhy should we care about people defacing fiction when the inflation of fiction is responsible for drowning out non-fiction? Even things intended to be non-fictional, like documentaries, are loaded with fiction.
- travisgriggs 5y agoMax Headroom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom) seemed like such a funny lark when I was 15. Now... I'm nearly living in that world. It's sad.
- psychomugs 5y ago"Bullshit. That's how I feel. Total fucking bullshit." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4wh_mc8hRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4wh_mc8hRE
- wdb 5y agoHorrible idea; this is not a positive thing from a cultural heritage point of view. I am not a fan.
- christkv 5y agoCan’t wait to watch a classic noir just to see humprhey bogart whip out his iqos vape and follow it up with a 2019 name brand bourbon before getting in his tesla.
- heywherelogingo 5y agoGiven that they've all been pirated I expect this will just fuel trading of pirated classics.
- fmakunbound 5y agoThis is some kind of race to shit. Adtech is a scourge of humanity.
- twalla 5y agoSorry for the low effort post but fuck this and fuck the people trying to make it happen.
- slibhb 5y agoWe've already seen where this goes with Star Wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmy's_Despecialized_Edition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmy's_Despecialized_Edition
- spoonjim 5y agoCan’t wait for the Google recruiting billboards in On the Waterfront.
- merricksb 5y agoDiscussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26860643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26860643 (42 points/36 days ago/60 comments)
- jimbob45 5y agoIs there really a lack of space for companies to advertise on? Seems like we’re opening up more and more room because the biggest companies take up the best 50% of advertising space. I’d support a cap on how much one company can advertise on one platform (e.g. only so many hours of ads on television so that everyone is able to participate). That way, we don’t see ridiculous attempts like the headline to open up more advertising space.
- mnouquet 5y agoHan shot first !