When I was young, I overheard him mention "You can tell the movie was sponsored by Pontiac..." regarding Smokey and the Bandit. When I was old enough to watch it without having my young mind corrupted by a movie about beer smuggling and violating the criminal and traffic codes of five states, I saw what he meant: Not only the famous Trans Am, but all the cop cars, and a surprising percentage of traffic on the roads were Pontiacs.
Ever since then I've always tried to guess which companies are going to get thanked in the credits by the stuff shown on screen. I'm not sure that's how product placement is supposed to work, but there it is...
Well if that's the kind of movie product placement leads to we obviously need moar product placement.
ReplyDeleteSteve McQueen in "Bullit". I'm chalking that one up to Ford.
ReplyDeleteAwesome chase scene...
Oh, and did you ever notice that McQueen could drop the hammer with one hand on a mil-spec 1911 with a functioning grip safety... He does this a few times in "The Getaway".
You can, with a GI hammer & safety.
ReplyDeleteObviously it's a habit better suited to movies and rooms with Kevlar ceilings.
I liked the car theme in Bet Midler and Danny DeVito's "Drowning Mona" - except for a tow truck and a pickup, Yugos, wall to wall. Some ran, some played junkers, just as silly as could be. A lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteMidler's family was really wacked. Her husband's comment about Mona driving into the river? "You snooze, you lose."
This was a moderately dark comedy, and fun.
Ah yes,
ReplyDeleteThe story goes that in the second Smoky and the Bandit movie all of those cop car Pontiacs were air delete cars that were shipped to Arizona of all places. They were Canadian spec cars that were misshipped. I guess it was cheaper to have the movie buy them than ship them back to the railhead for a train ride north of the border
The heart and soul of America is threatened! If Detroit takes the dive, WHO WILL SUPPLY CARS TO NASCAR?
ReplyDeleteI mean, can you picture Jeff Gordon or Junior whizzing around Darlinton in a V-6 Toyota?
Aren't there already "Camrys" in "Bubba Turns Left" racing?
ReplyDeleteYep. In '07, they started fielding Camrys in the Cup and Nationwide series; they'd run Tundra trucks in truck events as far back as '04.
ReplyDelete