Why is "Product Placement" such a commonly criticized thing?

Because we're enough of us are no longer stupid enough to not realize we're being marketed to.

Idiotron said:
It's because very often, the scene in a movie/TV show/music video is designed to highlight and promote the product.
The art gets compromised so that you can watch an ad.

The worst one I've seen in a while was in Stranger Things season 3.
One group of characters got food from Burger King, then took out and named every item in their bag on screen and then, they had a 5 minute argument about what flavor of milkshake is better.
Another group of characters got into a long argument about new vs old Pepsi and they even compared the new one to John Carpenter's The Thing.
The show stopped in both of those instances in order to sell products. Suddenly, there was no plot, just a commercial.
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They really fucking murdered that show's potential.
 
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Sackity said:
Wayne's world did something similar with their (presumably studio-mandated) product placements.
www.youtube.com

Wayne's World - Product Placement

Product Placement
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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Right away thought of this scene and Demolition Man with every restaurant being a Taco Bell (or Pizza Hut in UK.) Like others have said it depends on how it's handled. Also movies that do it the worst usually aren't great to begin with so people aren't as likely to give it a pass.
 
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TrippinKahlua said:
This is why I made this thread. I was watching a "Cinema Sins" a moment ago, and he mentioned a character wearing Nike Brand shoes.

What if, perhaps instead of being "Product Placement", those were simply the shoes the Wardrobe apartment had?
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I'm not surprised that someone dumb enough to watch Cinema Sins can't figure out why people don't like being advertised to during a film they paid to see.
 
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TrippinKahlua said:
This is why I made this thread. I was watching a "Cinema Sins" a moment ago, and he mentioned a character wearing Nike Brand shoes.

What if, perhaps instead of being "Product Placement", those were simply the shoes the Wardrobe apartment had?
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Of course it's CinemaSins, they're always nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking.

Way I see it, unless you spend entire scenes talking about the product or just blatantly decide "Let's make the movie about the product!" as is the case for the Transformers films, then I see no problem. More so if it's a live action film than animation as you can just make up whatever brands you want in that medium. With live action works, either shoving products in people's faces or just outright using fake products with no in-between can get pretty tiresome.
 
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TrippinKahlua said:
To me it just feels really petty to be complaining about something like this in a capitalist country
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Bruh.

I like capitalism as much as (anyone else, but no takers) likes capitalism, but the over-extertion of products in movies feels like watching a commercial. If I wanted to see a product being shoved in my face, I'd go see the commercial, but nobody likes commercials. So if I see a commercial product in the movie where the ad or product is shoved right into my face, it doesn't make me want to buy the product nor want to see the movie. It makes me shut off the movie and shove it right up a Stein/Berg/or whatever's dick for placing this shit right in front of the movie I want to see and then boycott the company for placing the product in the movie like a good little activist should.
 
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because it's a commercial we are forced to watch and done in a way where they want us to subconsciously like and buy their products which is both creepy and insidious
 
It interferes with the experience.

Think about the strings that product placement entails. In a movie, it also means that they can't make any negative comment about it. Like the starbucks product placement in game of thrones. Was that really necessary?

starbucks.jpg


Though to be honest, burger king tends to piss me off more than others:


burger.jpg


And the perfect example from silicon valley.

 
I don't know why people are bitching about it now after all these years. Imo the best decade for movies was the 80s, and almost all of them had product placement. Granted, it's not done nearly as tastefully now, but that's just because almost everything sucks about new movies.
 
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Idiotron said:
We already have to pay for the entertainment we watch.
If they want to shill products, the entertainment attached to it should be free, I don't like paying to see ads.
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To me this feels like complaining to pay for cable TV while they run commercial breaks.

Or like how Cocoa Pebbles using "Product Placement" with the Flintstones characters.
 
I feel people exaggerate how bad product placements are, no one likes being advertised to, but with something that's good product placements won't ruin it. In general films that are notorious for overreaching with product placements tend to have way bigger problems. All that saying some inanimate objects ruined a film does is deflect the blame from some animate dumbass in Hollywood that can't write to save his life.
 
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It's criticized because it is almost always so fucking obvious what they are doing. And they are always clearly selling out.
 
20th Century Fox accepted corporate funding for Fight Club from Starbucks, Volkswagon, Pepsi and IKEA. Director David Fincher's response to being forced by the studio to have all their products show up in the movie was to ensure that anytime they did that there'd be something unlawful or nasty happening on screen at that time. I like to think this is the way to handle it.
 
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product placement on TV shows are the worst
half of the time, there's ads on anyway
i don't need more fucking ads

but when advertisements get me down
i like to kickback with a cold refreshing glass of coca cola classic
 
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