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You Look Like You Need a Guinness 226

Posted by michael from the running-man dept.
prestidigital writes "This is a great fictional advertisement (high bandwidth) for Guinness. I say "fictional" because it is from the movie Minority Report. You may recall that Steven Spielberg is known for heavy branding in movies ala the opening scenes from Back to the Future (Burger King and Pepsi plastered all over). Well, apparently he has taken it a step further by weaving it into the very fabric of the plot in Minority Report. Cool ads if you can afford to wait for them. Lexus is good."
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You Look Like You Need a Guinness More

You Look Like You Need a Guinness

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  • Personal Ads? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by OutRigged ( 573843 )
    I don't know about anyone else.. But personally, I'd hate having an advertisement call me by name. Or advertisements that scan my eyes, and track me.

    How about walking into a store, and having a big ad greet you? I don't think so.

    Anyone agree?

    • Re:Personal Ads? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Eythian ( 552130 )

      Anyone agree?

      As with many things, its a trade off. On one hand, with the sort of thing in the movie, they know what you get last time and could help you find something similar. Many people would find this sort of thing convenient (provided it wasn't too annoying like, say, a paperclip could be). However, speaking for myself, the privacy aspect would be worrying. It removes the voluntary part of submitting information. Kind of like the online newpaper registration systems, only so ubiquitous that it would be impossible to avoid.

      • The Secret to not having to log into news sites:
        Don't go to them.

        The Secret to not being eye scanned in a store:
        Don't go to that store.

        I have the right to say you must let me video tape you if you want the priveledge of entering my store.

        Purely public places are a different matter, (i.e., public property like streets and parks, not just "public" places like privately owned stores and malls,) but I'm sure the laws can be easily written so that you implicitly agree to whatever the govt wants in exchange for the "priveledge" of being there. (Like, for example, giving "implied consent" to taking a breathalizer test in the future when applying for a driver's liscence.)

        -- W
    • I hate adds in general. Except for some. I like the adds if they are about products I would NEVER buy! Advertise or not.
    • Definitely I wouldn't like it.

      On the other hand, I keep thinking about this after seeing this movie that we might feel more secure if these systems can log when they saw you and in doing so, whatever happens to you, we could know where you were last time, like helping the cops to track you. Or imagine you lost your kids or your little brother in a big mall, this will proove very usefull.

      I really think it would provide a feeling of security.

      I am wondering if Spielberg has been paid for adding all these commercial in Minority Report or did he add them by his own without asking the company. Because he could have made big bucks in asking the company to add his commercials!
      • On the other hand, I keep thinking about this after seeing this movie that we might feel more secure if these systems can log when they saw you and in doing so, whatever happens to you, we could know where you were last time, like helping the cops to track you. Or imagine you lost your kids or your little brother in a big mall, this will proove very usefull.

        Don't worry little brother, big Guinness is watching you.
      • Spielburg was paid very well for these placements.

        The movie cost $100mil, $25mil was earned through product placement.

        This sort of thing is not new, though. 2001 had many product placements, i.e. Pan Am spacecraft, Westinghouse, etc.

        I feel it kinds adds to the movie. It gives it more of a connection with the world we live in.
    • That was one aspect of Minority Report that I found unrealistic. Companies already refrain from publicly flaunting their knowledge of you. For example, for a short while a lot of Pizza Huts answered the phone with "Hello Mr. Smith, would you like another large thin-n-crispy with mushrooms?" They quickly found out that customers didn't like that and stopped doing it.

      That's not to say they don't have or use their knowledge of you, they've just found that people like to maintain their illusions of privacy.

    • Totally agree.

      "Hello, Mr. So-and-so, back for more gay porn? We have a new gang-bang video you may be interested in"

      Never go to the video store with your wife and kids if thats the case.

      </humor>
    • How about walking into a store, and having a big ad greet you? I don't think so.

      Honestly, it depends if that ad comes with a discount on something I want to buy. If so, I don't mind at all. It's just like when you go to Amazon, and it says, hello, this is what we recommend for you, and this is what we're running on special offer today.

      Otherwise I am reminded of that episode of Star Trek where Troi's mother takes Worf's son to a health spa. Worf and Troi go looking for them, but there is a sort of flying drone that gets in their way, it will only let people into the spa who are happy. Worf reaches up with one hand and crushes it.

  • Manipulating the mindless masses (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 30, 2002 @06:39AM (#3795066)
    If advertising is really about 'informing' the public to make 'rational' decisions, then why do advertises need to:

    1) Employ psychologists who don't have an ounce of ethics in them
    2) Have music in their adverts
    3) Advertise over and over again when we all already know about their product
    4) Spend double-digit percentages of their company's money on advertising
    5) Have little in the way of actual information in their adverts, and instead just try and sell an image

    The reality is, people are ignorant and highly controllable. Society is a socio-economic machine; there is no rationality nor any real understanding of how it works. Each individual mindlessly functions in relation to the little corner which they face on a day to day basis, and will decieve themselves into accepting and doing whatever they're tricked or pushed into thinking will make them personally more secure.

    "Microsoft". Need I say more.
    • Nobody ever said advertising is about informing the public. Sorry, you lose. Good points though, but they arent really news to anyone.
    • If advertising is really about 'informing' the public to make 'rational' decisions

      Wow, who ever told you that? If any marketroid ever told you that with a straight face, rest assured he bust out laughing the instant you were gone.

      Seriously, though, you don't get any points for tearing down an argument that no-one made.
      • There are several marketroids I can name who sincerely believe their own bullshit. It's why I've put marketing pretty close to the top of my personal list of 10 most contemptible occupations (I'll give you a hint: it ranks just below politics)...
      • ---snip
        Seriously, though, you don't get any points for tearing down an argument that no-one made.
        ---snip

        actually, it looks like he got 5...

    • Re:Manipulating the mindless masses (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "Microsoft". Need I say more.

      Well done, you'll get moderated up for the typical slashdot microsoft jab. But look up, how many sourceforge ads are on slashdot doing exactly the same things you have listed?

      Advertising is not about helping people make rational decisions, it's about persuading people by emotional means.

    • Repetitive commercials are part psychology, but there is some rationality behind a consumer's decision to go with a heavily advertised product.

      More adverts = more money the company spent on adverts
      More money company spends on adverts = more money company (hopefully) has
      More money company has = more money they received in revenue because they had a quality(?) product

      When was the last time you bought a product you had never heard advertised?
      • When was the last time you bought a product you had never heard advertised?

        Moo.

        I mean, yesterday when I bought 50 mini CD cases. I don't recall ever seeing CD cases advertised, let alone mini CD cases.
        • "Moo"

          I suddenly want a Gateway computer!
          • "Moo"

            I suddenly want a Gateway computer!

            I feel sorry for ya, I don't like Gateway because they sell prebuilt systems and due to some of their history. Oh, and expandibility/maintenance doesn't seem high on their list either.

            A cow in a box is one thing I might think when I see their commercials. Now if they could put a chocolate milk tap on the side of their systems they'd have something (which I bet would be mostly used for beer in this netborhood).

            I recall chiming "It real ly sucks" to the Pentium dinks at the end of some of those commercials.
      • When was the last time you bought a product you had never heard advertised?

        I buy surplus electronics all the time, yesterday I bought a truckload of lumber from a place that runs no ads, last week I took my cat to a vet that runs no ads.

        In fact, I can't really think of much I have bought in the recent past that does have ads running, at least not durable goods.

        As consumables go, I buy mostly store brand items, only going for the name brand when the store brands just aren't as good quality (Got to have real Coke, that store stuff isn't the same).

        I think TV advertising is mostly BS, it may be effective for certain products that have wide appeal but not many people know about, but those are few and far between. (PeoplePC comes to mind, back when they were running ads)

        For example, I don't think some dude telling people "Up Yours" makes me want a 7UP, but I guess there could be subtle effects that I am not aware of.

        I work in the packaging industry, and I think that sort of "on the shelf" advertising is much more important, especially for quasi-commodity items, like food and grocery store type goods.

        Companies pay for very expensive packaging sometimes, with metallic inks and special colors, they pay for the premium shelf spaces in the stores, etc. I think that sort of more subtle advertising is a lot more important for consumable goods companies, and I'd bet that gets a lot bigger chunk of their budget than other types of ads, in most cases.
      • More money company has = more money they received in revenue because they had a quality(?) product

        Bzzzt. How about

        More money company has = more money they received because more people have seen their adverts than the competitions'.

    • Ah ha, we have yet another master-of-the-BLINDINGLY-obvious AC. Yes, Sherlock, ads are about pimping a particular product and NOT about providing true and accurate information to the public. What tipped you off?

      Look up advertising in the dictionary some time: "to call public attention to especially by emphasizing desirable qualities so as to arouse a desire to buy or patronize". Hell, even ad agencies don't pretend like they are trying to spread the truth or inform the public. They know what they are doing: selling products.

      As to the rest of your rant, take a psychology class or three.

      It amazes me that this sort of thing gets modded up.
      • Maybe it's blindingly obvious that advertisers are out to trick us, but that doesn't mean the point is invalid.

        Capitalism is based on the premise that the informed consumer will pay fair value for a commodity. Advertising seeks to create new value: "coolness."

        Most people hate monopolies because they are bad for the economic system (at lesat it seems that way when ever Microsoft is mentioned). Maybe we should hate advertisers, too.
    • Much of Microsofts success lies in the fact that when all other was focusing their advertising towards the techies Microsoft went to the PHB's. Since the PHB's know sh*t about computers they are much easier to trick. Brainwashing works best to implant ideas and urges when the recipient is not aware of the product or service.

    • Informing? (Score:2, Informative)

      by mikosullivan ( 320993 )
      Where did you get the idea that advertising is usually supposed to be rational? I've never heard anyone in the industry claim that. Advertising is generally about awareness: make the consumer aware of the product so that when the time for a possible purchase comes along the product is in the consumer's mindset. That's why there are so many car commercials. Nobody expects the commercials to actually make someone want to buy a car. Only a tiny fraction of the audience is expected to even be interested. The intent of the ads is that for that small fraction of the audience that actually is thinking about getting a car, indeed for the even tinier fraction that is thinking of getting a car in that product class, the ad puts the car into the consumers' mindsets.

      There are also other intents of advertising, including the occasional rational decision type... check on trade journal and you'll see a lot of ads with a lot of real informational content. Image is, of course, another popular objective (Pepsi comes to mind).

    • Not that I'm trying to disagree, but most of those are pretty flimsy points.

      1) Employ psychologists who don't have an ounce of ethics in them

      Potentially libel. It may be true, but I don't see any evidence and it's not a widely known fact.

      2) Have music in their adverts

      So they aren't totally boring? And why do they have music in movies?

      3) Advertise over and over again when we all already know about their product

      Just because *YOU* know about their product doesn't mean that everyone does. Besides, it's NEW! and IMPROVED! now.

      4) Spend double-digit percentages of their company's money on advertising

      Probably because advertising is expensive. Or do you think they wouldn't advertise for free if they could?

      "Microsoft". Need I say more.

      Yes. WTH is that supposed to mean? All companies are working for Microsoft? Ok, Microsoft is a good example of what you're saying, but what about, say Disnep? McDonalds? Pepsi? Presidencial campaigns?

  • Ahh! (Score:3, Funny)

    by miffo.swe ( 547642 ) <{daniel.hedblom} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday June 30, 2002 @06:39AM (#3795067) Homepage Journal
    The best beer in the world. Really beats american beer, thats to much like making love in a canoe.

    (Fucking close to water)

    • It is kind of sad- nice animation, but Guinness sells itself.

      It's also kind of sad- nice old joke, but there are so damn many good breweries around here it's like Christmas every time I go to the grocery store. Even if the other half of what they carry is just cans of rice.


    • No, the best beer in the world is Chimay Grande Riserve ("Chimay blue label").
    • Times have changed in the States. If you are in San Francisco, ask one of the zillion slashdotters here to bring you to a real bar/pub [toronado.com] sometime.
    • guiness isnt beer - it's stout.
      • Stout is just a subset of beer. Stout just means "strong".
        • well consider me educated.

          i'd somehow formed the impression that beer was a specific type of brewed alcoholic beverage. eg, the Belgians and Germans had laws regarding what was 'bier'. perhaps the english meaning of beer doesnt have these connotations.

          anyway.
          • The German beer purity law only allowed for water, hops, barley, and yeast. Stout uses a more roasted barley, giving it a darker color.

            Btw, the purity laws are no longer in effect, at least legally, because the violate EC trade laws. Many brewers still follow them though, legal or not.
            • indeed, which is why stout is not beer. :)

              least that was my way of thinking. anyway.. give me a guinness anyday. (the smell round St. James Gate in dublin is lovely.)

              --paulj

      • stout is a type of beer, as is ale, porter, extra stout, bitter, special bitter, etc. it all falls under the beer umbrella.

  • Close but no cigar. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It'd take truly excellent advertising to get me to install quicktime.

  • stuff to come (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ankou ( 261125 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @06:50AM (#3795077)
    You can already see that this kind of advertising is soon to come. Ya get hundreds of email spam with your name on it and you get tons of phone calls a day congradulating YOU for being accepted for a new low rate card. How many of you agree that if not the eyes being scanned, there is at least this huge war for the eye balls at every website you go to. Remember those obnoxious flash adds, flashing adds, adds that run all over the page you are trying to read, and not to mention the ones with audio. I think there is a line that consumers are going to put up with. We have been pounded and proded by product placement in every single medium we use, and there is a point where you start to loose customers who get pissed off with this invasion of sanity. Hopefully people will speak up before the ads in this movie become a reality otherwise I am going to start wearing mirror sunglasses.
    • We have been pounded and proded by product placement in every single medium we use, and there is a point where you start to loose customers who get pissed off with this invasion of sanity.

      I've been boycotting heavy advertisers for a while now. No purple pills for me! Not even while driving around a mountain in an SUV or quilting toilet paper!
    • I doubt mirrored sunglasses would help a member of Minority Report's society. If you watch the scene where all the people get off the subway you'll see a woman getting scanned even though her eyes are closed. She is in the lower left of the screen.

  • Well I tried to watch the ad. It was there on my desktop. It starts off with a Guinness and some birds flying around in the top or something. Then, the screen goes all digitized and the soundtrack sounds like a modem trying to connect. Then, Windows tells me that QuickTime has caused a fatal error and must close.

    All this because Mozilla is still downloading the file while I tried to watch it. Maybe I need to un-cap my cable modem. Or turn off Kazaa. Or just take all the pr0n out of my Kazaa folder, that seems to be over half of the traffic.

    I wish I were drinking a Guinness right now, but Fat Tire Amber ain't too bad.'

    Whoo Hoo! I got the Score +1 Bonus check box!
    • Oh. I didn't know there was sound to it. I'm not going to download any plugins today, though.

      And as great as Guinness is, I prefer Murphy's.

      • Hah! Murphy's isn't even brewed in Ireland, it's brewed in Holland by Heineken. Nothing at all comes close to Guinness, well, maybe something like Papizan's Toad Spit Stout but anyway...
        • I have made brews where people can not tell the differnce between my brew and Guinness. Guinness is actually pretty easy to make, cosisting of mostly roasted and flaked barley.

          of course it helps to have a nitrogen system at home. :)

  • Man, that's slow (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 30, 2002 @07:00AM (#3795091)
    I've had 3 Guinesses this morning in the same time it took that clip to load. And that that includes settle time. ;->

  • Not Spielberg... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Richard5mith ( 209559 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @07:05AM (#3795100) Homepage
    Except of course that Back to the Future was co-written and directed by Robert Zemeckis and it was just Spielberg's production company (Amblin).
  • Maybe I just don't get the quote, but why is it said that Speilberg is known for heavy branding due to Back to the Future? He didn't direct that.

    I understand that it is now just accepted to hate the guy, but that seems to be going out of the way a bit. Unless, of course, I am missing something. (Most probably)

  • Hey, that add worked! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Rhinobird ( 151521 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @07:14AM (#3795112) Homepage
    I don't want just ANY Lexus now...I want the one in the movie. How about commenting on the cross promotion prevelant. In this month's Popular science is an article about that Lexus that Mr. Anderton drives around in. How about commenting on that: advertising disguised as news?
    • How about commenting on the cross promotion prevelant. In this month's Popular science is an article about that Lexus that Mr. Anderton drives around in. How about commenting on that: advertising disguised as news?

      Popular Science is news? I don't often read it, but I've looked at articles in there going back to the 60's (my grandfather got it back then and saved all of them, there's a cool article about ramjets in one of the really old ones). I've never seen Popular Science as anything more than a fluff magazine with product placement. Its a pretty cool magazine, and does a good job with what it has, as long as it placed some decent products in that issue.

    • How about commenting on that: advertising disguised as news?

      Are you even aware how completely self-referential you're being?

  • Just returning from the movie, my opinion was that it was pithy. Great ideas, but no substance.

    and for that matter, i just had to wonder if more effort was spent branding the movie as opposed to creating a 'beleivable' experience.

    ..besides, if coke has its way, there's not going to be any pepsi in 2054 :D

  • Oh, so horribly worng... (Score:5, Funny)

    by tlambert ( 566799 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @07:20AM (#3795122)
    Going into the store with you significant other...

    "Ah! Joe Johansen! Good to see you again! We just received a new batch of KY in butterscotch, your favorite flavor, according the Basking Robbins!

    We know you normally buy KY down at Big Al's Porn Shoppe on 32nd, but this store is 4 blocks closer to your home, and we know how awkward it is to get those 50 gallon drums home on the public slideway! Why not have one of our friendly clerks help you out to your car with one of the store's hand-trucks? Remember, we provide free curb service, where Big Al's doesn't!

    How is Millie, your Yak, by the way? Has the infection she had responded to the Penicillin you purchased two weeks ago from Bob's Veterinary Supply? Is she still down in U-Store-It Storage Unit #15? We have a co-marketing agreement with U-Store-It, where if you buy from us today, you will get 5% off your next month's rent!

    ..."

    [and on and on...]

    Uh, no thank you!

  • Wow, way to 'date' a movie. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In 50 years, at least half of the companies listed won't even exist any more, and anyone looking back at Minority Report will laugh at its childish view of the future. Once again, we're doing what they did in the 50s-80s, and expecting that the future will be all advanced, we'll have hovercars, video projections everywhere, etc.. I mean, see Back to the Future II. That was considered 'realistic' at the time, but it's just a piece of crap that we laugh at now.

    In another 50 years when Pepsi is called Hypermegaglobaldrink and Lexus are the cheapest brandname on the planet, we'll have a good old laugh, just like we do at PanAm being in '2001'.

  • hells bells (Score:2, Interesting)

    by savbill ( 583728 )
    what the fuck - lexus sucks dogs farts. beemers are the only way to spend serious money. fuck commercials, fuck adverts, fuck capitalism, eat the rich, fuck their children, die, die, die!
    • uh, what?
      BMWs aren't eactly low-coinage vehicles my friend. While I detest capitalism as much as the next misanthropic nihilist, communism will not work with a one-race-society.... especially hoomans.
      I suggest we kill all the hoomans and start over! ^_^

      BTW, I paid nothing for my Toyota pickup and she has 211000 miles on her, the engines never been apart yet is still within new engine specs for leak and compression.
      Screw the germans, screw the yuppie toyotas(lexus). Huzzah for all the 80s japanese vehicles!

  • Who cares (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nemesisj ( 305482 )
    I personally LIKE it when a movie set in our time period and our world uses branding on its set. Which one is more believable "Mom, I'm going down to the drugstore to buy a Super-Duper-Cola" or "Mom, I'm going down to the drugstore to buy a Coke"? Using fake brands in movies breaks my suspension of disbelief and annoys me. Same goes for video games.
    • Personally, I liked the approach in "Repo Man" - they couldn't get any product placement $, so all products in the film were given generic labels: for example, "BEER".
      • I've said it before, and I'll say it again. "Repo Man" DOES have product placement. It's just product placement for Ralphs Supermarket's line of generic groceries. They haven't carried those generics for years but back when "Repo Man" was released they were flogging them like crazy.

        After "Repo Man" there was enough of a spike in interest in their generics that Ralphs put out a set of generic goodies like a "T-Shirt", a "Mug" and a "Cap".

        Funniest placement in the movie: the can of "Food" that Otto was eating from at his parents' house. I don't know what Emilio Estevez was forced to eat there, but it looked an awful lot like either cat food or dog food. EEW.
  • Reebok. An ad shows clothing that changes color as runners exert themselves more vigorously. Consumers can program their clothing with the latest fashions by downloading directly from Nike.

  • Philip K. Dick to the Meta (Score:5, Interesting)

    by localroger ( 258128 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @07:35AM (#3795146) Homepage
    The ads targeted by retinal scans appeared in several PKD stories (though not, notably, The Minority Report itself). This movie is the best PKD adaptation ever; the things which were added to flesh it out to movie length are almost all taken from other PKD works.

    If PKD were still alive he would be laughing his ass off at the product placements in this movie; not only are the ads portrayed as he envisioned, the moviemakers actually used the techniques being portrayed to help pay for the movie portraying them.

    On second viewing I also have to say that the "not too futuristic future" is more different from ours than it first appears. Every flat surface in the movie's public space is a monitor showing ads. Even the cereal box! (That was soooo Philip K. Dick.) While The Gap might not be around in 2050, you can rest assured some other business serving the same niche will be; and it and the fashions within will be as unremarkable to the people of 2050 as the Gap and its product are to us in 2002.

    And you have to really wonder whether the rest of the movie after Anderton is haloed is just a fantasy (a la Total Recall) or if it really happened...

    • I can't remember what PKH short story it was in--I thought it was a story included in the Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford--but it included a depiction of advertisements of the future, beamed behind into your eye on spaceflights so that even when you closed them, the advertisement was all you could see. If it isn't content that is nothing more than cleverly dressed adverts, it will be adverts that you are strapped down to watch.

      Destroy your television now, while you still can! It is trying to control your behaviour! BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Man, I forgot how much I liked PKD's works. Perfect reading for the fanatic, paranoid, 20-something, college-student, experimenting things they shouldn't be, slashdot demographic. Should be popular with all the wierdo's around here.
    • This movie is the best PKD adaptation ever

      By this, I hope you mean "contains as much PKD-derived content as any previous movie," because as a film, it's horrible.

      OK, I'll admit a certain visual aesthetic, but so much of it was crap that I hardly know where to begin. It's a summer movie, so we can forgive a few pointless chase scenes. But all of those "odd" characters seemed like 4 or thth rate ripoff attempts of David Lynch.

      The creepy plant lady made no plot contribution (and knew things she wouldn't have been able to know) and was purely there to show off visual effects.

      The spiders weren't even scary, they were almost cute, in a repulsively ET-like way. The precog, who supposedly can't predict anything less than a murder is telling him when to hide behind a balloon sale...

      And how about that happy ending? Boy, didn't you walk out of the theatre smiling knowing we'd done "the right thing."

      Actually, it wouldn't be nearly so annoying if the movie weren't chock full of really good ideas that were totally wasted. What a travesty.

  • When Ads Attack (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mgrochmal ( 567074 )
    When I saw Minority Report recently, I remember John Anderton being bombarded by ads. Another series came to mind when I was reading it: Futurama. Specifically, the episode where it starts with the gang going online with VR goggles and, just as they see the pretty digital effects, they're swarmed by lifesize pop-up ads. They have to literally fight their way through, punching and kicking the OK buttons.

    They weren't high-resolution holograms with customized messages, but it still had the feeling of being smothered by commercials that I felt in Minority Report. I enjoyed the actual plot of the movie, but the deja vu of overactive commercials gave me a laugh.

  • Logo placement and PKD movies (Score:5, Interesting)

    by theRhinoceros ( 201323 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @07:54AM (#3795170)
    There is a reputed Blade Runner Curse [scribble.com], referring to a number of brands given prominent display in Blade Runner which fell victim to hard financial times during the 80's, with the exception of Coca-Cola. Brands such as Atari and Pan Am, which were featured quite prominently in ads on the sides of buildings lost a tremendous amount business, to the point of collapse (although I was shocked last week to see the Atari brand on my NWN box). It wouldn't surprise me, then, to see a number of companies shown in Minority Report to collapse before 2054, even currently viable corporate behemoths. I would like to think that their inclusion in a speculative illustration of dystopian coporate intrusion would be the "real reason" they collapsed, and that PKD somehow had a part in it, laughing at the irony of it all.
    • there is a great Kids In The Hall sketch (#2, episode 218) that deals with superstition and failed businesses, and how such superstitions are really stupid. They blamed the failure of a previous company on the chain letter, not of their crappy product (some kinda crappy flavored gum).
  • This is a great fictional advertisement (high bandwidth)...

    high bandwidth? not anymore :)

  • I don't know about you... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sc00ter ( 99550 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @08:16AM (#3795197) Homepage
    But I like the ads in the film for one reason. It makes the film more realistic. I'd much rather see them Burger King then a Bobs Burger Wold, or drinking a Pepsi rather then a pepsi can with the word Pepsi removed and Soda put in it's place.

    • I'd agree with you if it's something subtle...

      If you watch the movie Cobra, you'll see Stallone, in the middle of a gunfight, stop, drink a Coors beer, then get back to fighting.

      Director's are torn between making the movie good (thus making the ads subtle), and making their ads good (taking away from the movie), which is the reason I am wholly against product placement.

      Additionally, why the hell are so damn many people happy to pay $8.50 to watch a movie, just to be inundated with commercials before, and durring the movie you paid to see?

      Sorry, too many money-grubbers for my taste. I'll stick with Gnutella for my movies, unless I'm sure there aren't going to be any ads...
      • Additionally, why the hell are so damn many people happy to pay $8.50 to watch a movie, just to be inundated with commercials before, and durring the movie you paid to see?
        You're forgetting the forced donations before the movie starts - I'm all in favor of helping little kids with cancer, but if the movie theaters really cared they'd donate some of the $3 I have to spend for a bag of M&M's. Seriously, they charge such enormously high prices for food/drinks at the theater, don't let you bring in your own food, and then they guilt you into giving them more money. I now don't go into the theater until five minutes after the "start" time.
  • I understand that although the use of real brands adds to the credibility of the film, these companies still paid for product placement, even though they were portrayed really negatively. I thought the invasivness and uquiquity of the "real world popup ads" was scary (especially on the subway train), and wouldn't expect real marketers to be associated with pushy, overaggressive tactics.

    Of course, there's no such thing as bad publicity. And the hero was usually blandly accepting of the adverts, providing a role model for the consumer masses to follow. The only time a commercial really angered him- when he threw an overly loud cereal box across the room- the brand name was blatantly fake.

  • my impression (Score:3, Informative)

    by cr@ckwhore ( 165454 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @08:57AM (#3795285) Homepage
    When I saw this movie, the large amount of blatant product placements was sickening.

    There were others not mentioned in the article...

    Nokia had a huge spot, with their logo placed on every electronic device for an entire scene.

    Burger king is also a whore, with their logo being well within plain view during a mall scene.

    The first ad to catch my eye, was Aquafina. I guess they're still packaging aquafina water in 2054 with the same package design and logo.

  • Not really new (Score:3, Interesting)

    by qweqwe ( 104866 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @09:21AM (#3795357) Homepage
    If you look at:

    the DEMOLITION MAN (1993) quote:
    --------
    Lenina Huxley: [T]aco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars.
    John Spartan: So?
    Lenina Huxley: So, now all restaurants are Taco Bell.
    --------

    and "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial" (1982) key scene where the film's main human character, 9-year-old Elliott, lured E.T. of the woods with Reese's Pieces

    you'll see it's been around for a while.
    • Even worse, the export version of the film had a different restaurant chain, because Taco Bell is US only.
      • I saw a single Taco Bell in Sydney, Australia in 1999.
    • ...and "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial" (1982) key scene where the film's main human character, 9-year-old Elliott, lured E.T. of the woods with Reese's Pieces...

      According to legend [snopes2.com], the scene was originally suppose to use M&M's. However, Mars, the candy's manufacturer, refused to allow their name to be used -- and so Hershey's Reese's Pieces ended up being featured instead. According to the link above, sales of Reese's Pieces increased something like 65-85% afterwards.
  • Walking into a hotel:

    Fourth wife this week, sir?


    Walking into a bookstore:

    Sorry sir, we are out of the magazine Barely Legal


    But, it might be neat to have tailored banner ads online. I mean, I never want to go hunting or fishing, so don't show me anything outdoorsy, but would like to see something regarding computer programming, but not games.

  • Spielberg was only a producer on that movie. Zemeckis directed it.
  • "It looks like you're writing a letter! Would you like me to go to staples.com and buy you more stationary with your ever-so-special pr0n on it?"
    • A few weeks ago Rotten ran a "boner" showing Microsoft Word, with the text "Dear world, I cant take it any more" and Clippy helpfully advising:

      It looks like you're writing a suicide note! Click on the method you're planning to use: [gun] [jump] [drown] [other] [etc]

      One of the funniest damn things I've seen in awhile.

  • Look ma! Advertisements seemlessly woven into movies! This really is News for Nerds, Stuff that matters!! Slow news day, Michael?

    Just so it isn't totally off-topic, seen the new singular wireless commercials? Shamu? MiB2 worms? I think they're opening up a new trend in cross brand commercialization... Surely I can submit that as a story and it will get accepted. Nah...

  • And on Monday morning, advertisers will get busy (Score:5, Funny)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Sunday June 30, 2002 @11:16AM (#3795828) Homepage
    "We need personalized ads, like Minority Report. And we need them now. I want ads like that in our malls by next year!"
  • Spielberg didn't direct Back to the Future. Roger Zemeckis did. [imdb.com] Spielberg was executive producer, which means "person who endorses the production of the movie and has high-level input but otherwise does nothing."
  • Cool ads if you can afford to wait for them.

    Or if you can afford the $7 to see the movie..
  • From their "legal requirements" page:
    You must not access this site if you are resident in any of the following countries:


    France and the French overseas territories and departments/ France et Départments ou Territoires d'outre mer français (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, St Pierre and Miquelon, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Southern and Antarctic Territories, Wallis and Futuna Islands) Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Krygystan, Kuwait, Libya, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

    The Middle Eastern countries I can understand, but France? Denmark? Sweden? What's the problem there? And does anyone seriously think that residents of those countries are going to heed some stupid "thou shalt not" like this? Do authorities in European nations actually attempt to enforce whatever laws are making this notice necessary?
  • Luckily for the companies in the movie, they only had to advertise to one group: "White Americans" ... because aside from the Token Black Cop(tm) (one male and one female), and a few people in the crowd (a few Asians here and there and couple of other dark skinned folk).

    I found it strange that Washington D.C. of all places ... one well known for its large black population and its folks from other races would have 99% white people in it. Take a look for yourself, around the pool, in the mall, in the cars, in the jail, everywhere public ... white people.

    Go ahead and make up scenarios for yourself to explain this phenomenon.

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