Marketing: What would you do?
 

So I have been seeing previews for that movie "Cellular" and it got me thinking. From what I can tell, this movie revolves someone trying to save another person, but the cellphone has a low battery.

Assume you own either Cingular, Verizon, Nextel, etc.
I'm not really sure how it works with the wireless biz, but say you were contacted by or contacted the producers for endorsement of your company.

Now, if people see this movie and see your cellphone being the one that has the battery that is running low they may assume that your cellphones' battery life is bad in the real world as well.

True, it is one hell of a advertisement--seeing a cellphone company's name stamped all over the place for 1+ hours, but is it worth it to your company to take this endorsement?

Maybe use another example.
You own Dodge, Volkswagon, Nissan, Mitsubishi, etc and you are approached with a deal with a producer that is developing a film about a car breaking down every couple days, and the trouble it gets people in. (i.e. they are being followed by a murderer).

Would it be worth it to take the endorsement just because of the exposure it would have, or would you shy away?

Again, I'm not sure how product endorsement works in films, but I assume you know what I mean.

What do you think?
Does it all come down to publicity? Bad or Good?

I fully understand what you're saying, I have thought about this too.

I honestly would steer away from all negative product placement. Consumers are not always the smartest of people. :2 cents:

That really makes me think...
I dont think i would do it.. Just too bad image.. Or maybe an old mobile / car.. But none of the newer ones

here in so cal there usually is a commerical for the car thats outrunning the cops on the weekly high spped chase

A low battery is much different then a defective battery.

Anyone who owns a cell phone understands the rules behind them. If you talk, the battery runs low.

A better example for the car scenerio is,

A car runs out of gas.

Bad product placement?

No one has the everlasting Gobstopper, or the everlasting battery, or everlasting anything.

I would imagine movies will see a ton of product placement in the future, probably 20 times more noticable then movies over the last 10 years. Why not take "sponsor" money to make your movie with?

The Players Ball will have product placement as well. The microphone should have a companies URL on the box near the mic, or we can have big screens ont he walls, napkins stamped with URL's, cups, etc.

Product placement will be more and more utilized in all industries in the future. Movies are hot on this trend.

It greatly depends on the products ...

a car breaking down every couple days would be a terrible image to portray for a car company.

Myself, posting "Fellow Christians, this site is SO EVIL, we should take them down" on Christian BBS's, regarding HellSafePorn.com, is a perfect example of "any publicity is good publicity".

Depends on the scenario and the product.

-P