I was watching the new Top Gun Special Edition tonight and it reminded me of the fact that companies were crazy about product placement in 80's movies.
For instance in Top Gun when the Sky Boss runs into the guy with the coffee tray and he flashes the Pepsi emblem as he falls off screen.
What about the Reese's Pieces in E.T. Did M&M's miss out or what?
Pizza Hut is mentioned as being cool in Valley Girl. While Coke probably would pass on their mentioning. And you have to think DuPar's should have paid them a commission, but they were so low budget, they probably filmed the sign late at night and ran!
What product placement in 80's movies can you think of?
Posted by jlp937 (Member # 1877) on :
Okay this is a good topic. If I am remembering correctly the use of Pepsi Free by Marty in Back to the Future. Also other references to the soft drink Tab.
I can't really think right off about any other specific ones but it is so not like now. They use fake product names in movies today. I guess so they don't have to pay the advertising for it. I really like the fact that they did that in the 80s because they were products that you could relate to.
Nowadays they use all of this weird stuff that is made up. Get back to the old days please! I mean this in more ways than product endorsements, right!
Posted by stitch groover (Member # 2895) on :
I seem to remember hearing once that M&M were the first choice for ET but turned it down. Oops!
My favorite piece of product placement was in Rainman when Dustin Hoffman insisted on flying Qantas "because they never crash". 16 years later and they still haven't crashed.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
We've done this topic subject before, but it's been quite a while, so I'm okay with reviving it again.
Yeah, we all know about product placements in:
ET Back To The Future Top Gun Rain Man
But there's also:
Down & Out In Beverly Hills (the soft drink Tab is used a lot in the dialogue) Every James Bond movie!
Posted by GremlinBreakfast (Member # 2585) on :
Was MacDonalds the product placement for 'Mac & Me?' I haven't seen it for a very long time, and I can somewhat remember the infamous fast-food dance sequence.
~grems!
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
I remember when it was so cool that the major companies would like to get their products in the movies...and Pepsi and Coke use to battle all the time to see who won out, even on getting celebrities to endorse their stuff in commercials. The Pepsi commercials were so cool.
In Risky Buisness...I thought Tom Cruise was a walking poster boy for the Nike Cortez style sneakers, and didn't Ray Bans become big because of that movie??
Products are plaster in movies so in your face now...before it seemed more like they integrated it in to the movie better.
Burger King was in the background in Gremlins, in the little town.
Baby Ruth made a big "impact" on Caddyshack.
And in Lucas- didn't they get about every candy bar item they could at the movies??
Posted by Saint_in_London (Member # 2575) on :
I remember at Pepsi can of the Future appearing in Enemy Mine. It was a real strange, shape. It worked of couse as i can still remember it all these later....
Posted by The Wizard (Member # 533) on :
The Golden Child - the dancing Pepsi can Flight of the Navigator - wants a big mac & fries & gets asked if he wants diet/cherry/vanilla coke The Coca-Cola Kid - someone's walking round the main Coke office wearing a Pepsi shirt Three O'Clock High - Jerry uses some Coke to swirl his mouth out after brushing his teeth while driving to school Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K"
