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| Courtesy of bourbonblog.com |
"A Heineken. Shaken, not stirred," doesn't have the right ring to it. According to Ad Age, The placement of Heineken in the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, has caused quite a stir (not a shake).
Heineken paid $45 million to have James Bond drinking Heineken in place of his famous vodka martini. Great PR on Heineken's part, but the fans seemed to dislike the producer's decision to include the beer. There have been Facebook groups popping up and the use of a hashtag (#skyfail) on twitter to express the hatred of the product placement by producers.
The Bond movies are not strangers to strategic product placement. Pierce Brosnan's Bond once ordered a mojito instead of the famous drink, and got no backlash for it. In Brosnan's movies, Ford plays a huge role as well. Sean Connery's Bond movies placed Pan Am and Smirnoff throughout the movies.
With these Facebook groups and twitter hashtags causing a ruckus, it begs the question: Is all PR good PR? As a soon-to-be IMC professional, I see that even this bad PR can end up being good. Bringing any attention to a brand that it previously did not have can be a very strong motivator. Even though the brand may be shown in a negative light, it is now acknowledged by a consumer. Maybe the negativity brought the person to the dilemma, but after reading about the product, they don't care about the original problem.
As reported by Vanity Fair, spy movies are very expensive to make. The project had already been delayed by two years due to funding issues. With a promise of $45 million for one shot of Bond drinking a Heineken and the use of Bond in one ad seems hardly a bad deal. Product-placement has paid for many great movies and television shows and it is a great way to advertise by associating with an already established entity.
Here's a list of big success stories:
Wilson and FedEx from Cast Away
Manolo Blahnik in Sex and the City
Ray-Ban in Risky Business
Reese's Pieces in E.T.
Pepsi and Nike in Back to the Future
Red Stripe in The Firm
Junior Mints in Seinfeld
Bubba Gump Shrimp in Forrest Gump
Coca-Cola on American Idol
McDonald's in Pulp Fiction
In the end, everything is about money. As IMC professionals, we can never forget the power of strategic placement of a product.
Read the Ad Age article here.
Interesting that the beer has caused so much commotion. In this case, the publicity (good or bad) seems to be helping the overall awareness of the movie. It helps that the PR in this case does not relate to a moral or ethical issue. Those who care so much to actually make groups about switching the drink probably love Bond so much that they will see the movie anyways. Plus, if there was a beer I would expect to see Bond drinking, Heineken seems to fit the bill.
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