Smallville’s Sears, Kensington’s Wal-Mart

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Shaka Zulu, Jun 22, 2013.

  1. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    You mean like the Axe/Defiance commercials?
     
  2. CorporalClegg

    CorporalClegg Admiral Admiral

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    Having seen all the offenses in question first-hand, I will say Being Erica does take the cake. I was peeling my jaw off the floor. I will give it sort of a pass because it was a dying low-budget Canadian show on a Canadian network. House was a popular American show on a major American network. And, as Trekker said, the whole thing was famed and shot like commercials typically are. And they didn't even bother with trying to force any narrative into the scene.

    By then my interest in House was waning, so it was kind of the last straw for me.

    I watched Eureka on Netflix a few months ago, and I barely noticed the Degree thing. Never understood what all the hubbub is about.

    The Smallville Stride gum was indeed terribad, but then so was the episode.

    USA Network has become somewhat notorious for its product placements. A few shows have flirted with the line (I'm looking at you White Collar.), but haven't stepped over. Yet. I hear Burn Notice is getting pretty bad these days, but I dropped that a few seasons ago.

    The stuff in MoS isn't even worth mentioning. This is just another example of a blogger who thinks he's more intelligent and wittier than he really is writing an article that displays neither intelligence nor wit.
     
  3. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Let's not forget the auto product placement in the first couple seasons of Heroes. In Season 1, it was the Nissan Versa that Hiro and Ando ask for by name (to match the comic book); in Season 2, it was a Nissan Rogue that HRG gave Claire, which got stolen and driven to Mexico, where it figured into the Sylar plot.

    Automobile product placement done right (usually): James Bond.
     
  4. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    There was an ALIAS episode where one of the spies explained that his new Prius hybrid was excellent for surveillance because of its quiet engine!
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2013
  5. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    All of Firefly was just product placement for Blue Sun products.
     
  6. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    Damn you, Joss Whedon!
     
  7. Locutus of Bored

    Locutus of Bored Yo, Dawg! I Heard You Like Avatars... In Memoriam

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    It's also good for launching sneak attacks on your enemies.

    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMaehoA1VJY[/yt]
     
  8. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Something like that, yeah. And I know there may be more examples out there. Shoot a commercial on the set featuring the characters and air it separately and I'd have no problem with that. But when you put a commercial right into the show, you cut in on the precious time that an episode already has to tell its story, and we already watch enough commercials in the first place.
     
  9. Mike Farley

    Mike Farley Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    There was a whole lot of Subway on CHUCK.

    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lgLYGBbDNs[/yt]
     
  10. Corran Horn

    Corran Horn Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Agreed. It was better than having some genericized construct.
     
  11. Frontier

    Frontier Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, I've seen way worse, way cheeser product placement. This was harmless.
     
  12. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

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    What he's saying (and he's full of shit for saying it, IMHO) is that he's angry and saddened at all of the product placement, and thinks that most of it was intentional, despite what was said in response to him by somebody else at the original article on the website, and what others have said here.

    These people amaze me, they really do: they hate Superman Returns to millions of little bits, causing it to not have a sequel and wishing for somebody else to take over, and yet, when said person takes over making a new movie with the character, they come up with bullshit like this. What did they expect, that Snyder would be the same as Singer and Donner? That Metropolis and Smallville would look like Gotham City in the Batman movies made by Tim Burton & Joel Schumacher (check out what fake products are advertised the next time you see Batman Forever & Batman & Robin to see what I mean)? This movie's being influenced by Chris Nolan, so reality is a factor here.

    Obviously, the writer of this article feels that Superman should have some kind of purity about him. While that's all well and good as far as the main character's concerned, it does not mean that the movie should not feel part of the real world as much as possible. I think that he should frankly stick to watching independent movies if he's going to spew bullcrap like this (especially if he's going to forget that the first two original Superman movies made by Donner & Lester had real-life products in them as Superman flew by.)
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2013