Money has become the single driving force for most of us in cool vape tricks world. Every single cent earned is that much more that can be spent on the luxuries we all desire. Over the past few years product placement has taken a large jump for companies as a way to raise revenue even more. It has become near impossible to watch a movie or television show without seeing some sort of product being plugged in. I can understand the reasoning behind it, but how long until things have gone too far?
Companies pay thousands of dollars (depending on viewers and budget) to get their products mentioned or shown at some point during the movie, which in return is a better way for companies to advertise. It doesn't matter whether the products are something like the cars featured in the movie Transformers or something as simple as a t-shirt and extra is wearing in the background. Companies are taking the route of product placement in television and movies over making commercials because it is cheaper and brings in more money. How many apple commercials does apple make for new products? Usually only one, which is shot very inexpensively because there are no actors. And how many of their products do you see in movies and television? There are actually quite a bit. The reason this works so great is because people watching a movie say to themselves "hey, James Bond is drinking a Heineken. I'm pretty much like James Bond, I should be drinking Heineken as well". It doesn't matter that Heineken replaced one of the most famous movie quotes of all time, the only important thing is that Heineken makes a couple extra bucks.
People idolize these television and movie characters. Companies know this, so they take advantage of these people by selling their products through the characters that everyone knows and loves. The part that really bothers me about this is that product placement takes away from some of the creative flow that is develops during the writing process. As a writer there's nothing more annoying then getting in a groove and having someone tell you that what you wrote isn't going to work because you have to plug in product a, b, and c. The story loses its role as a story and instead becomes a giant billboard for companies to use.
I'm going to try and end every article with a couple of statistics as a little something extra to think about. In 2011, Apple products were featured in 891 television shows and also appeared in 43% of the number one box office movies. Transformers: Dark of the Moon packed in 71 identifiable brands and products. The newest James Bond film has been rumored to reel in $60 million (1/3 its budget) from product placement. With this becoming the sure fire way to go for companies to make extra revenue each year, again I ask how much is enough?