Product placement in films is a multi billion dollar industry. The lengths companies go and the money they spend to be part of major motion films is a humongous part of their marketing planets. Whether it’s a subliminal placement like seeing a box of Cheerios on the table or something really obvious like a character getting into a car and the camera panning to the dashboard where it light’s up and says “Ford,” there’s a very high probability that in most big budget films you see, there will be some kind of product placement.
However, the placement you’ll see in a film isn’t always how it was first planned out to be. In fact that are many iterations of said placement before it becomes a final product. Take the movie E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial for example. When you think of this film what’s the one product that should come to mind? Reese’s Pieces right? But did you know that Reese’s Pieces weren’t the original product the film wanted to use?
M&M’s were originally asked to be included in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. After Mars (The company that makes M&M’s) refused, their competitor Hershey was asked, and Reese’s Pieces were added to the movie instead, resulting in Reese’s Pieces sales going up as much as 300%. You think that Mars regrets their decision? I do.
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