Of Ganguly and Rajni

Wonder what connects Dada and Superstar? You say "nothing"? Then, you've forgotten those irritating hoardings of Tata Indicom, featuring Ganguly, which appeared in many scenes in Chandramukhi.

Here's one more. Many of us would have burst out laughing seeing the camera focus on a Coca Cola keychain, in the scene where the mother is dying, in Yaadein!!

These are supposed to be usages of an advertising technique called "Product Placement", but our filmmakers simply donno how it is done!!! I had to make a presentation on this topic recently and hence I happened to find many awesome product placements in Hollywood movies while working for it!

Take this one for example. This is from the Julia Roberts starrer, Runaway Bride.


Well, you saw the FedEx truck - that's just the good part, but not the brilliant part. The brilliance lies in the way the FedEx promise - sure delivery by 10:30 am the next day - is incorporated as a part of the dialogue. This just fits in seamlessly with the movie and doesn't stand out or annoy the audience!!
(ok..I can hear ppl saying "I cant access youtube". So, here's the description. Julia leaves Gere at the altar and is running away in a FedEx truck. Here's the dialogue at that point:
"Where do you think she's going?"
"Wherever it is, she'll be there by 10:30 tomorrow morning".)

There are many more examples - I can remember AOL e-mail in You've got mail, and many products in When Harry met Sally and City of Angels (oh! I love those romantic comedies of Meg Ryan. )

When will our Indian filmmakers stop showing the product blatantly, and keep the advertising message subtle? When will they learn?


PS: Anyone came across some really good or really bad product placements? Write about it in the comments...
By Aravind on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 9:12 AM
10 Comments
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Comments

  1. Ramya Shankar

    Salaam-e-ishq recently.
    They canvassed IRA Diamond jewellery thrice for the 3 real couples in such an important part of the movie. Worst part was, they focussed the camera and zoomed in on the brand tag than the jewel.
    Absurd I say !

  1. Anonymous

    ford... in minnale.. i think it was acceptable..

  1. Anonymous

    A good one was World Space radio in Lage Raho Munnabhai, I thought that was very well integrated and not shoved down our face. I think RDB had a few smart ones as well: Coca-Cola, Airtel and LG. And ofcourse Guru had Hero Cycles....so its not quite as easy as Hollywood=smart product placement and bollywood=stupid product placement. A whole lot of this depends on the film maker as well as the companies paying for the ads. Plus with Hollywood I could pretty much garuntee you that ALOT more money is at stake so getting it right is absolutely essential.

  1. Sujatha

    right u r...when on earth will film makers here wake up to subtlety

  1. Aravind

    @ Ramya:

    Havent watched the movie... but, 3 times for the same stuff kinda seems bad!

    @ anon1:
    I agree.. that was acceptable!

  1. Aravind

    @ Anon2:

    I still think, hollywood does smart product placements and bollywood does bad pdt placements.. I should say that is a fiar enough assumption... Remember the Western Union "ad" in Viruddh or ICICI in one of the amitabh movies?

    Ya, there have been a couple of good prod placements, but bollywood has a long way to go!

    I think good product placements need involvement of the company right from pre-production stage, like it happens in hollywood... I dont think there is too much involvement here!

    @ Sujatha:

    God save us!

  1. Abinand

    thanx for spoiling run away bride for me :|

  1. Anonymous

    The movie Saravana (Simbhu, Jo starrer) has one on western Union money transfer; a straight one that had Jo telling its faster and reliable way of sending money.

    Besides not all our movie makers are fools. Few of them are quite good.

    A small doubt, if you don't mind. Many movies get money from hospitals, jewellery shops etc for highlighting them in the movies. This is quite common in almost all the movies. What do you say for this? This is such a country where a person donating a tube lamp to a temple wants his name on a big plate. So nobody can stop them unless they (sponsors and film makers) realise this.

  1. Doell

    While wandering in the net, came across your blog and stuck with this post. A real nice and innovative one. No wonder you are an ace management student.

    here goes my example -

    I remember the use of Fed Ex (again) in Cast Away. The movie just not only used the brand name but also incorporated with the motto and philosophy of Fed Ex showing how Tom Hanks saves one last packet to deliver.

    Another example I remember now is the pizza delivery (cant remember the product name) rule in Spider Man2. This was relly funny.

  1. Sandhya Ramachandran

    yeah... these ;surrogate ads' as they are called are in the face and not done subtly AT ALL!!!

    we need to get the message across, woven through the film,but not compromising on the film itself!

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