Considering the budget of that movie, however, I don’t think it was so much a “let’s sponsor this movie” deal as a “i’m the director and my brother owns a ford dealership” deal.

Seriously, I want some statistics showing any signifigant bump in auto purchases that were actually inspired by seeing a car in a movie recently.

It’s hit or miss. The original Knight Rider TV series probably sold more than a few black Trans Ams, as did the movie, Smokey and the Bandit. I also recall a few middle-aged women in the early 1980s who referred to their BMW 6-series as a “Mattie Hayes coupe” (from Moonlighting).

But overall, does it make a difference? Probably not. Non-car people don’t notice the product placements, and car people get annoyed at watching a movie or show that is set in a world where all of the vehicles are made by a single manufacturer…such as Bewitched, where you only saw Chevrolets and an occasional car from another GM division. Or the Andy Griffith Show, where the only non-Ford vehicles were the ones having car trouble, or being worked on at the service station by Goober, Gomer or Wally.

That was absolutely sickening. Jazz’s change to a Pontiac (!) was bad enough. Nixing Bumblebee’s Beetle in favor of a freaking CAMARO, however, was just insulting. I don’t understand it as a product placement: anyone who’s likely to notice would be equally likely to be irritated.

The GM trucks, of course, I could understand…there’s plenty of them sitting unmolested on dealer lots for alien robots to inspect. Nope, nooooobody bothering them. Especially not customers.

If the robots had REALLY wanted to blend in, they should all have disguised themselves as Camries.

Anyone here buy a CTS because of Matrix Reloaded?

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080820/COL14/80820047

I like the show enough to forgive the product placement, but its the most blatant I’ve scene.

You mean it’s not more blatant than the first season of ‘Heroes’ where Masi Oka (Hiro) mentioned “Nee-san Versa” in every other episode?

Last Comic Standing (Honda)
American Idol (Ford)

Then I remembered: its been directed by Michael Bay.

“Well, this sort of thing can’t get worse!” I thought. Then I saw the new Knight Rider. Do GM and Ford think we’re stupid?

Maybe its wish-fulfillment. I’m sure all three of ‘em would love a world all to themselves.

Money well spent Ford, money well spent.

If you want to see blatant car ads in movies watch Matrix Revolution (and the highway chase scene – I’ve never seen so many GM’s with little other makes except at a rental car lot). Or Transformers where GM’s are the good guys – do they all come complete with the GM silver badge thing?

Watch the opening and closing credits of later Leave it to Beaver episodes. Think it was a coincidence that the Cleaver family piled into a brand-new Plymouth Fury during the opening credits? Or that the Fury was replaced with a new model for each season (guess Ward did well enough at the office to afford a brand-new Plymouth every year)?

Or that during the closing credits a 1959 DeSoto just happens to be driving by while Wally and the Beav are walking down the street?

For that matter, the old Twilight Zone may have happened in another dimension, but it was apparently a dimension where the Ford Motor Company controlled 100 percent of the new-car market.

On The Beverly Hillbillies, Miss Jane Hathaway may have been an underpaid secretary, but mean old Mr. Drysdale paid her enough for her to buy a brand-new Dodge Coronet convertible every year.

I like the show enough to forgive the product placement, but its the most blatant I’ve scene.