How Tom Cruise Got You To Buy Ray Ban Sunglasses

            Top Gun is an iconic American film it has a little bit of something for everyone. The film has the irresistible, smart and witty Naval pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell played by Tom Cruise. He sweeps the ladies off their feet in his uniform and impresses his peers with his courageous and risky skills in flight. The plot of the movie revolves around some all American Navy men making friends through some friendly competition in flight school and on top of that we watch Maverick fall in love. The plot has something for everyone making Top Gun the highest grossing film of 1986 (boxofficemojo.com). Throughout the film we watch Maverick put on his sleek Ray Ban aviators at the most pivotal moments such as on the tarmac before flight, when he’s hitting on the girl or shirtless playing volleyball. After the release of Top Gun Ray Ban aviator sales increased by 40% thanks to Maverick.

            Tom Cruise has no problem making Ray Bans sexy again, three years before the release of Top Gun Cruise stared in Risky Business. In Risky Business Cruise’s character wore Ray Ban’s iconic Wayfarer sunglasses so after the release of the film Wayfarer’s sales increased by 50%. Cruise was beginning to make a name for himself in the 1980’s so its not surprising that Ray Bans used Cruise’s ethos to their advantage again in Top Gun. Aside from Cruise being the actor himself Cruise’s character Maverick is the kind of guy we can’t help but love. Maverick is rebellious for all the right reasons every girl wants to date him or guys want to be him which ultimately makes Ray Ban’s aviators immediately appealing.

            Another way Ray Ban’s successfully advertised their product was through the pathos of the viewer. We watched Maverick put on his sunglasses at pivotal points throughout the film. Maverick really gave aviators some major sex appeal in one scene the guys are playing sand volleyball, its sweaty, aggressive, fun and of course Maverick is rocking his aviators the whole time. It makes the audience think, wow if only I looked that good maybe I should get some aviators. Or you catch yourself wondering wow where can I find a guy who looks like that either way Maverick really rocks the aviators. 

It is also interesting because there are four guys in the scene and the only one rocking the iconic aviators is Maverick. So yeah Maverick is sexy but he’s also a little witty and dangerous which makes the audience swoon even more. There is one scene in the movie where Maverick tells his crush, Claire, in front of the rest of his class about how he flew upside down hovering over his partner Goose just so he could give him the bird. Claire and Maverick have a flirty exchange then Maverick gets up to leave, gives her a cheeky smile, put on his aviators and walks away. Again we find ourselves in awe of Maverick. Aside from swooning over Maverick we also watch him walk along the tarmac about to hop in his jet and every time he’s doing this walk he is in his aviators. Here he is about to go fly a jet, like how incredibly cool is that, and he’s rocking his aviators. We as an audience get excited and a little nervous every time Maverick flies but we know he’ll be wearing his Ray Bans leading up to it.

            There is one scene where everyone is on the tarmac on the way to get in a jet and many of the other characters are wearing aviators but none of them are wearing the iconic black and gold aviators. There is one character that is wearing aviators but his are reflective ones but still subtle product placement by Ray Ban. Ray Ban continues to place their other products throughout the film they are all different forms of aviators or similar shapes. Goose, Mavericks best friend and often co-pilot, is seen wearing Ray Ban’s Caravan style throughout the film. One of the most iconic scenes, which appeals to pathos once again, is when Goose and Maverick sing she’s lost that loving feeling to Claire in a bar and in this scene Goose is wearing his Ray Bans. Iceman, Maverick’s nemesis in flight school, is often seen wearing Ray Ban’s Shooter style. Although none of the other Ray Ban styles were as popular as Maverick’s aviators it was just interesting to notice how Ray Ban sprinkled their various products throughout the film.

            The pathos and ethos really did a lot for Ray Ban but ultimately it was the logos that really sold the product. It was essential that Maverick was wearing the aviators at appropriate times, winning the girl, on the tarmac and what not. The product placement wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if he always had them on. Every time Maverick is wearing his glasses we find ourselves wishing we could be him in his leather jacket with a girl on his motorcycle. It’s moments like those where the product really sold itself. Maverick really sold the product and made us feel like if we had on aviators we too could fly jets, get girls all while being attractive and funny.

            I found the product placement in the film to be incredibly effective. Cruise was able to sell the product and even sell the stereotype that all pilots wear aviators. I would give the product placement 4.5/5 because I felt that the product placement was effective but not overwhelming. I also enjoyed how Ray Ban also marketed their other models besides aviators very subtly.

Independence Day Resurgence

Independence Day Resurgence

            In the movie, Independence Day Resurgence directed by Roland Emmerich. This film is about two decades following the alien invasion that almost destroyed mankind, which they call Independence Day when they defeated the enemy. The new Alien mothership is twice the size of the previous attack, so together the armies of the world take down the aliens. The will to survive is the greatest weapon for mankind. The film uses product placement throughout the movie from traveling over the course of the attack. Product placement is used for companies to increase brand awareness and subtly advertise to the audience. I show how Independence Day Resurgence clearly advertises Jeep.

In the movie, the vehicle Director David Levinson and his guys use to travel for the U.N. Research Mission to Central Africa, are specialized Jeep Grand Cherokees. As the Director talks with Floyd Rodenberg in the Jeep, Floyd says, “I’ve been chasing you across the planet for 3 weeks now”. This shows the Jeep is equipped to handle long journeys and the amount of terrain they have gone through. The movie shapes the argument of the Jeep being the specific vehicle for this job, as they arrive at the warlord’s base this illustrates the Jeep is tough enough to work for an African war base. The adaptability of the roads and weather are meant for the Jeep. As Central Asia is in the middle of nowhere with not much of blacktop or pavement for normal cars, with the Jeep there is no worry about the capability to drive. Jeeps official website states, “This is the most capable Grand Cherokee ever. It’s been designed for off-road dominance”. From the advertisement on their website and other social media outlets, therefore you can clearly see the right vehicle for this movie would be the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The trail of the vehicle in the movie is the off-road, fast and efficient type needed to defeat the alien invasion.

I think the desire to advertise in this film would be for the reasons of capability on off-roads as well as quickly moving to another base on a different surface. According to Understanding Movies by Louis Giannetti, “The most obvious method is simply to preach at the audience. Such movies try to sell us a bill of goods, like TV commercials or propaganda” (403). The quote emphasizes the way movies intentionally layout an advertisement to the viewers. In Independence Day Resurgence this happens to be the Jeep, the method of incorporating the vehicle to match the high agility needed is so exact. Jeep’s strategy to showcase the specialized version was exceptional to the viewers. I think this product placement was a 5/5 because it was over the top about the Jeeps. They incorporated the vehicle into the film very smoothly and I believe an outstanding relative product to this movie. There wasn't any specific pauses in the movie just to see the Jeep logo or vehicle, their advertisements was executed at the right times. Therfore, Independence Day Resurgence deserves a 5 nacho out of 5 nachos.

Skyfall Product Placement

Being the 23rd installment of the James Bond series, Skyfall entered into a brand that was established and possessed long standing relationships with other brands. It makes sense that the Bond series would be highly sought after for companies to have their products in; James Bond is sexy, intelligent, dangerous, mysterious, and seductive which immediately elevates any products seen in the film to the same level. Often marketing teams rely on sending the message that using their product will give you the type of life you are seeing to make the product more attractive. If I think that driving the same car as James Bond will make me mysterious, seductive, and just flat out cool then I’m more likely to want that car. The James Bond series has such a strong history of product placement that the official James Bond website actually has an entire section devoted to their partners. 

One of the major partnerships in Skyfall was Heineken. Alcohol and especially weapons often seek opportunities for advertisements in film due to the restrictions placed upon them for conventional marketing. Being associated with Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Skyfall certainly elevates the ethos of of Heineken. If Heineken is good enough for the infamous 007 then it would certainly be good enough for me. During the scene in the move where Bond is drinking Heineken he is laying in bed with a beautiful woman which sends the message that Heineken helps you get the girl that you desire. Additionally the ad campaign between Heineken and Skyfall also serves to make the consumer feel like they can be part of the 007 world. The commercial depicts a seemingly average person running from assassins and then running into Daniel Craig as James Bond who is drinking Heineken and upon spotting the assassins parachutes out of a moving train. The partnership in this movie between Skyfall and Heineken is a relatively symbiotic but if anything I think that Skyfall receives greater benefit from the partnership. Skyfall has enough weight and reputation behind its brand that it can be extremely choosey about who it partners with and how much they charge to feature a product. Costs for featuring a product in films are generally not released, but it is estimated that Skyfall received over £29 million from product placements. At the same time Heineken received quite a boost from its association with Skyfall. James Bond is equated with luxury so any product featured will automatically be associated with luxury as well. 

Sony is also a partner of the 007 brand as is listed on the partners tab of the website. One Sony product featured throughout Skyfall is the Vaio laptop. This partnership is also a very productive and logical partnership. Again, Skyfall has enough ethos behind it that they don’t need that contribution from Vaio. However, Skyfall provided a lot of boost to the Vaio ethos that it probably really needed. Before looking into these product placements I didn’t even realize that Vaio was a Sony product. Vaio is still an relatively unknown brand since it restructured its efforts to focus on mobile devices in 2014. Skyfall has high enough ethos from the brand that the lack of ethos the Vaio has doesn’t damage Skyfalls ethos any but serves to build up Vaio quite a lot. As I mentioned with Heineken, Skyfall made a boat load of money off these types of partnerships so I consider these two partnerships especially quite effective, logical, and I think they really work to be mutually beneficial. Overall I think this is one of the best Bond movies they’ve made, but at times the product endorsements detract a little from the film simply because there are so many of them. 

Sully: Product Placement

SULLY
Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood, is a movie about a courageous man who did the unthinkable by landing a plane in the Hudson River. The film told the story of Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger in a way that captivated and assembled a sense of relief and security towards the men and women who pilot planes. The usage of product placement was evident during the film as it used numerous services and products while Sully was dealing with the aftermath of landing in the Hudson. It is important to realize that product placement in films like Sully are important for companies who want to advertise their products and services in a particular matter. The viewers notice the message of what is being promoted, and for that reason, it is important for companies to pay close attention to how they want to market their particular product or service.

     

First, one of the more notable services in the movie is seen on two occasions during the film which is the Marriot Hotel. We see the hotel at the beginning of the film when Sully decides to take a run near the Hudson and past Times Square. It can show the viewer a prestigious hotel like the Marriott since it is in the center of NYC. After that we see the Courtyard Marriot again, and this time it is showing us the gracious hospitality as the manager of the hotel is thanking Sully for his bravery and assures him if he needs anything, he can just ask, and it will get done. The Marriott in the film Sully is shown in a positive matter to the viewers as a hotel who truly does care about their guests, and if something were to happen, the Marriott would always be there to assist them. While doing more research on the Marriott, they underline the importance of having core values and state on their website “As we change and grow, the beliefs that are most important to us stay the same—putting people first, pursuing excellence, embracing change, acting with integrity and serving our world.” (Marriott) It is apparent that Marriott wanted to show their core values when it came to helping out Sully and his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, by making their stay at the hotel, relaxing and distressful.

   

Next is the marketing of Kmart when it came to Sully and Skiles losing all of their belongings in the Hudson. While they were in Sully’s hotel room, a man came in with a bag full of day-to-day essentials like shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant, and a comfortable outfit. The man who walks in actually says Kmart as Sully’s co-pilot humorously says “What did you think we were ninjas?” as the man responds that Kmart was the only one open. Kmart was the only store that was advertised by the actors and their message to the customers is quite clear. Kmart centralized on showing that with any event that is to occur, they are reliable late at night for any essential things needed. It focuses on their reliability and trust as a company, as well as a good sense of professionality. While researching Kmart, they specifically emphasize that their “customers can be assured that their communities will always have a broad selection of top-quality products at exceptional values” (Kmart).  This is noticeably shown in the film and is quite frankly proved to be a well-founded store.

  In the end, product placement is used to highlight certain core values of Marriott and KMart in the film Sully. Both companies proved to be reliable and determined to satisfy and strengthen their guests /customers relations. By exposing their services and stores in a positive way, the viewers get a glimpse of what their companies are all about, and can lead to new customers. And at the end of the day, that is what product placement is all about, to show the target audience about the company in just a couple of seconds. In Understanding Movies, Louis Giannetti states "movies try to sell us a bill of goods, like TV commercials or propaganda," and that is precisely what each of the companies intended to do when presenting their services and products. The director, Clint Eastwood, was successful in indicating the values of each of the companies while also centralizing the focus on Sully.

Did Coach America Find its Safe Haven?

Did Coach America Find its Safe Haven?

Product placement is something that lots of people overlook in movies, but in Safe Haven directed by Lasse Hallstrom the use of well known products is so prevalent it’s hard to overlook. The entire first half of the movie uses many products such as: Seattle’s Best Coffee, Pepsi, Coach America, Royal Purple synthetic oil, and Roxy. However, as the movie picks up in intensity the products seem to disappear. The reason for this is that the movie uses products to familiarize the audience with the movie in the beginning, but as the audience becomes hooked its product placement lessens so the viewer is focused more on the actual story line. This is an extremely great use of logos because logically people are smore in tune to things if they have a common connection to it such as the products that the movie uses here. As the film goes on logically the audience is more connected so the use of products is not relevant and the viewer will focus more on the plot.

            Safe Haven has a very simple plot, but the film twists it so the viewer does not find out all of the important information until the very end. Towards the beginning the only thing the viewer knows is a girl is running from something terrible and ends up in a small town. However, as the film goes on more things are uncovered about what she is running from. This girl Katie is running from an abusive husband and at the end of the film the audience finds peace once the whole situation is resolved because the abusive husband will not be able to hurt her anymore. Overall, the complexity of the way the film relays the information helps the audience to stay hooked to the very ending credits.

            One product that is placed in the film from the very beginning scene is Coach America. This is a bussing company that runs all across America. The choice to use them in this movie was an extremely good one not only for the movie, but also for the company. This bussing company was featured so much in the first half of the movie it was hard to count the amount of times. The main character Katie is running from her abusive husband and choses this brand of bussing company to take her to safety and escape. Overall, this helps the company in many ways according to ethos, pathos, and logos.

            Using Coach America as their bus brand in this movie helped boost the ethos of the company significantly. In the very beginning Katie uses this bus to get to safety and, therefore, shows that this company is safe and wants to help people. Additionally, when Katie’s husband who is a police officer, goes to the bus station to try and track down exactly where she went he runs into a problem. This is that this particular bussing company goes across the entire United States and therefore Katie could be anywhere. This boosts the ethos of the company because now the audience knows that the company can take them anywhere and has multiple options for their travel needs. Finally, the ethos of this company is boosted with the availability. Again in the beginning while the husband is running around the bus station trying to find Katie he is unsuccessful because of abundance. There were so many busses going so many different places he could not track down Katie. This shows the audience that this company has many options for whatever needs they might have. Overall Coach America really boosted their ethos by being featured so many times in this film.
            Additionally, pathos is used heavily along with this company to draw the viewer towards this brand. As the movie begins so does the intensity with the main character Katie trying to run to safety. As she is showing the audience how desperate she is to get away Coach America comes in right in time to save the day and help her get to safety. This use of pathos makes the audience feel like Coach America will always be there to save the day.
            Furthermore, logos was in full effect in placing Coach America throughout the entire first part of this film. The movie producers could have used a train, plane, car, or other forms of transportation to take Katie to safety, however, they chose to use the bussing system Coach America has to offer. This was done for many different reasons, but one is because the other forms of transportation would just not logically work. If she took a train it would not stop in small towns for gas so she would not have the chance to possibly get off and see the adorable town she chose as her safe have. If she was on a plane she would have had to go through so much security that her husband being a police officer would have surely found her right away. Even if she took a car her husband would be able to track that car and track her down directly. Overall, the bus just makes sense. The stops it made for breaks and gas allowed Katie to pick that small town to stay where her husband would not know where she got off and decided to stay. Logos was definitely a factor in using this bussing company to take Katie to safety on her journey.

            Overall, I would give this film 4 out of 5 nachos for their use of product placement. This is because they effectively used ethos, pathos, and logos in their decision for which products and when they would be used in their film. Safe Haven overall was an extremely heart wrenching film in which the viewer felt for all the characters, and overall felt satisfied with the outcome as everything came together in the end.

Transformers 4: Placement of Beats Headphone and its Side-Effects

Michael Bay, director of Transformers: Age of Extinction, espouses his movie as an “epic adventure between good and evil, freedom and enslavement.” Indeed, throughout the movie, the audience has the opportunity to appreciate a wide variety of eye-pleasing special effects, particularly CGI explosions. Obviously, CGIs require way more advanced filming technologies as well as post-production effects, which together incur high production costs for the movie. With a movie gearing toward extremely expensive filming techniques like Transformers, finding additional revenues to fund the venture is of utmost vitality. One of the most popular ways of raising revenues is product place. In this essay, I attempt to analyze how product placement may enhance or impair the persuasive appeals of Transformers by focusing on one scene when the film features Dr. Beats headphone.

In the short clip, the bad-guy Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) is testing the function of “Tranformium” – a novel powerful substance that can transform into every thinkable object that is in the handler’s mind. Of course, out of all imaginable objects, Joyce immediately thinks of a Beats speaker. The angle of the scene is a full close-up shot in slow-motion. This scene immediately impairs logos, as the sudden and obvious introduction of the product is so ridiculous that boggles viewers’ mind. The Beats’ logo is unapologetically in higher resolution than anything or anyone else in the scene. The item just out of nowhere appears into the scene without any attempts of transitioning. Apparently, Michael Bay just minimally finds an excuse for placing the product; he doesn’t seem to mind compromising logos in this scene at all. The obvious advertisement confuses and angers many viewers who do not pay for the movie tickets just to watch advertisements. As a result of this poor product placement, the 2015 Brand Channel named Michael Bay’s Transformers 4 as the movie with the “Worst Product Placement."

This lack of logos has upset many viewers and thereafter created a lot of mixed emotions, such as confusion, frustration, and incomprehension. These emotions are the unintended results of the product placement. In this case, the scene inadvertently deprives the movie from the pathos appeal that the movie aims to build. These side-effects are detrimental for the movie since for an action movie like Transformers 4, pathos appeal plays a vital role in branding. Due to its genre, the movie’s box-office strategy is to awe the audience with the special effects, for example, the all-too-powerful explosions, surreal robotic transformations, or jaw-dropping action scenes. However, by introducing a speaker without much transitioning, Michael Bay leverages the impressive high-technical machinery to a speaker. Granted that the Beats speaker looks professional, the illogical materialization of the speaker out of thin air is highly anti-climactic. This effect in turn reduces the surreal impression of the audience, and as a result, reduces the movie’s sense of authenticity. Overall, this lack of logos jeopardizes pathos as well.

With respect to ethos, Apple seems to be successful in branding its product since from the angle of the shoot, the speaker comes across as visually appealing, advanced, and high-tech. However, Apple’s gain comes at the cost of Transformers’ ethos. Many fans expressed their distaste toward this advertising debacle, saying that “When he showed thosespeakers, I thought he was also [going to] say the price” and “One of the most desperate attempts at product placement in Hollywood." The fact that Transformers 4 won Worst Placement Award in a fan-based website and at the same time, that Apple topped the board in best product placement further testify that ethos appeal is beneficial for Apple, and not so for Transformers 4.

Throughout the movie, Michael Bay manages to pull in 55 more brands in an equally awkward manner, thereby rightfully earning the “2014 Award for Achievement in Product Placement in a Single Film.” This number easily shows that Bay is trying very hard to gather revenues at the expense of his movie, thus compromising the quality of the filming, plot, as well as character development.  As such, I give this movie 2/5 stars. I didn’t think this movie’s product placement deserves 1 star despite its lack of logos, ethos, and pathos, because I have to give credits for creativity: Bay indeed finds a way to incorporate a plethora of unrelated items into one movie. The attempt itself is a feat. Transformers 4 massive box-office success of 1.1 billion despite many criticisms against the cringe-worthy product placement saves itself from scoring the lowest score possible.