Product Placements In Land of the Lost

Smart T. Rex Chasing Dumb Will Ferrell
Originally uploaded by Pix4YourMouf

Saw "Land of the Lost" lately. Mildy amusing.... but only mildly. Maybe a bit more than "Nacho Libre," but still maybe not attaining even renter status.

This film had its share of prodcut placements, but not like "Talledega Nights."

Most notably, many product placements were food products: Subway (required, as the chain has a tie-in), M&Ms, and another regional restaurant chain that escapes me. NBC had prominent placing, too, with Matt Lauer making a cameo.

Product Placements in "Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian"

Caught this picture over the weekend. Liked the first one better.

Here's my seven-word review: "Weak-scripted sequel made as cash grab." That's the problem with most movies - success usually means "sequel."

On to the meat of the post.

One of the most interesting things about this movie was the product placements, both visual and scripted. That's what I usually look for in big "blockbuster" movies, though I still fall short of loudly stating, "Product placement..." whenever one appears.

Wal-Mart got at least three prominent mentions in the script, but no logos or building edifices. Larry's widget company was pitching to them for shelf space. Of course, the ever-present Apple laptop appears in this film. Almost any time you see a laptop in a movie, it's an Apple.

But the user (Larry's son) was using Microsoft Virtual Earth as he guided Larry through the Smithsonian. The Borg's answer to Borg Jr.'s Google Earth got a fair amount of screen time - often with full-screen close-ups, complete with a booger that stated the name of the software. And... you CAN run it on a Mac.

Google: April 1

ランラン♪
Originally uploaded by peco_sunnyday

Continuing the tradition, Google introduces a new technology to show they are still on the cutting edge... and that they love cute stuff!

Pwnage. (Or Pandage???)

Passively Aggressively Blogged

Lodged Licorice Refuses to Become Bonus
Originally uploaded by Pix4YourMouf

Checking my Flickr stats the other day (a neat little bonus of a Pro account), I saw this image get over 600 views in about 20 hours.

"Holy crap," I thought. "What nutbucket has hacked the Flickr API this time?"

Checking the referring URL, I saw that the hits were coming from www.passiveaggressivenotes.com.

What a relief! I had never heard of this site before (I know - I live under the rocks of ad sites and railroad photos), but quickly saw that it's quite popular - along the lines of Found, postsecret, blah blah blah...

It's in the post titled "venting machine." It's the "get stuck" link. Read the whole damn funny post and reactions here.

So, woo-hoo! Yay, me!

Super Bowl XLIII Ads:

One more ad critique, ad nauseum...



I liked these:
CareerBuilder.com (above), Bridgestone's "Hot Item," Pepsi's Dylan and Will.I.Am mash-up. Coke's "Heist," Cheeto's "Rich Girl," and Teleflora's "Talking Flowers.

Hated these:

Audi's "The Chase," Pepsi's "MacGruber" and Hyundai's "Bosses." Most everything else was about a 3- or 4-star effort.

My area got a Taco Bell ad in place of this.

AdBowl 09 is this Sunday!

Woo-hoo! Watch the Super Bowl XLIII ads get propped or flopped in real time...

Sign up here.

Saw that some SB regulars are skipping this year (Garmin, GM - wow - GM???), via AdBowl's tweet.

Oh yeah... I guess there's a game on Sunday, too (never thought I'd be rooting for the Cards - ever!).

Super Bowl Ad Preview: CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com releases another strong Super Bowl effort.

To follow up their awesome "Monkeys" campaign, CareerBuilder.com returns to the Super Bowl with a funny spot. The spot illustrates the warning signs signaling the need for a job change.

And... a koala gets punched. How can you outdo that?