Product placement in general is quite an effective form of sales promotion. Being a frequent movie watcher, I have seen my fair share of blatant product placement, but usually the product is squeezed somewhere into the plot so that the advertising is smooth and sneaky for the audience. A movie that I recently watched that had effective use of product placement was the Adjustment Bureau, which was pretty smooth in sliding in the appearance of GQ magazine with Matt Damon on the cover.
Another one of my favourite product placement examples is Sony’s appearance in the James Bond Film Casino Royale. The placement aligns with the film’s plot and results in a higher perceived quality of the product, since it appears to be used by spies, who only use the most high-tech gadgets.
I was really excited to watch Katy Perry’s music video for her most recent song, E.T., since Katy Perry’s videos in general are quite creative. The video is interesting, but what I remember most about the music video is not the cool costumes or settings, but the appearance of the strangest product placement I have ever seen.
In the video, Katy Perry puts on a pair Vogue eyewear, while she is dressed as an alien, to watch a sunset. It makes absolutely no sense in the plot of the music video and as a result makes Katy Perry and the vogue eyewear brand look strange. Vogue eyewear definitely did not do their research when they decided to place their product in this music video. Unfortunately for Vogue eyewear, my opinion of the brand has decreased since now I find the brand to be tacky and it is even more unlikely that I will ever buy a pair.
Watch and you’ll see, (around 4:20) it’s bizarre.
