I got the idea about this blog from my fellow college Alana Brodie. In her blog she mentioned that one of the most important aspects for products to “make it” is how visible they are to consumers. Alana went on to give an elaborate example of how Manolo Blahnik became a highly sought after, high end luxury shoe company as a result of the Sex and the City characters, Carrie Bradshaw. I definitely agree with her interpretation, seeing as in New York there are now tour guides dedicated to taking you to all the important places the girls of Sex and the City visited on a regular basis. These tour guides have increased business in all of these restaurants and stores a great deal.
After reading Alana’s blog I remembered one other product which launched itself by being featured on film. Mini Copper found fame in the 1969 movie, “The Italian Job” featuring Michael Caine. However, over the years it slowly lost its spot light especially in the United States where due to safety requirements did not originally sell. In 2003, the film’s remake was released and the film utilized BMW’s newly updated version of the Mini Cooper and regenerated the excitement of the name. I remember after watching the movie in 2003 thinking that this was one of the coolest cars I have ever seen. The fast car race was so intense that I began to compare Mini Coppers to other sports car like Aston Martin or Lamborghini.
Here is a video with the Mini Cooper segments of the 2003 Italian Job moive:
It is not a surprise that Mini Cooper made a great success through being featured in the Italian Job. Aston Martin did the same with the James Bond Series and GM had great publicity of their cars through Transformers.