Vista Group Product Placement (818) 840-6789

Independently owned since 1972

Screen Test

How carmakers get their products on TV and in movies.

Detroit--

Funny how we associate some of the most memorable movie lines with automobiles.

Who can forget the scene in Risky Business and the look on Tom Cruise's face as water gushes out of his father's Porsche 928 and the service manager intones, "Who's the U-boat commander?"

Or the scene in Get Shorty where the rental-car shuttle driver drops John Travolta in the pouring rain at an Oldsmobile Silhouette--the last vehicle left on the lot--and dismisses his protests with: "It's the Cadillac of minivans."

Clearly, the U-boat gag would not have worked with a Ferrari or a Jaguar. And the Silhouette shtick seemed a clever connection, no doubt, of author Elmore Leonard, a onetime advertising copywriter for Chevrolet.

Except Leonard recalls otherwise: "The minivan wasn't in the book. I think it was the screenwriter who put it in. I was surprised it worked so well. They used it all the way through the movie, even at the end, when you see all these minivans."

Leonard admits, "I've never had anything to do with that [product placement in the movies. No one will ever ask the author or screenwriter."

So just how did that Silhouette sneak into Get Shorty? Credit Eric Dahlquist, the former Motor Trend editor whose company, the Vista Group, represents Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercedes-Benz, and GMC Truck, among others.

Dahlquist's business card reads: "Product Exposure Management." His company, based in Burbank, California, has been placing cars and trucks in movies, TV series, music videos, commercials, and other promotional efforts since the mid-70's. In those days, he recalls, "product placement was kind of a black science, often done by guys in smoke-filled bars or by propmasters on [film] sets doubling as go-getters and calling the car companies. There were only a couple of legitimate outfits at the time that did product placement."

Companies have been placing their products in movies almost since the dawn of Hollywood, according to Dahlquist. During the '40s and the '50s, companies like Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler were actively promoting the use of their vehicles in films and TV shows. In the '60s, Ford station wagons were a staple of many family-oriented sitcoms, while Chevy gained perhaps its greatest TV notoriety with the Corvette in "Route 66." On the big screen, Burt Reynolds turned the Pontiac Trans Am into an icon in Smokey and the Bandit.

Dahlquist said the Vista Group was established to act as liasion and advocate for car companies in dealing with the movie and TV business.

"We review probably thirty-five to forty-five scripts a month. We send a report back to the client, recommending a script, with the reasons why...What you're doing is soliciting exposure opportunities according to the brand character of your client's products."

When Vista got the script for Get Shorty, Dahlquist's son, Eric Jr., who is Director of Client Services, approached Oldsmobile with the opportunity to place the Silhouette in the picture. "John Rock, who was the general manager then, personally approved it." says Dahlquist. "Some people at Olds were worried, but Rock could see the potential of it instantly...You're talking about a really small investment in relation to what you get back, in terms of exposure and attention for your product."

Among the other vehicles that Vista has placed in films are a Mercedes-Benz E320 cabriolet in Sindey Pollack's The Firm, several GMC Suburbans in Tommy Lee Jones' U.S. Marshals, and an Oldsmobile Intrigue in the upcoming "X-Files" movie. One of the more unusual placements was a mulimillion-dollar GM concept vehicle, the Ultralite, which producer Joel Silver specifically requested for use in Demolition Man.

But things don't always work according to plan.

Fred Heiler is manager of public relations for Mercedes-Benz of North America. Earlier in his career, Heiler and a colleague, Larry Brown, helped Volkswagen of America and its Porshe-Audi affiliate set up a movie and TV placement program in the late '70's.

"Larry called one day and said, 'I just read a script for the pilot of a new TV show, and I have a good feeling about this,'" recalls Heiler. "They wanted a Porsche 928, but since they'd be doing a lot of aerial shots with the car, they needed a convertible or a large sunroof. Since the 928 has such a small sunroof, we were going to graft on the removable top from a 924. When we ran the idea by management, they said, 'We don't sell the car that way, so please don't do it."

"The show was 'Magnum, P.I.,' and they would up going with their second choice--a Ferrari 308."

Heiler and Brown, like their colleagues at other auto companies, attempted to establish some ground rules in working in Hollywood.

"We thought it was important that all this be done professionally, so we laid down some basic rules. Our car had to be driven by the good guy. If the car broke down, it could only be because it ran out of gas. And management didn't want our cars associated with people of low moral character.

"Then Larry read a script for a film that we thought would be a success, but it involved a prostitute. So we reluctantly turned it down. The producer said that no other car would fit here except a Porsche, and they ended up buying one. The movie was Risky Business.

"The best part was that Larry got credit for placing the 928 in that movie--even though we had turned them down."