The discount store, a unit of Minneapolis-based Target Corp., also has its familiar red-and-white bull's-eye logo featured in "Josie and the Pussycats," a film about a struggling girl band that opened earlier this month.
"Interest in corporate America has ramped up in recent years, with the growing realization it is good to have your product exposed, to have your brand seen within the editorial context of the film," said Eric Dahlquist, president of Entertainment Resources Marketing Association. The trade group, based in Burbank, Calif., was formed a decade ago to establish standards for the fledgling industry and offer tips for companies looking to hire a product-placement agency.
Product placement is on the rise in movies and television as companies try to get more advertising bang for their buck. Equally important, they want to steer clear of new technologies that allow TV viewers to easily skip commercials.
Product placement has become so common - and, some say, so heavy-handed - that RTMark, a San Francisco-based activist group, has proposed adding a new rating system that would rank movies from one to five on the amount of product placement.
And last month, Coca-Cola won praise for the sponsorship deal it hammered out with Warner Brothers for the new Harry Potter film because it does not include product placement. The beverage giant apparently sensed that the film's otherworldliness might be destroyed if Harry downed a Coke after a rough quidditch match.
Corporate America began to seek placement opportunities following early successes in films such as "E.T.," in which Elliot's sharing of his Reese's Pieces with the alien sent the candy's brand awareness through the roof. The James Bond movies kept the Aston Martin name in the minds of moviegoers for years. And more recently, actor Tom Hanks used FedEx packages to survive in "Cast Away."
"We're doing more and more product placement," said Carolyn Brookter, Target spokeswoman. It provides a way for the retailer to align its brands with films and TV shows that reach customers, she said.
Target paired with Chip Ganassi as a racing sponsor back in 1990 and has developed a Chicago-based team of drivers and cars that compete around the country. In "Driven," the Target team is part of the group of racing competitors. The retailer secured its prominent place in the film in exchange for the use of its car, team and access to the pit in Chicago.
The Nextel car's role in the Stallone movie was a natural since the company also already sponsors a car in the PacWest Racing Group, said Kevin Flynn, Nextel's vice president for Minnesota and Wisconsin. "The Nextel car is real and races all over" with Brazilian driver Mauricio Gugelmin at the wheel, Flynn said. Many scenes in "Driven" were shot at real races.
Nextel, a provider of all-digital wireless service, has waded into product placement before, with, among others, minor roles in "Baywatch." But "Driven" represents a much larger role, for which Reston, Va.-based Nextel paid a fee (it won't say how much). Typically, companies seeking to get their products into film or television pay the agency that secures the deal and provide products or services for the production company.
"It's usually far less about cash than people might realize. In my experience, it's almost always an in-kind type of thing," said Randy Adamsick, executive director of the Minnesota Film Board. "In the 'Mighty Ducks,' for example, (the filmmakers) got all the Christian Brothers hockey sticks they could use," he said, in exchange for exposure in the film.
Hollywood has become savvy at finding corporate tie-ins. As soon as a project secures funding, scripts are sent to product-placement agencies and to companies that have their own in-house placement departments, such as Eastman Kodak Co. and Anheuser-Busch Companies.
The agencies and companies look for areas where their products might fit.
Then negotiations begin. A car company, for example, might agree to provide cars both for on-camera and behind-the-scenes use during production. BMW maintains a fleet in Los Angeles just for that purpose.
The film producer shops for a company that will develop a promotion with ties to the film in hopes of pulling audiences to theaters. The company seeking to place its product ultimately wants to boost sales.
"To be most effective, placement should be a seamless fit with the script, part of an aura of reality," Dahlquist said. "If it's overdone, the audience looks at it as an ad.
"It works best with lesser-known companies, such as Reese's Pieces in 'E.T.' or Red Stripe Beer in 'The Firm,'" he said. For a company that already has strong product recognition, such as Federal Express, the value may simply be the power to keep a competitor out, he said.
Anheuser-Busch, Mercedes Benz and Ford Motor Co. are product-placement leaders, Dahlquist said.
Many companies seeking TV exposure are returning to the days of production sponsorship, which allows them to have a strong role in the production at a time when technology may allow consumers to bypass commercials.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)