# Blatant iPod Marketing in Blade 3



## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

And I mean BLATANT.

I don't usually care about this stuff, I realize that most movies will have a Mac here and there, but this was just awful.

Near the start of the movie this scene happens...

Blade: "What's she doing?"

Ryan Reynolds: "She's making a playlist. She likes listening to MP3's when she hunts"

Close up of Jessica Biel making a playlist in iTunes, and then puts on her iPod.

...

...

...

AND THEN SHE MAKES A PLAYLIST AGAIN BEFORE THE LAST BIG FIGHT

I haven't felt so sold to since the scene in Wayne's World where he's making fun of product placement.

"Pepsi, the choice of a new generation"


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

yeah i mentioned this ipod commercial in the fat albert product placement thread

the thing i didn't like was you didn't hear the music when she put in the earbuds, they just lay on some generic crap before


----------



## Strongblade (Jul 9, 2001)

Well, having seen the movie, I didn't think it was that bad (There's alot of negative feeling about it here though...)

So she has an iPod. It's not the first time there has been blatant product placement in a movie. It happens alot. Product placements will help fund a movie.

It won't be the last time either.

Besides, if you were just looking at the ipod as opposed to Jessica Biel kicking vampire butt...


----------



## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

I don't mind product placement, like someone drinking a can of coke or something. But if a character asks "what's she doing?" and the guy says "oh she's drinking Coke because it helps her kick vampire ass" that is just blatantly throwing a commercial in the middle of the movie. I didn't pay $9.50 to have an iPod commercial thrown in my face. TWICE!

Like I said, I see product placement all the time, I especially notice the Apple stuff. But this was worse than anything I can remember seeing since that Wayne's World scene...

Garth: "It's like people only do it because they get paid, and that's really sad."

**leans back, wearing an entire outfit of Reebok gear**


----------



## Kosh (May 27, 2002)

Maybe it's blantant advertising OR maybe it's a stereotype joke... ie. our young generation is ALWAYS listening to music on fancy gadgets. Do they ever take the headphones or earbuds off.


----------



## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

They show the name iTunes on screen and the Apple Logos are not covered up.

Apple obviously payed for the placement.

And it's not played as a joke, they're basically saying she's so good at kicking ass BECAUSE she listens to an iPod while fighting.


----------



## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

well, it's not like this movie at that much integrity to begin with ...


----------



## RC51Pilot (Mar 26, 2004)

TMR - I agree  - as they put it in "Spinal Tap", I beleive it's a "$h1t Sandwich"!!!

Personally I'd sooner see the product ads in the movie rather than sit through the 20 minute preamble before the main feature for God's sake.


----------



## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

You'd rather see product ads in the movie in general or just for iPods?

Would you have minded if it have been "She drinks Coke because it helps her fight vampires"?


----------



## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

i think the general rule governing product placements should be something like "if the main character is going to be made into an action figure, whore it up!"


----------



## stevieb (Dec 10, 2004)

Yeah, it's kinda cheesy that they would say that. 
I can see showing her with an iPod...but that sounds too forced


----------



## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

pathetic.. dont they know doing stuff like that is going to HURT their image? in the long run anyway.. people are going to get sick of hearing about iPod, iTunes and seeing it everywhere that they're going to turn to other products.. it happens all the time..


----------



## KardnalForgotHisPassword (Oct 14, 2004)

> I haven't felt so sold to since the scene in Wayne's World where he's making fun of product placement.
> 
> "Pepsi, the choice of a new generation"


Ken, come on, you're not telling me that you didn't realise the extreme satire involved in Wayne's World. 

In Blade, (from the sounds of it) they were trying to pass it off as part of the movie. In WW, they were going out of their way to show the absurdity of the whole product placement thing. I mean, it was a hilarious scene in WW. It made the movie funnier.

Not having seen Blade, and just going by your description, I'd say it's 1000x worse then what happened in WW.


----------



## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

Yeah it's a placement but come one, loading up a playlist is increasingly becoming a part of life. The fact that she was loading it from an Apple product on to an Apple product is the placement bit. What she was doing was normal. It doesn't say that she is good becuase she listens to an iPod, it says she is so good she can listen to iPod.

That being said, I haven't seen the movie. Maybe I'll feel differently once I have.


----------



## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

_I haven't felt so sold to since the scene in Wayne's World where he's making fun of product placement._

KardnalForgotHisPassword, I don't know how I can make it any more clear, of coure I realize that was satire. I said "he's making fun of product placement". How much clearer do I have to be?


----------



## KardnalForgotHisPassword (Oct 14, 2004)

Sorry Ken, I misread this sentence: "haven't felt so sold to since.." as "haven't felt so *sold* since" and then interpreted it to mean that you felt like the movie sold out.

nm


----------



## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

Oh no problem. I didn't mean to sound so harsh with the "I don't know how I can make it any clearer".

np


----------



## Strongblade (Jul 9, 2001)

Well, if you really have a problem with the iPod product placement in Blade 3, then I suspect you'll dislike alot of movies that do the same thing.

James Bond movies, for example, have product placements all the time. Car manufacturers are falling over each other to get their best model as Bond's latest set of wheels.

And in games too. Splinter Cell has a blatant use of product placement. Sam Fisher uses a modifed Palm Pilot device, right down to the Palm logo. It's the freakin Invetory/Information interface as well as the load/save screen. It is also present in the second Splinter Cell game. It will probably appear in the third as well.

Nicholas Cage uses a Nokia phone in National Treasure. There's even a CLOSE UP SHOT of the phone just before he uses it, so you can see the brand name quite clearly.

Besides, in Blade 3, if she didn't have an iPod, she would probably have a different MP3 player, which would have had it's own product placement.

It seems crazy to get all huffy over the iPod placement. At least it's an iPod, as opposed to a crappy brand of MP3 player.


----------



## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

That's not the point. Product placement has been going on for years. The problem is the dialogue that was used to push the product placement even further. 

To sum it up in simple terms, it's cheesy. Apple should show a little more class than that. Having their computers, laptops, ipods, etc in movies and tv shows is fine. But when they introduce such blatant marketing as what was used in that short scene just makes me want to throw my overpriced pop at the movie screen.


----------



## KardnalForgotHisPassword (Oct 14, 2004)

> James Bond movies, for example, have product placements all the time. Car manufacturers are falling over each other to get their best model as Bond's latest set of wheels.


With the exception of the occasional scene where Pierce turns a bottle of Smirnoff so the label faces the camera, the product placement in Bond isn't as obvious or out of place as in Blade.

With Bond, it fits in. You're looking at the car and going "wow, that's a sweet piece of kit. Of course Bond would have one." and not "uhg, that shot was so out of place, and dialogue surrounding it seems so forced. I wonder how much X paid to have the product in there"


----------



## PosterBoy (Jan 22, 2002)

*To sum it up in simple terms, it's cheesy. Apple should show a little more class than that*

You're assuming that Apple had more of a say in the process than just granting permission to use the iPod in the movie. It's entirely possible they did, but it is also entirely possible they didn't.


----------



## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

I think the writers carry more of the responsibility for crappy dialog. I don't think any director would give over any creative control to a paying sponsor. It's just flat-out bad dialog.


----------



## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

The iPod was used in the Italian Job remake (well obivously not the original!







) but I noticed it on my third time watching it. It wasn't blatant advertising in this instance.

But the line was almost similar. Something like "I like to practice while listening to different environments"-- it was the scene where the hot girl (







) is practicing breaking into a safe. She takes off her earbuds and you notice they are white. If you look on her desk, you'll see she has an iPod.

I forget which Bond movie it was, but I swear with each edit, you'd se the BMW logo.


----------



## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

I don't think anyone has ever accused me of getting "huffy" before.


----------



## RC51Pilot (Mar 26, 2004)

CK - I realize my response is a little late here, but no I don't mind too much at all to see product ads in general.

The Coke line would have been just as cheesy, but then again, it's not like we're talking about an Oscar winning movie for acting or plot here either.

The whole movie is cheese in my opinion, so might as well put a few shameless plugs in there.

As for ads in the movie, my point was, if I'm forced to watch them, put them in the main feature, rather than make me sit through the crap at the beginning.

Peace.


----------



## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

> You're assuming that Apple had more of a say in the process than just granting permission to use the iPod in the movie. It's entirely possible they did, but it is also entirely possible they didn't.





> I think the writers carry more of the responsibility for crappy dialog. I don't think any director would give over any creative control to a paying sponsor. It's just flat-out bad dialog.


Good points.. I didn't think of that.. I guess I assumed that if a company was paying for their product to be placed in a movie or tv show, that they (or the advertising firm) would have creative control over how it was showcased.. maybe not though..


----------



## stevieb (Dec 10, 2004)

Apple/Apple's advertising agency would have control about how thier product is showcased. Thats the way it works for product placement. They wouldn't have 100% control, but they work very close with the movie writers and directors.


----------

