 BA airbrushes Branson from in-flight Bond film
David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:
>> I thought the tail was a bit blurred in the unedited version. :)
>> Maybe it was shaken (not stirred).
>
> It was blatant advertising IMO.
>
Ever heard of product placement ?
Look back at even the oldest Bond movies, they are full of product
placements. BA had billboards setup along a road, and Bond escapes from
an ambulance in a stretcher which rolls down a hill and flies through
the billboard. Lots of BA brand exposure. (And not to mention Aston Martin).
If Virgin got the exposure in the latest movie, it is because it was
willing to pay more than BA for product placement. A large part of a
movie's budget is now done through product placement because this is far
more effective advertising, especially is Bond is seen using a certain
product.
To give you an idea, in Die another Day, Bombardier paid millions to
gets specially built snowmobiles used in a scene. You saw the Bombardier
logo for perhaps a second or two. But it gave Bombardier bragging rights.
In The Thomas Crown Affair, René Russo is seen drinking a can of diet
Pepsi. Pepsi paid for that. But when aired on TBS, that can is digitally
stripped of any trademark and is just aluminium coloured.
Similarly, in GoldenEye, at one point a truck runs into another truck
and you see thousands of Perrier cans fall out. But in the version shown
on USA TV, the perrier logo is no longer visible and the scene is
reduced in time.
In the case of a cameo by Branson, it is unlikely that this, in and by
itself, would be product placement. It may have been some deal that in
exchange for paying advertising on the movie, he gets a cameo.
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