Very interesting look at notable examples of product placement in the movies. Product placement is fully entrenched at all levels of the entertainment industry as an effective way to manage risk, and it remains an area of tension and debate between creatives and executive producers.

On The Rig, we worked out a deal with an energy drink company to feature their products in the film, by showing the roughnecks on the rig using the drinks to stay awake during the long night of the storm. We had a producer on set whose main task was to make sure the label on the drinks could be seen in the shots. It was something that made sense at the time because of our low budget, but over the course of production we realized how distracting and artificial the scenes that included product placement started to feel. Watching them, you’d stop paying attention to the characters and start noticing the energy drinks (the ugly bright colors of the label design didn’t help). We finally made the decision to give the product placement money back and cut around the product shots in the scenes with the drinks. A few still remain, but for the most part it’s no longer noticeable or distracting. The movie is better as a result.

(via drewhancock)