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Sandler Malled by Product Placement
Could this be a new verse in Adam Sandler's instantly classic "Hanukkah Song"? Possibly, if the marketing folks at Sony Pictures Entertainment have anything to do with it.
In what's being called a groundbreaking--though hardly surprising--new tactic in the lucrative world of big-screen product placement, the studio negotiated with several retailers to give them cameos (and even verbal mentions and animated characters) in Sandler's new animated musical, 8 Crazy Nights, in exchange for promoting the movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
With the film set primarily in a shopping mall, Sony and marketing reps at the Endeavor agency reportedly spoke with a handful of chain stores, including Foot Locker, Victoria's Secret, the Sharper Image and KB Toys about getting placement in the film. Sources told the trade paper that the new film--an animated Hanukkah musical due out Thanksgiving weekend--also features a few prominent cameos, including an animated panda from the Panda Express restaurant chain.
Product placement in movies is so commonplace that it's usually news if a major studio film doesn't include some sort of shameless plug or visible logos. But Sandler's film marks one of the first times such hawking has shown up in an animated production.
"Product placement is becoming so rife in movies, sometimes it seems like we're seeing ads in every scene," notes Gary Ruskin, executive director of the nonprofit advertising watchdog, Commercial Alert. "I guess this is just one more step in that trend."
8 Crazy Nights, featuring the voices of Sandler and fellow Saturday Night Live alums Rob Schneider and Jon Lovitz, might not be as problematic for critics as, say, an animated Disney film. After all, 8 Crazy Nights isn't aimed at little kids, and it's getting a PG-13 rating for "frequent crude and sexual humor, drinking and brief drug references."
But more animated product placement is on the way. According to the Reporter, Threshold Entertainment is preparing a new family comedy called Foodfight!, which will include cameos for such product mascots as Mr. Clean, Uncle Ben, Hostess' Twinkie the Kid and Starkist's Charlie Tuna.
A rep for the company insists the companies did not pay for the product placement, but the marketing support that comes from them will be worth close to $100 million.
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