Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

Dec 22 2011 12:10pm

The agents may have been in ghost protocol but marketers had a plan to expose themselves.

Here are some things I learned from the film:

Female assassins like diamonds and Prada bags.

Agent Ethan Hunt likes Oakley glasses, BMWs, Armani tuxedos, Persol sunglasses, Dos Equis beer, and iPhones.

Benji likes macbooks and iPads.

Did you think the product placement was over the top and distracting or does it work to inspire your purchases or appreciation of luxury goods?

I have a colleague who buys products featured in Bond films and uses Bond as a style icon to emulate. Now for the most important question: who wants to buy me a gorgeous custom made green dress like the one Paula Patton wore to seduce the billionaire?

Total Comments: 4

David Dec 22 2011 1:54pm

Every TV spot for this movie is a backdoor BMW commercial. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, starring BMW, with an appearance by Tom Cruise. I haven't seen the movie yet (tomorrow, I hope, along with Tintin), but I'm honestly not too bothered by product placement. Examples where it undercuts the reality of the movie are rare, though they do exist; one example is Michael Bay's The Island, where the underground clone prison had giant ads for Xbox, and the clones were served water in stylish, futuristic Aquafina bottles. Too much. Oh, and I did find the Cars 2 billboards inserted throughout the recent Muppets movie distracting, but maybe just because of my disdain for Cars 2. But in general...not a big deal, not a distraction. If George Clooney has to drive a car in a movie, I don't mind if it's an Audi rather than a fictional type of car designed just for the movie. I don't mind if there's a Budweiser poster in a bar scene or if I can see a Taco Bell in the background in a scene set in a mall. If anything it establishes a sense of this-is-real-life. There are even times where, lol, the film world and a product can blend perfectly: Steve McQueen and Ford, for example. Or the clever use of omnipresent product placement in Minority Report.

Jack Sparrow Dec 22 2011 9:49pm

Really that is all you got from the latest of Mission Impossible? Were you even paying attention to what was going on screen?

David Dec 22 2011 10:32pm

Sparrow, I reckon she intentionally phrased this in a joking way to reflect the prevalence of the product placement. ;-)

Patrick Ferrara Dec 23 2011 12:42am

Best example of product placement in a film: Taco Bell in Demolition Man

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