As a viral marketing ploy for the upcoming film Monsters University, Disney's Pixar animation studion has launched a clever website promoting not the movie, but the university that Sully and Mike learned their chops for Monsters Inc. The website is real, but the university (unfortunately) isn't. This isn't your normal run of the mill movie website, either — there is plenty of depth and room to explore the world of the movie (which comes out in June) and its campus setting.Continue reading...

Film: Brave
Brands Spotted: 0 (if you don't count Scotland)
Standout Placement: N/A
Most Memorable Placement (positive): N/A
Most Memorable Placement (negative): N/A
Overall Product Placement Integration Grade (1-10): N/A
Comments: Some critics have called Brave, Disney/Pixar's new film, formulaic. It's an easy conclusion to reach. The idea behind Brave appears to be taking the popularity of young women archers (cue The Hunger Games, and already a Brave-themed attraction at Disney Parks), pinching some themes from other recent popular franchises (How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek), updating the Disney Princess juggernaut, and wrapping the whole thing in the aura of an earlier epic Scottish tale of bravery (Braveheart*). But Brave's guts aren't the only formulaic element of the film.Continue reading...

Disney Pixar's latest film Brave opens today and promises to clean up at the box office. The film's official partner, Visit Scotland, is hoping audiences will want to "Experience the land that inspired Disney-Pixar’s Brave" (even as the Atlanta Braves have their legal issues with the movie).

Brave's opening means that Madagascar 3, the nation's top film for two weeks running, is about to be forgotten until DVD time. As Madagascar 3 pushes off, and with Brave's Scotland tie-in in mind, we have one nagging question before it goes: why the hit animated franchise failed to make the obvious marketing tie-in with New York's Central Park Zoo? Continue reading...

Disney recently held its first National Princess Week in the U.S. with Julie Andrews and Target as the co-sponsor, and it's gearing up for its next generation of princess in the new girl-power Pixar movie that opens on June 18th: Brave, the story of "the heroic journey of Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald), a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson)."

And despite the recent resignation of the creator of the Disney Princess product line and critics such as author Peggy Orenstein (her book's title says it all: "Cinderella Ate My Daughter") of the view of womanhood that Disney Princess represents, the female dream team at Disney is bigger than ever overseas. With that in mind, all young Disney Princess lovers, start begging your parents to play a holiday trip to London — Harrods has announced a partnership with Disney that will have the princesses dominating the store’s windows when the Christmas holiday season hits.

Of course, the princesses won’t be wearing any old get-ups. They’ll be outfitted in dresses created by such designers as Oscar de la Renta, Versace, and Elie Saab, according to a press release from Harrods.Continue reading...

Add another brand to the roster suiting up for the NFL Draft tonight: Disney Pixar, which released this promo for its upcoming animated feature, Brave, with appropriate tongue-in-cheek references. The movie is scheduled for release on June 22.

"Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." This quote from Apple's Think Different commercial filled all of the ears of Apple employees as Tim Cook, Apple's new CEO, played the commercial's audio at Steve Jobs' company memorial on October 19th.

Apple last week closed its stores so employees worldwide could tune into a company-wide tribute to Jobs at Apple HQ in Cupertino, CA, which was recorded and is now posted on Apple's website.

The tribute began with Cook introducing Steve Jobs' wife, Laurene Powell Jobs. He went on to describe the many achievements of Jobs, including the Mac, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, and PIXAR. Cook was constantly reminding the audience on how Jobs wanted to company to do "what was right," and not "what Steve Jobs would have wanted."Continue reading...

If it was up to automakers (and Hollywood), every year would see a stream of sequels from the three hit movie franchises hitting theaters through April and June this year.

Between Fast Five, Cars 2 and the upcoming Transformers 3, audiences have willingly subjected themselves to a level of auto product placement from Hollywood hits that borders on pornography. Call it "carnography."

From Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers to Range Rovers, VWs and the Chevy "Bublebee" Camaro, has there ever been a better three-month stretch for cinephile gearheads?

But while the Transformers and Fast Five series are straightforward about highlighting models, Cars 2 plays faster and looser, leaning on car brand stereotypes when necessary, and mixing and matching brands.Continue reading...

There is certainly no shortage of brands with tie-ins and merchandise related to Cars 2, which opens Friday. Goodyear, which is called "Lightyear" within the movie, talked to us about its strategy for targeting adults who buy the tires via a film directed at their kids. Continue reading...