Megamind, and its brandlessness, is number one for a second weekend in a row, remaining the #1 movie in the U.S. and destroying Skyline and Morning Glory, the latter of which got an interesting review from one viewer.

DreamWorks' Megamind also beat Unstoppable, which means everyone should get ready for a week of "stoppable" jokes in reports about the box office numbers. But then, any film that takes an oxymoron as its title should expect what it gets.

From a product placement perspective, which is the only perspective Brandcameo knows, Unstoppable is notable for really only one reason: Fox.Continue reading...

Product placement is a lot like advertising: it's all about recall. With that in mind, Brandcameo is introducing its latest feature, the Product Replacement Quiz. Can you name the products that appeared in all three of this week's selection of recent prominent film placements? Continue reading...

This weekend's big-budget blow-it-all-up action film Unstoppable, about an out-of- control locomotive hauling deadly cargo, claims to be "based on true events." The film paints the rail company as the greedy antagonist, out to make decisions based on the bottom line and not on people's lives. In the film, that company is called "AVVR."

So what were those true events and what rail company was really involved?

The 2001 incident upon which the film is based happened with the company CSX. Yes, that CSX, of the "How tomorrow moves" commercials touting "a ton of freight… a gallon of fuel."

The incident report notes that on May 15, 2001 "an unmanned CSX yard train consisting of one model SD-40-2 locomotive, 22 loaded, and 25 empty cars, 2898 gross trailing tons, departed Stanley Yard, which is located in Walbridge, Ohio. The uncontrolled movement proceeded south for a distance of 66 miles…"Continue reading...