Forget martinis and even Heineken if you want to Be Bond. Coca-Cola would like you to think, and drink, Coke Zero to get your 007 on.

When the twenty-third James Bond film, Skyfall, hits screens worldwide on October 26, Bond and brand watchers will paying close attention. The upcoming movie got an unprecedented plug from the monarch atop Her Majesty's Secret Service during the opening ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympics. The film also created a bit of stir to fans of the series because beer giant Heineken struck a deal to get some product-placement within the film, even though Bond has long been known as a fan of mixed drinks, particularly the martini.

You might say fans were shaken, not stirred, by the news — but thanks to the marketers at Coke, they have a non-alcoholic way to imbibe Bond.Continue reading...

The ice-cream company that gave the world Schweddy Balls and Karamel Sutra isn’t apparently amused by somebody using the name Ben & Cherry’s. Perhaps Ben & Jerry’s discomfort comes from the fact that the somebody in question is a hardcore porn film producer.

The Vermont-based, Unilever-owned B&J’s has filed a trademark suit against B&C’s, the Associated Press reports, in order to stop them “tarnish(ing)” the ice-cream maker’s name.

Ben & Cherry’s doesn’t just use a variation of the B&J’s name and logo on its films; it also gives its videos names based on Ben & Jerry’s flavors. Witness "Boston Cream Thigh," at right, ''New York Fat & Chunky," and "Peanut Butter D-Cup," the AP reports. Not only that, the packaging of the films contains elements that appear on Ben & Jerry’s packaging, such as “a grazing cow, green grass and large white puffy clouds.”

It's not that Ben & Jerry’s is averse to hanky panky; after all, the brand using a more G-rated bit of romance – spooning (get it?) – to help sell its new Greek Frozen Yogurt.Continue reading...

There is something wonderfully ironic about a movie that attempts to expose the dark world of manipulating consumers by using QR codes. But then, even the creators of the new film Branded (opening Sept. 7) openly admit "that meta irony is a big part of the film, for sure."

The question is, how to market a film whose message is explicitly about exposing the malicious intent of marketing strategies? QR codes, of course.Continue reading...

Box office hit The Avengers contained a respectable amount of product placement.

Now, Acura is seeing its product placement in the superhero film expanded as deleted scenes are added back into the film for its DVD release. Could this form of retroactive product placement become a common Hollywood practice? Continue reading...

When one thinks of Target, it's certainly fitting to imagine the retailer as an outlet for the teenage girls that form the bulk of The Hunger Games' most dedicated fan base. What may not be so fitting to the Target brand and clientele are the terms like "14-carat gold replicas" and "$999 each." Yet, this is what Target is dangling as one of the marquee features of its exclusive Hunger Games DVD release event.Continue reading...

Mix Mountain Dew, Batman and Dale Earnhardt Jr., and somehow it all makes marketing sense. Just ask PepsiCo, which has been tying those elements and more together in a blowout summer marketing campaign around The Dark Knight Rises, which of course hits theaters this weekend.

In fact, PepsiCo believes the campaign is clicking on so many bat-cylinders that it's taking the initiative global in the first-ever worldwide marketing campaign for the iconic soft drink, scaling beyond the U.S. campaign for The Dark Knight Rises that kicked off in May, including a dewgothamcity.com microsite.

"Dew fans in the U.S. and around the world have incredible passion for the Dark Knight franchise," Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo's global beverages group, said in a press release. "We are excited about continuing to find unique and authentic ways to connect with Dew fans and fuel the growth of the brand around the world."

Mtn Dew is activating its campaign in nearly 20 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, inviting Dew and Dark Knight fans in all markets to its "Go Inside Gotham City" promotion which includes its new, limited-time flavor, Mtn Dew Dark Berry, inspired by the brooding caped crusader; more than 800 million bottles and cans featuring on-pack campaign graphics; digital access to exclusive content associated with the movie; and a multi-channel advertising campaign including a TV commercial designed to whet fans' appetites for the movie and the beverage.Continue reading...

Air New Zealand has always had a good sense of humor and a willingness to try new things. A few years ago, the airline ran an ad featuring naked employees with uniforms painted onto their bodies. Then the airline introduced a sleazy mascot named Rico that it thankfully killed off (but not without grabbing some attention with the death, of course).

The airline with the social media fairy just announced at the San Diego Comic-Con that it has signed a two-film co-branding deal with New Line Cinema and MGM for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, which will have it using Hobbit-branded aircraft, according to Marketing Magazine.

New Zealand, of course, is where the majority of principal photography was done for the film. Fans of Peter Jackson's earlier Lord of the Rings trilogy, which also struck a marketing partnership with Air New Zealand, often fly the airline to get over to New Zealand to see where some of their favorite scenes were put on film.Continue reading...

Film: Ice Age: Continental Drift (20th Century Fox)
Total Products Spotted: 0
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: It's a real challenge to justify brand-based references and jokes in a film that's mean to take place tens of thousands of years ago. It's even harder to legitimately place a product on the screen. That's why product placement in animated features set in Ye Olde Pre-Marketing Times is scarce and left to contemporary kid pics like Madagascar 3 while, like ancient Scotland-set Brave, the Ice Age franchise — the new #1 movie at the box office following the weekend opening of Ice Age: Continental Drift — is left to drift product placement-less. Offscreen, however, the film put together a wooly mammoth's worth of tie-ins and marketing muscle, well beyond augmented reality and a Dark Knight Rises spoof. Continue reading...