Thursday, 9 August 2012

What does Amazing Spider-man, The Truman Show and I, Robot have in common? Simple Commercialisation


The term Commercialisation is generally used in a negative manner, such as when referring to music or celebrities. However commercialization isn’t a dirty word, in fact it is required. For instance television networks, particularly commercial channels, depend on corporations to purchases advertising space to operate. A television network doesn’t gain its money from the series it shows but from how many viewers it draws in, their demographic and which companies want to market to them.

The entire concept of marketing for media is called ‘Political Economy’ and appears in all forms of public events from television to music to sporting events. Even the Olympics utilize advertising. The London 2012 Games has several multinational corporations sponsoring the event, such as MacDonald’s and Coca-Cola. But does this contract from the event? Well these companies don’t seem to overtly alter the event but do support the host nations in funding and supplying such a major undertaking.

Films contain ‘Political Economy’ just like other forms of media to fund production. The ‘Truman Show’ actually portrays this overtly by placing the main character in a life-spanning reality show and directing him to use certain items for profit throughout the film.

The recent comic book adaption ‘The Amazing Spider-man’ is a Sony funding film and is very obvious about this fact. Throughout the film the characters use Sony Phones, watch recording on Sony’s Xperia and the laboratories are filled of other Sony products.

The film ‘I, Robot’ is regarded as the movie with the most product placement in it. In the film there is a sequence where it focuses entirely on the products in Will Smith’s apartment including, Converse All-Star Sneakers, Samsung Stereo, Yamaha Motorbike and even an Audi Concept car in the next scene.

3 comments:

  1. Great blog entry, and as a movie fan myself I love all 3 of those movies, especially the Truman show. Another example you could have used was from Waynes World, which in my opinion is the best use of product placement in a film ever. Maybe you could of used a few more scholarly articles, but otherwise an enjoyable read.

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  2. Hey Chris,
    Good post, nice writing style. I think you need to refer more unit content, reference theorists and use more unit terms. But I understand how your post relates to the unit. I personally am a sceptic of coroprations holding power with the media. But, I agree that a bit of product placement in a film is alright, and doesn't damage the integrity of the movie.
    However, with an event like the Olympics, they had specific areas exclusively for stakeholders. This isn't the news media attempting to get a good shot for their paper, but rich sightseeing business men getting paraded around where normal people have no access. Much of the Olympic arenas were sold out, but you can clearly see empty seats where the stakeholders didn't attend. That is a negative point

    But overall, I agree that advertising is absolutely essential in our society, and is usually harmless.

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  3. Your blog post was engaging and interesting to read. While I agree that more unit content would be good, the way you present your information keeps me wanting to ready and the use of graphics and videos was great. You've covered a lot of concepts, like Americanisation, Commercialisation and the Economy, and provided a brief but relevant point relating back to the Olympics. Despite the lack of referencing your post definitely relates back to the unit and you’ve approached the topic from an interesting angle.

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