Product placement invades kids films, and blogs

Product placement is the latest recently revived rave, which has actually been going on since forever but regaining popularity now. (No, the reeses in E.T. were not the first instance of it, rather the Gordons Gin in African Queen was). Even bloggers can do product placement these days, bloggers are already getting paid to blog about Marqui. Not wanting to miss out on a cash cow, I mean a good thing(tm), Deutsch has formed a product placement unit which will "provide more strategic product placement for our clients and reflects Deutsch's results-based orientation performance that is measurable and accountable".

The childrens movie A Series of unfortunate events, has a suprise cameo of the AFLAC duck, and will also be featured in a series of ads for the movie. Director Brad Silberling sought out the insurance company mascot as a comic releif device in the movie. He won't be shouting his trademark "AFLAC!" in the film, but the insurance company has agreed to spend $5 million to promote the film. We didn't know kids were target market for insurance. ;) Probably the parents who watch it with their kids are, but still.

The Ducks career on AdLand:

Aflac - Synchronized Swimmers (2004) 0:30 (USA)
Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Aflac vs. Flonase Saturday, March 06, 2004

Aflac - Detective Noir (2004) 0:30 (USA) Saturday, March 06, 2004

Aflac - Looney Tunes (2004) 0:30 (USA) Thursday, January 15, 2004

Aflac - Santa (2003) - 0:30 (USA) Monday, November 17, 2003

Man calls 911 due to AFLAC Billboard Saturday, October 04, 2003

Aflac - Mechanics (2003) - 0:30 (USA) Tuesday, July 15, 2003

AFLAC - Chevy Chase - Supermarket (2003) - 0:30 (USA) Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Lost in the Translation - AFLAC in Japan Thursday, May 08, 2003

Aflac - Las Vegas (2003) - 0:30 (USA) Monday, March 17, 2003

Aflac - Duck - Sauna (2001) - 0:30 (USA) Friday, August 02, 2002

Aflac - Duck - In the Park (2001) - 0:30 (USA) Friday, August 02, 2002

Aflac - Duck - Skaters (2001) - 0:30 (USA) Friday, August 02, 2002

Aflac - Duck - Roller Coaster (2001) - 0:30 (USA) Friday, August 02, 2002

Aflac - Duck - Bedroom (2001) - 0:30 (USA) Friday, August 02, 2002

Aflac - Duck - Airport (2001) - 0:30 (USA) Friday, August 02, 2002

Aflac - Spokesduck / Barber Shop / Yogi Berra - USA 2002 Monday, July 01, 2002

Aflac - Duck / Museum (2002) - 0:30 (USA) Sunday, May 19, 2002

Aflac - Duck / Hiking (2002) - 0:30 (USA) Sunday, May 19, 2002

Aflac - Eyes & Tail (1997) - 0:30 (USA) Saturday, February 01, 1997

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caffeinegoddess's picture

That duck bit is kinda strange.

In regards to the blog product placement- at least Marqui is not looking to be deceptive. Apparently nn their site they are going to be listing bios of the bloggers working for them. So it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if it's not apparent.

andromeda's picture

The duck will appear in a childrens film? How odd, I guess it's aimed at the parents who have to take their kids to these films, but it just seems so out of place.

cafemuse's picture

The mention of a product starting with an "M" is worth a few bucks, but don't you think that the next thing is embedding links into keywords to get people clicking thru. Maybe there should be keyword sale thru one of the blogging firms so we can all be whores.