November 5, 2009 • 33 mins
In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuck take a look at the advertising practice of product placement, from its origins to different types to classic examples in film and television.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is Charles W.
Chuck Bryant, who's enjoying a delicious RC brand cola right now.
(00:23):
How's that? How's that treating? It's It's wonderful. It's satisfying
and delicious to my mouth tread Chuck. Yes, Chuck, I
know we've already mentioned this once, but I want to
allude once again to the mysterious companion shows that are
coming out on the Science Channel. Sure, Pumpkin Chucking and
The Road to Pumpkin Chucking. Yes, no, there, Yeah, but
(00:45):
they're in reverse order. Sure. The Road begins at eight
p m. Eastern Time, and they're on the Science Channel
on Thanksgiving night, a special Thanksgiving special. Uh and uh.
You can kind of glean from the name what it's about. Yeah,
but we're not gonna say too much more about it.
And now back to our regular schedule program. Chuck, I'm
gonna give you a little known but historically significant date
(01:10):
in the twentieth century. Let's here at March thirty one. Okay,
you give up, uh fifteen, sixteen days after my birthday
years ago. I was in my twenties. Still, those were
good days, no what. On that day, the digital video
recorder known as TiVo shipped its first product. I happened
(01:34):
to be outside that day the moment that that was shipped,
and I swear I heard an audible oh sighing out
of every ad agency on the planet. They have found
a way to not watch television commercials. Not only can
you fast forward through television commercials, you can skip television
(01:56):
commercials automatically. TiVo senses that, um that break, much like
your old cassette player in your car could skip to
the next song because of that break. Right. Oh yeah,
I remember that. Yeah. It was bad news for advertising.
Yeah it was. And I'm I have to admit that
I do that as well. I record. I'd try to
start even my Falcons games about an hour late so
(02:19):
I can zip through the commercials there too. Yeah, so
you like to postpone gratification. Yeah, I've I've gotten spoiled here.
You know they actually factor uh DVR stats into Nielsen ratings.
Now they figured out how to do that. I think
Mark Change. Yeah, they factored in as whoever watched the show.
And then there's the secondary seven day window after the
(02:41):
show premieres. I remember them scrambling to come up with
how to, how to how to work that in. Yeah,
good for them, Yeah, go Nielsen, Well go Nielsen, and
I guess go advertising agencies because they figured out a
way around it. Actually, it wasn't anything new, but it's
definitely been stepped up since the introduction of TV and
that is something called product placement. Yes, product placement. You
(03:04):
might not have been paying attention towards the beginning of
this podcast, but we did it ourselves. And when we
mentioned Chuck drinking a delicious RC brand cola, right, it's
a little harder to be subtle when you are working
in a audio medium. You haven't much have to say
it to kind of whisper right, you know. But the
trick is in a in a visual medium like a
television or film. Obviously, you don't want to hit someone
(03:26):
over the head with it too hard because then it
can kind of backfire on you. So you want to
be really clever with how you place it that you
want it to be noticed, but not to stand out
and when done right, it works like Gangbusters. The key
is to have a um cool advertising exactly working on
this this plan. Ye who has nerves of steel and
(03:49):
knows where that line is. Yeah, because you want as
Catherine Near, our steam colleague who wrote this wonderful article
right she as she points out, um, it's it's very
easy to cross the line, and you want the product
to fit in almost seamlessly. Yeah. Because the filmmaker certainly
doesn't want that either. So then though it greases their
(04:10):
palm a little bit and makes things possible, many times,
they still don't want it to be the focus a
filmmaker worth they're salt. They don't always have their palms creased. Well,
now there's and you would think, well, yeah, they're they're
always paying to have their product place. There's actually three
ways that it happens. The first way is um when
a product just ends up and is seen organically or
(04:33):
without any contact with the company who manufacturers it saying
give me money. Yeah, like a director or a prop
master or someone says, hey, that'd be cool. If Tom
Cruise like smash this coke can against his head is
a little tiny like head, or if somebody in the
Sopranos used a can of raid. Yeah, very violently, right, Yeah,
(04:54):
Ralph spray Tony in the face during a fight. That's
not good. It didn't end well for Ralf you know.
And um, the S. C. Johnson Company who manufacturer's raid
wasn't entirely happy about it because really, uh, number one,
they weren't asked, and number two, they makes their product
look kind of bad, you know, like, oh yeah, I
forgot raids really dangerous on humans too, And then they
(05:15):
didn't use the can of rid. You know the fake
things that Hollywood comes up with. My brother used to
give me those little prop props is like Christmas gifts.
The the I would love to have with this. By
the way, got me a can of beer that we
talked about products, but he would send me like a
Budweiser can was bud mace here and he sent me
(05:36):
an evy and bottle that said ewan And you know
they do it just in the same type phase and
just like it, yeah, which I guess you can get
away with. Yeah. Um, there's two other ways that this
can happen. One is that the company trades some of
their product for product placement, which is pale about as
lame as it gets, not really like, oh yeah, we
(05:57):
need fifty cases of coca cola and will put your
product in the movie if you give us free coke.
Who does that? Well yeah, but that's the kind of
clamoring that you do, buddy. Oh yeah, you've been like, hey,
if you send us some Reese's pieces, we'll talk about
them in the air. Huh. So yeah, but we're not
famous filmmakers. No, we're not famous enough to do it.
(06:18):
The third way, which I plan on doing. That's pretty
much extortion financial competitions. You're saying, we'll put your product
in our movie or TV show or on the internet whatever.
We'll get to that in a little bit. Uh if
you give us money in which firm? Yeah, and deal
for smaller films. So definitely. It's you know when you
think like, oh, this is the the the most expensive
(06:40):
film ever made, two hundred million dollars or whatever. Wasn't
it water World that broke the hundred million dollar mark
or something? And then Titanic broke the two million dollars?
Just crazy money. But I mean this doesn't all come
from one guy writing a check or one studio writing check.
There's Japanese masters involved. There are um, you know, charity groups,
(07:00):
there's investment funds there, and then there's sponsorship, corporate sponsorship
in the way of product placement. Probably the most famous
as far as I know product placement UM was in
E T. Well, yeah, I just mentioned Reese's pieces out
of context, but yeah, E T was famously catapulted. I
even remember this. I remember Reese's pieces before ET and
(07:23):
after ET because it was a big, big difference, and
there notability. It was supposed to be Eminem's. I think
people was the story. And I think the eminem people.
Uh they said, na, the Spielberg Uh, who wanted a
million for it? Is that what it was? You wanted
a million? Eminem's turned him down. Reese said, yes, jump
(07:44):
in sales the month the the movie was released and
really put it on the map forever. So and put
product placement on the map as well. I mean, like
this can work, Uh, and it does. Chuck. Let's talk
about the first product placement that ever occurred as far
as we know. UM. Something in a little film called
The African Queen in the nineteen fifties. Kate hepburn through
(08:07):
a case of Golden's gin over the side of a boat.
That's exactly right. That was awful. That is better than
my Kate Hepburn. I used to do it pretty decent.
I don't know what happened. You did a pretty decent
one before we started recording, or maybe I did, Audrey Hepburn, No,
that was not now, maybe I used to do that one.
Well straight Gordon's Gin paid the the production company that
(08:30):
made The African Queen, which at the time was either
you A or Paramount as far as I know, UM.
And that was the first real product placement that ever
took place. Did you know that? About that same time
it started to really gain traction and soap operas are
named soap operas because they used product placement, oftentimes soap
(08:52):
products um in their episodes. And it still continues on today.
What is it all? My children had like a month
long storyline where Revlon factored into like the plot line.
The hole is probably like the Revlin Killer or something
like that. Probably, I'm sure someone knows, and we'll get
we'll hear about it, Yes we will, all right, so
we've got um. It simply happens. It happens in exchange
(09:15):
for the product, or it happens in exchange for compensation
or it doesn't happen at all. Most famously, in the
movie Repo Man. Yes, Repo Man filmed by Alex Cox.
I think it's say, wait, how do you know that?
I just I'm a fan of the movie. I am too,
but I don't know who directed it. Well he did,
said Nancy, and straight to hell. He's a he's a classic.
(09:37):
Uh director. Okay, okay, he uh. Alex Cox. Famously in
Repo Man used all generic products. And if you've seen
the movie, it's a cult classic. Now you'll notice that
every single product in the movie is generic and it
came from Ralph's grocery store in l A. Oh really yeah,
who used to make the beard that I sent you?
So it really was generic products? Yeah? They were real.
(10:00):
Technically there was a company that made those generic products
that feature prominently. So there I guess there was lots
of product placement. Is all one company? Actually there were
two companies. Um. Also, anybody who has seen that movie
can tell you that. Um. Probably the most prominent character
in the entire movie that appears in just about every
scene are the little tree Christmas Tree air fresheners that
(10:23):
show up on every vehicle in the movie in the
motorcycle right exactly. And they actually the company that made
those actually sponsored that movie. So yeah, they actually looked
into that. I think this was uh, it wasn't quite
a sponsorship, but they did send them free trees. And
apparently they Alex Cox said they sent unsented trees because
none of the actors could stand to like, be cooped
(10:44):
up with the scent scented ones for too long. That's
very kind to them. Yeah, and there they basically said,
these really stink? Can you send it something that don't? Okay,
but they are air fresheners, remember, So they didn't sponsor
the movie. They did not sponsor it, but they they
sent him the swag that was in the film. Why
must you always humiliate me? I'm sorry? Um, So we
talked about Reese's pieces getting a big payoff, right, Smaller
(11:08):
companies can do this too. You remember Red Stripe Beer
Rock Rock, Red stripey Beer. Yes, yeah, I love those ads.
Yeah I do too, But I had never heard of
that before the Firm. See, I don't remember that in
the Firm when he goes down to the Caymans and
was hanging out with Gene Hackman, and drinking Red Stripe
(11:28):
the whole time, and it was it was so prominent
that there were like articles in the New York Times
and Time and news Week written about Red Stripe beer.
And it was so funny too. I remember, like it
wasn't about product placement. They were drooling over red Stripe
like it was the hip new thing. Like it could
not have paid off better for Red trop I think
they saw, actually it could have, but they saw a
(11:50):
fifty increase in sales after that movie was released. I
got people probably were turned on by the cool little
squatty bottle. Yeah, but I mean it had been around
forever and was sold in the United stations. I think
they probably used it to just kind of up their
market presence. I'm sure that they got a lot more
distribution after that. The power of the cruise, Yeah, he's
very powerful, small man. But you wish that just for
(12:11):
mentioning Red Stripe being in the firm, they would send
us red strip wuld be some retroactive compensation. Some juice.
You know, my uncle was in the front. Do you
have d T S or something? No, some juices and
some juice something. I thought you went beer. My uncle
was in the firm. I'm not surprised he just he
wasn't living in Memphis at the time where they filmed.
It is Tom Cruise. Your uncle is Jeane triple Horn.
(12:33):
Your uncle Jeane Triporns my uncle. Now he just had
a little walk on, like, let me walk in and
give the papers to somebody. These pretzels are making me thirsty.
Should we talk about Jerry McGuire, Yeah, this is a
really good example of product placement going Orry Chuck. Yeah.
If you remember an Cameron Crow film, Jerry McGuire, Kuba
Gooding Jr. As Rod Tidwell was professional football player who
(12:59):
is constantly dissed by Reebok in the movie and Reebok
showing me no love. They're giving me no love And
that was a deal made through Reebok and try Star
and the it was contingent on at the very end
of the film after the credits, I think there would
be a phony Reebok commercial finally with Rod Tidwell said, uh, sorry, Rod,
(13:21):
we were wrong all along. Love Reebok and Cameron Crow
cut that from the end of the film and they
got sued by Reebok. Try Star did because Cameron Crow
cut that scene. Well, not only that Um Cuba Gooding Jr.
Is talking smack about him and well at least one
scene right, Well they okay that as long as the
commercial played it, So it's all part of the deal.
(13:42):
And Reebok supposedly put in one point five mill into merchandise,
advertising and promotional support. They sued try Star for ten
million and settled out of court. And if you notice,
if you've ever seen Jerry McGuire and Cable, that commercial
is back in the movie Wow. So that had something
to do, or at least it was initially on Showtime.
(14:04):
I don't know if it still is, but they that
that was probably part of the you know, out of
court settlement, slip it back in there for Cable and
DVD or whatever, TBS and will make good. UM. Cars
also usually feature prominently in movies. Let's talk about cars. Yeah,
there's there's actually been. You know, any time you see
(14:24):
a movie where there's like a high speed chase, you
inevitably invariably are shown the grill of the car that
has the emblem, so, you know, exactly like the Transporter.
I think Audi's figured really big into that one, and
UM Transformers. I think it was that new Camaro Michael
Bay is always trying to highlight the new models of
(14:44):
Fords and Chevy's the first I think, the first time
I ever became aware of product placement was a little
movie called RoboCop. Yes, do you remember the Tourists from
the Future four Doors? It was actually the model Ford
Tourists with a couple of ground effects on it that
RoboCop rove And I remember it coming out, like I
think RoboCop came out in eighty seven. It was definitely
(15:05):
before that Tourist debut, so the movie was its debut,
and I remember seeing it on the on the road
when it came out, like, holy cow, there's the RoboCop
tourists without the ground effect. That's exactly what they want.
It is exactly what they want. I didn't go out
and buy a tourist, but it is exactly what they want. Josh.
Some other notables, clearly Smoking the Bandit with the Pontiac
(15:27):
trans Am one of the most classic. I would have
gone with the Bitch and Camaro over a trans am.
But Herbie the love Bug was of course a big
ad for the Volkswagen Beetle. Not a big ad, but
big it works. That's the thing that might not be
intended like that. Sometimes it just works out. There's a
classic movie out there that is centered around a sentient VW. Beetle.
(15:49):
Is that what sentient means? Uh? No? And does Herbie talk?
I think he just reacts and yeah, You're no sentient
is aware of your own being. Yeah, I'm kidding. Um,
I was a getting back to the future. The Dolorean
was prominently featured, obviously, but I think if I'm not mistaken,
that was after the Dolorean had It was very tongue
in cheek appearance. And actually I think Pepsi was was
(16:12):
definitely a corporate sponsor of that movie, right, Yeah. And
who can forget the truly bad BMW Z eight that
was driven in the Bond film The World Is Not Enough.
The Bond films are often used to debut new stuff
because they're just such global events. When those movies come out, Um,
they're perfect for And let's of course, Chuck, let's not
(16:34):
forget my boy magnum p I driving a Ferrari three
oh eight. I yeah, which, by the way, I've been
online you can get one of those these days for
about thirty K really, yeah, and it costs you another
fifteen K every time you need an oil change. Yeah, yeah,
that's a TV car. Some other notable TV cars are
the Dodge Charger from Dukes of Hazzard and the trans
(16:58):
Am from Night Writer once again getting some more love,
and the Grand Camaros. I don't know because even Star
Skiing Hutch use a Grand Toreno, they could use a Camaro.
They were bad. Yeah. Um, I often think of us
as the star skiing huts and podcasting. Yeah. Who's who?
I'm clearly uh Hutch, Okay, that's fine. Who is that?
(17:20):
David Soul? Yeah? Nice? Uh if you if you're talking
cars or Josh. A little company called Audie took it
to a whole another level, as we say here in
the South. In two thousand four, the movie I Robot,
which was had something to do with asthmaf Right. Well, yeah,
it was based on the book. Um, the Audi r
(17:41):
s Q concept car is really plays a central role
in that movie. And it wasn't just placed in that film.
It was built and constructed solely for that film, right
with the input of the director of the movie, like
they designed it together. Yeah, and just for this movie.
It's nuts. And did they ever release that as a
real car to the public. Most concept cars aren't released
(18:04):
as a real car. They're just kind of like, hey,
check this out, get excited about this, and then sorry, chumps. Uh.
Some other examples of non car who can forget Tom
Cruise once again, we can't escape his tiny shadow, the
ray Band, sunglasses and Risky Business. Yeah, classic scene and
um through to the loom underwear through to the loom. Um,
(18:24):
what else? FedEx and Castaway film cast Away but not
just FedEx like clearly FedEx features prominently in it. But
they did such the writer clearly this is the writer
did such an amazing job of Wilson Sporting Goods manufacturers
and their volleyball that he there's basically two characters in
(18:46):
the whole movie, and one of them is a Wilson's volleyball.
Probably exactly, but it's so perfect. This is actually maybe
an example of the almost being taken out of the seamless,
the product being seamlessly woven into the into the It
did work. I'm saying it works so well that I
(19:08):
don't think must go by Wilson volleyball. You know, Yeah,
it was just another character. Yeah, it was great. I
wonder well, I guess they've proven with things like Reese's
pieces that it works. But do you really get a
jump in volleyball sales because of that? I don't know.
It seems unlikely to me. It will the um CEO
of Wilson Sporting Goods please write us and let us
(19:31):
know if you guys saw a jump in sales. Yeah,
I'd like to know that, all right. Um you know, Josh,
now they have h It used to kind of be
just a willie nilly let me see what I can
do D D I Y thing, But now there are
most corporations have entire branches, well not a branch maybe,
but they'll have people that work exclusively with product placement,
(19:52):
and they search out films and contact them to try
and get their their products features they have. I think
they're called officers for um into. Graded Branding is the division.
Usually they always create such silly names. They want to
They want to leverage their brand on as most as
much of a granular level as possible to get schillmeister. Sure,
that's a great one. Um so chuck this uh, this
(20:15):
has become quite the booming little cottage industry big time.
In two thousand and six, they spent one point six
billion for product placement in movies one point eight billion
for TV. Wow. Most of that went to a show
called American Idol. Yeah, full of it. They will do
anything for money because remember a T and T. If
(20:37):
you call a T and T and you can text
a T and T and vote for your favorite person
on a T and T, and that way, when your
person wins, you can thank a T and T for
for being around. That's that's the kind of thing that
Secress dolls out each feel dirty, Chuck. You know what
they paid what everyone every sponsor a T and T
Coca Cola, and for each paid twenty six million dollars
(21:00):
each per episode, not per season. Is it per episode?
I think it is per well per ed deal. We
should say yeah, I don't know how many episodes that is,
but that's a lot of do it is? It is?
And the reality TV as a whole has really embraced this.
And this is where I don't mind it that much.
Like I'm a big Top Chef fan, and that show
is heavily sponsored. Um Like Padmo will come and say
(21:23):
if you notice in your ge monogram kitchen and you
see G monogram everywhere or we want to thank the
Glad family of Bags for supplying us with this blah
blah blah. But you know, reality shows, they don't have
the hugest budgets and if they can get an entire
kitchen donated by ge Monogram, then good for them and
give them a little love back. And it's reality TV,
(21:44):
it's what. It's not like ruining the through line. You
don't have to suspend disbelief to watch reality TV. It
takes the guesswork out of watching. I have to suspend
disbelief that Padma is not really my wife. I'll bet
you do. That's what at times, especially when your eyes
are shut really tight, um chuck. There's been some really
great examples of product placement um being treated tongue in cheek.
(22:10):
Remember in Wayne's World, where they're going off about how
they don't they won't do any product placement, they won't
be corporate shills, um. And while they're doing it, they're
there there showing the products that they're I think Pizza
Hut was one of them, right, and newprin little Yellow
different better and like the little yellow pill is on
his black and white hand. Yeah, it's a pretty good.
(22:32):
Josie and the pussy Cats. Apparently I didn't see the movie,
but I guess it. Uh. In there two minute trailer
there's like thirty instances of product placement. Yeah, as a
spoof though, right, I think they're just trying to take
the piss out of it, as our English fans might say, yes,
which means it shouldn't be bleeped out. Um. And also,
(22:52):
have you ever seen State in Maine? Chuck? I love
that man. I love that movie too. Remember Alex Alex
Baldwin crashes the car and then he just gets out
of the car and goes So that happened, right, He's
all kind of dazed a little. Yeah, he's hit his
head clearly. Um. You remember one of the very minute
subplots is that was about product placement. They were having
(23:15):
a real problem with it because it's the movie was
set in the nineteenth century, the movie they were making,
and they had corporate sponsorship from like a brand new
cutting edge like office supply company. Um. So they finally
figured it out and they kind of show it very
subtly at the end of like it's um like the
name of the office supply company printers or something like that.
(23:37):
It was exactly classic or Philip smore Hoffman was the
was the writer of that had to deal with that.
It's a great role. It was a great role, Um, Josh.
Not only if you're talking about American idol, not only
will you see ads splashed all over the place. You
A big thing now is to actually sponsor. I wish
(23:58):
I could think of the right word. It's not even
an ad really, but if you go to their website,
parts of their website are sponsored, like the old Navy
Fun and Game section And when the last mone went
to a Falcons game? I don't remember, Chuck, when was
the last? You know? The red zone is when a
when a team has evolved on their opponent's twenty yard line.
(24:18):
I'm familiar with the sport of football. Yeah, so if
they're inside the twenty of this the red zone, that
means you're trying to score touchdown. It is not the
red zone in Atlanta anymore? What is it? It is
the Ford Drive zone. I've seen that. There's also the
old Spice red zone. Um, depends on your team. I
guess what city is sponsored by what team or who
the highest bidder was that season? Yeah? I guess. So, Yeah,
(24:39):
you want to talk about books real quickly. Who's the
author here? I've never heard of her. Actually, Fay Weldon.
Apparently she wrote a book. She was contracted by Bulgari,
the jeweler, contracted to write a book. She didn't just
have an idea and they said, hey, can you slip
Bulgarian there? They contracted her to a book that centered
(25:00):
around Bulgari, and she did so, and it was called
the Bulgari Connection. Right, well, they did it. They contracted
her to write this book and it was exclusively for
their highest end clientele, right, just as a gift. Right,
see what we We got this famous author to write
a book about exactly and here you go, Mr money Bags.
But she did release it though as a as a book,
(25:21):
and was chided in many circles. I was imagined so
because that put her in league with such other titles
Chuck It's Coming as Um, Skittles Riddles, Math, the Hershey's
Kisses Edition Book, the Eminem's Brand Counting Book, Twizzlers Percentages Book,
and the Cheerios Christmas Playbook. Apparently kids books are rife
(25:42):
with this kind of thing. I didn't know that kids
book and Fay Weldon books, Yeah, I had no idea,
and Katherine gave a great example here. She said something about,
you know, if you think that maybe they just sponsored
the book and put their name on the title, not true.
The Oreo Cookie Counting Book. Literally, you're counting Oreos. Open
up the page and you're counting. This is how you
(26:03):
teach gets to count by counting cookies. Count delicious Oreo cookies. Um.
So we talked about the first product placement. We should
have qualified that Chuck. As far as we know, that's
the first product placement in a movie cat Hepburn throwing
Gordon's gin over the overboard. Right. Um. The oldest product
placement that Catherine could come up with was in a song,
(26:25):
take Me out to the ball Game, Buy me some
peanuts and cracker jacks. You got it. That's one of
the more obvious product placements. But from what we can tell,
was not accidental. But it was. He was certainly not
given cracker jackson. They didn't pay him anything to do that. Yeah,
but still very famous example. Let me give you an
example that has yet to happen yet. It's an example
(26:45):
of product placement from the future. Get this. On the
November eighth episode of the Family Guy, viewers will be
treated to what has been called pretty much a thirty
minute a for Windows seven. Really, is this one of
the things where they sponsor the show ad free, No,
(27:08):
the whole episodes about it? Huh. I can't imagine not
making fun of it, though, I'm sure they'll make fun
of it because they have to. You know, you want
a cool ad exact and seth McFarlane's not a complete sellout, Um,
but he I'm sure it'll be as cool as a
thirty minute infomercial cartoon can be, and probably even cooler
(27:29):
than it can be. Wow, got rich little sitting over here?
Good lord? Um, but do you want to know where
I found that little tidbit of information on Fox dot com? No?
I didn't. Where do you want to know? Yeah, folks,
there is a site out there where if you are
looking to arm yourself against product placement, uh, you can
(27:51):
go to and it'll give your heads up on what's
coming out. It's an industry website called product placement dot
biz www dot product placement dot biz. The actual name
of the site is product Placement News and it's all
like basically press releases and articles about the industry product placement.
It's pretty cool. That's awesome. Yeah. I guess the final
(28:12):
example that Katherine mentions in the article is noteworthy is
um rap music starting way back with Rundy m C
and my Adidas. I don't know that. I mean, I
think they did that themselves, that they're that's That's what
her point is is is most of the instances in
rap music, like uh, Busta Rhymes had a song called
Past the Cavassier Part two. Most of these come out
(28:35):
because of the artist fondness for the product, and then
afterwards the product will get in touch with them and say, hey, Busta,
thanks man, you really did as a solid and so
here's a year supply versus of Cavassier and some trees
and whatever else. Um, that's actually happened a lot earlier
than with the advent of hip hop what you just described.
(28:55):
There is a very deep seated rumor surrounding Janice Jomplin,
who yeah, you might remember head an affinity for Southern
Comfort with drink fifths of it on stage during the show.
We'll go through a fifth during the show. Yeah, you know,
she couldn't hack it the first time she went out
from Texas to San Francisco. Yeah, she she had she
(29:16):
had to go home, like she was like, I can't
do this, and then she, I guess, started really really
getting wasted and was like, okay, let me try again,
and that one took. She met up with pig Pen
and then it just went down home from there. Yeah.
Did you ever read those letters with my story? Well,
I'm not done with my party, all right, go ahead.
Did you ever see the letters from her sister that
she and her sister wrote back and forth that documentary? No,
(29:37):
I bet they went. No. It was actually very touching
and very sad. She wasn't like miss big pants rock star.
She was like a really sweet, down home girl that was,
like you said, it was very shy and nervous and
and close to her family. Pretty tragic somebody dies at
age seven, tragic, you know. Um. Apparently there's a rumor
(29:57):
that um SoC was so fond of her um drinking
their product and hawking it um just by taking it
up on stage, that they bought her the mink uh
coat that she was on the album cover for the
album Pearl Yeah, classic cover. Yeah, those big round classes.
I've also heard they bought the Rules Royce that she's
(30:18):
standing next to as well. Really, yeah, you know, I
got a little tip for you. Janice Choplin spent her
last night at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood, drinking Southern comfort,
went off to a hotel and died. Go to Barney's
Beanery in order the toad in the hole. Okay, thank
me later. And if you want to know more about
product I feel like such a jerk saying this. After that,
(30:40):
if you want to know more about product placement, you
can type product placement into the handy search bar at
how stuff works dot com. And that means it's time
for listener mail. Indeed, Josh, I'm just gonna call this
our favorite high speed story so far already. Man, Chuck,
(31:00):
you got turnover going. We did our Cannonball Run episode
recently and we asked for high speed stories. We got
a bunch of good ones. We don't want to plug
those because it's unsafe to drive fast kids. But this
came from Jamie in Chicago. Jamie works at a financial
advising firm and we helped him get through some long workdays. Josh,
he has an uncle Matt that's a pretty big car collector.
(31:21):
He never owns more than two to three cars, but
he always has a nice corvette or a muscle car
from the seventies go By picks up and then seller
trade cool. In the early nineteen eighties, Uncle Matt was
living in Kansas. He had just bought and fixed up
his corvette and he took it out on a nice
flat highway in Kansas to see what it could do.
He was going between when he saw the flashing blue
(31:42):
lights in the mirror and uh cop pulled him over.
Cop walked up and says, do you know why I
pulled you over, sir? And Matt said, I tried to
fumble through some answer about how fast he was driving
in the cops said, I pulled you over because in
this state we have a law that all aircraft must
have their tail numbers displayed on their wings. Turns out
(32:05):
the cop was a gear head and more interested in
looking under the hood than giving him a ticket, So
not only did he not end up giving him a
speeding ticket, he just said keep it down to more
of a land speed level and send him on his way. Sweet.
It's a good for Uncle Manol. Well, I guess we're
done with the speed stories, right, Yeah, we're not gonna
read to me in US. Well, then I guess that
(32:25):
means that we should just have a grab bag this week.
Huh yeah, grab bag. Anything you feel like saying to us,
you just go ahead and say it. Send it in
an email to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
(32:46):
that how stuff works dot com. Want more house stuff Works,
check out our blogs on the house stuff works dot
com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is Charles W.
Chuck Bryant, who's enjoying a delicious RC brand cola right now.
(00:23):
How's that? How's that treating? It's It's wonderful. It's satisfying
and delicious to my mouth tread Chuck. Yes, Chuck, I
know we've already mentioned this once, but I want to
allude once again to the mysterious companion shows that are
coming out on the Science Channel. Sure, Pumpkin Chucking and
The Road to Pumpkin Chucking. Yes, no, there, Yeah, but
(00:45):
they're in reverse order. Sure. The Road begins at eight
p m. Eastern Time, and they're on the Science Channel
on Thanksgiving night, a special Thanksgiving special. Uh and uh.
You can kind of glean from the name what it's about. Yeah,
but we're not gonna say too much more about it.
And now back to our regular schedule program. Chuck, I'm
gonna give you a little known but historically significant date
(01:10):
in the twentieth century. Let's here at March thirty one. Okay,
you give up, uh fifteen, sixteen days after my birthday
years ago. I was in my twenties. Still, those were
good days, no what. On that day, the digital video
recorder known as TiVo shipped its first product. I happened
(01:34):
to be outside that day the moment that that was shipped,
and I swear I heard an audible oh sighing out
of every ad agency on the planet. They have found
a way to not watch television commercials. Not only can
you fast forward through television commercials, you can skip television
(01:56):
commercials automatically. TiVo senses that, um that break, much like
your old cassette player in your car could skip to
the next song because of that break. Right. Oh yeah,
I remember that. Yeah. It was bad news for advertising.
Yeah it was. And I'm I have to admit that
I do that as well. I record. I'd try to
start even my Falcons games about an hour late so
(02:19):
I can zip through the commercials there too. Yeah, so
you like to postpone gratification. Yeah, I've I've gotten spoiled here.
You know they actually factor uh DVR stats into Nielsen ratings.
Now they figured out how to do that. I think
Mark Change. Yeah, they factored in as whoever watched the show.
And then there's the secondary seven day window after the
(02:41):
show premieres. I remember them scrambling to come up with
how to, how to how to work that in. Yeah,
good for them, Yeah, go Nielsen, Well go Nielsen, and
I guess go advertising agencies because they figured out a
way around it. Actually, it wasn't anything new, but it's
definitely been stepped up since the introduction of TV and
that is something called product placement. Yes, product placement. You
(03:04):
might not have been paying attention towards the beginning of
this podcast, but we did it ourselves. And when we
mentioned Chuck drinking a delicious RC brand cola, right, it's
a little harder to be subtle when you are working
in a audio medium. You haven't much have to say
it to kind of whisper right, you know. But the
trick is in a in a visual medium like a
television or film. Obviously, you don't want to hit someone
(03:26):
over the head with it too hard because then it
can kind of backfire on you. So you want to
be really clever with how you place it that you
want it to be noticed, but not to stand out
and when done right, it works like Gangbusters. The key
is to have a um cool advertising exactly working on
this this plan. Ye who has nerves of steel and
(03:49):
knows where that line is. Yeah, because you want as
Catherine Near, our steam colleague who wrote this wonderful article
right she as she points out, um, it's it's very
easy to cross the line, and you want the product
to fit in almost seamlessly. Yeah. Because the filmmaker certainly
doesn't want that either. So then though it greases their
(04:10):
palm a little bit and makes things possible, many times,
they still don't want it to be the focus a
filmmaker worth they're salt. They don't always have their palms creased. Well,
now there's and you would think, well, yeah, they're they're
always paying to have their product place. There's actually three
ways that it happens. The first way is um when
a product just ends up and is seen organically or
(04:33):
without any contact with the company who manufacturers it saying
give me money. Yeah, like a director or a prop
master or someone says, hey, that'd be cool. If Tom
Cruise like smash this coke can against his head is
a little tiny like head, or if somebody in the
Sopranos used a can of raid. Yeah, very violently, right, Yeah,
(04:54):
Ralph spray Tony in the face during a fight. That's
not good. It didn't end well for Ralf you know.
And um, the S. C. Johnson Company who manufacturer's raid
wasn't entirely happy about it because really, uh, number one,
they weren't asked, and number two, they makes their product
look kind of bad, you know, like, oh yeah, I
forgot raids really dangerous on humans too, And then they
(05:15):
didn't use the can of rid. You know the fake
things that Hollywood comes up with. My brother used to
give me those little prop props is like Christmas gifts.
The the I would love to have with this. By
the way, got me a can of beer that we
talked about products, but he would send me like a
Budweiser can was bud mace here and he sent me
(05:36):
an evy and bottle that said ewan And you know
they do it just in the same type phase and
just like it, yeah, which I guess you can get
away with. Yeah. Um, there's two other ways that this
can happen. One is that the company trades some of
their product for product placement, which is pale about as
lame as it gets, not really like, oh yeah, we
(05:57):
need fifty cases of coca cola and will put your
product in the movie if you give us free coke.
Who does that? Well yeah, but that's the kind of
clamoring that you do, buddy. Oh yeah, you've been like, hey,
if you send us some Reese's pieces, we'll talk about
them in the air. Huh. So yeah, but we're not
famous filmmakers. No, we're not famous enough to do it.
(06:18):
The third way, which I plan on doing. That's pretty
much extortion financial competitions. You're saying, we'll put your product
in our movie or TV show or on the internet whatever.
We'll get to that in a little bit. Uh if
you give us money in which firm? Yeah, and deal
for smaller films. So definitely. It's you know when you
think like, oh, this is the the the most expensive
(06:40):
film ever made, two hundred million dollars or whatever. Wasn't
it water World that broke the hundred million dollar mark
or something? And then Titanic broke the two million dollars?
Just crazy money. But I mean this doesn't all come
from one guy writing a check or one studio writing check.
There's Japanese masters involved. There are um, you know, charity groups,
(07:00):
there's investment funds there, and then there's sponsorship, corporate sponsorship
in the way of product placement. Probably the most famous
as far as I know product placement UM was in
E T. Well, yeah, I just mentioned Reese's pieces out
of context, but yeah, E T was famously catapulted. I
even remember this. I remember Reese's pieces before ET and
(07:23):
after ET because it was a big, big difference, and
there notability. It was supposed to be Eminem's. I think
people was the story. And I think the eminem people.
Uh they said, na, the Spielberg Uh, who wanted a
million for it? Is that what it was? You wanted
a million? Eminem's turned him down. Reese said, yes, jump
(07:44):
in sales the month the the movie was released and
really put it on the map forever. So and put
product placement on the map as well. I mean, like
this can work, Uh, and it does. Chuck. Let's talk
about the first product placement that ever occurred as far
as we know. UM. Something in a little film called
The African Queen in the nineteen fifties. Kate hepburn through
(08:07):
a case of Golden's gin over the side of a boat.
That's exactly right. That was awful. That is better than
my Kate Hepburn. I used to do it pretty decent.
I don't know what happened. You did a pretty decent
one before we started recording, or maybe I did, Audrey Hepburn, No,
that was not now, maybe I used to do that one.
Well straight Gordon's Gin paid the the production company that
(08:30):
made The African Queen, which at the time was either
you A or Paramount as far as I know, UM.
And that was the first real product placement that ever
took place. Did you know that? About that same time
it started to really gain traction and soap operas are
named soap operas because they used product placement, oftentimes soap
(08:52):
products um in their episodes. And it still continues on today.
What is it all? My children had like a month
long storyline where Revlon factored into like the plot line.
The hole is probably like the Revlin Killer or something
like that. Probably, I'm sure someone knows, and we'll get
we'll hear about it, Yes we will, all right, so
we've got um. It simply happens. It happens in exchange
(09:15):
for the product, or it happens in exchange for compensation
or it doesn't happen at all. Most famously, in the
movie Repo Man. Yes, Repo Man filmed by Alex Cox.
I think it's say, wait, how do you know that?
I just I'm a fan of the movie. I am too,
but I don't know who directed it. Well he did,
said Nancy, and straight to hell. He's a he's a classic.
(09:37):
Uh director. Okay, okay, he uh. Alex Cox. Famously in
Repo Man used all generic products. And if you've seen
the movie, it's a cult classic. Now you'll notice that
every single product in the movie is generic and it
came from Ralph's grocery store in l A. Oh really yeah,
who used to make the beard that I sent you?
So it really was generic products? Yeah? They were real.
(10:00):
Technically there was a company that made those generic products
that feature prominently. So there I guess there was lots
of product placement. Is all one company? Actually there were
two companies. Um. Also, anybody who has seen that movie
can tell you that. Um. Probably the most prominent character
in the entire movie that appears in just about every
scene are the little tree Christmas Tree air fresheners that
(10:23):
show up on every vehicle in the movie in the
motorcycle right exactly. And they actually the company that made
those actually sponsored that movie. So yeah, they actually looked
into that. I think this was uh, it wasn't quite
a sponsorship, but they did send them free trees. And
apparently they Alex Cox said they sent unsented trees because
none of the actors could stand to like, be cooped
(10:44):
up with the scent scented ones for too long. That's
very kind to them. Yeah, and there they basically said,
these really stink? Can you send it something that don't? Okay,
but they are air fresheners, remember, So they didn't sponsor
the movie. They did not sponsor it, but they they
sent him the swag that was in the film. Why
must you always humiliate me? I'm sorry? Um, So we
talked about Reese's pieces getting a big payoff, right, Smaller
(11:08):
companies can do this too. You remember Red Stripe Beer
Rock Rock, Red stripey Beer. Yes, yeah, I love those ads.
Yeah I do too, But I had never heard of
that before the Firm. See, I don't remember that in
the Firm when he goes down to the Caymans and
was hanging out with Gene Hackman, and drinking Red Stripe
(11:28):
the whole time, and it was it was so prominent
that there were like articles in the New York Times
and Time and news Week written about Red Stripe beer.
And it was so funny too. I remember, like it
wasn't about product placement. They were drooling over red Stripe
like it was the hip new thing. Like it could
not have paid off better for Red trop I think
they saw, actually it could have, but they saw a
(11:50):
fifty increase in sales after that movie was released. I
got people probably were turned on by the cool little
squatty bottle. Yeah, but I mean it had been around
forever and was sold in the United stations. I think
they probably used it to just kind of up their
market presence. I'm sure that they got a lot more
distribution after that. The power of the cruise, Yeah, he's
very powerful, small man. But you wish that just for
(12:11):
mentioning Red Stripe being in the firm, they would send
us red strip wuld be some retroactive compensation. Some juice.
You know, my uncle was in the front. Do you
have d T S or something? No, some juices and
some juice something. I thought you went beer. My uncle
was in the firm. I'm not surprised he just he
wasn't living in Memphis at the time where they filmed.
It is Tom Cruise. Your uncle is Jeane triple Horn.
(12:33):
Your uncle Jeane Triporns my uncle. Now he just had
a little walk on, like, let me walk in and
give the papers to somebody. These pretzels are making me thirsty.
Should we talk about Jerry McGuire, Yeah, this is a
really good example of product placement going Orry Chuck. Yeah.
If you remember an Cameron Crow film, Jerry McGuire, Kuba
Gooding Jr. As Rod Tidwell was professional football player who
(12:59):
is constantly dissed by Reebok in the movie and Reebok
showing me no love. They're giving me no love And
that was a deal made through Reebok and try Star
and the it was contingent on at the very end
of the film after the credits, I think there would
be a phony Reebok commercial finally with Rod Tidwell said, uh, sorry, Rod,
(13:21):
we were wrong all along. Love Reebok and Cameron Crow
cut that from the end of the film and they
got sued by Reebok. Try Star did because Cameron Crow
cut that scene. Well, not only that Um Cuba Gooding Jr.
Is talking smack about him and well at least one
scene right, Well they okay that as long as the
commercial played it, So it's all part of the deal.
(13:42):
And Reebok supposedly put in one point five mill into merchandise,
advertising and promotional support. They sued try Star for ten
million and settled out of court. And if you notice,
if you've ever seen Jerry McGuire and Cable, that commercial
is back in the movie Wow. So that had something
to do, or at least it was initially on Showtime.
(14:04):
I don't know if it still is, but they that
that was probably part of the you know, out of
court settlement, slip it back in there for Cable and
DVD or whatever, TBS and will make good. UM. Cars
also usually feature prominently in movies. Let's talk about cars. Yeah,
there's there's actually been. You know, any time you see
(14:24):
a movie where there's like a high speed chase, you
inevitably invariably are shown the grill of the car that
has the emblem, so, you know, exactly like the Transporter.
I think Audi's figured really big into that one, and
UM Transformers. I think it was that new Camaro Michael
Bay is always trying to highlight the new models of
(14:44):
Fords and Chevy's the first I think, the first time
I ever became aware of product placement was a little
movie called RoboCop. Yes, do you remember the Tourists from
the Future four Doors? It was actually the model Ford
Tourists with a couple of ground effects on it that
RoboCop rove And I remember it coming out, like I
think RoboCop came out in eighty seven. It was definitely
(15:05):
before that Tourist debut, so the movie was its debut,
and I remember seeing it on the on the road
when it came out, like, holy cow, there's the RoboCop
tourists without the ground effect. That's exactly what they want.
It is exactly what they want. I didn't go out
and buy a tourist, but it is exactly what they want. Josh.
Some other notables, clearly Smoking the Bandit with the Pontiac
(15:27):
trans Am one of the most classic. I would have
gone with the Bitch and Camaro over a trans am.
But Herbie the love Bug was of course a big
ad for the Volkswagen Beetle. Not a big ad, but
big it works. That's the thing that might not be
intended like that. Sometimes it just works out. There's a
classic movie out there that is centered around a sentient VW. Beetle.
(15:49):
Is that what sentient means? Uh? No? And does Herbie talk?
I think he just reacts and yeah, You're no sentient
is aware of your own being. Yeah, I'm kidding. Um,
I was a getting back to the future. The Dolorean
was prominently featured, obviously, but I think if I'm not mistaken,
that was after the Dolorean had It was very tongue
in cheek appearance. And actually I think Pepsi was was
(16:12):
definitely a corporate sponsor of that movie, right, Yeah. And
who can forget the truly bad BMW Z eight that
was driven in the Bond film The World Is Not Enough.
The Bond films are often used to debut new stuff
because they're just such global events. When those movies come out, Um,
they're perfect for And let's of course, Chuck, let's not
(16:34):
forget my boy magnum p I driving a Ferrari three
oh eight. I yeah, which, by the way, I've been
online you can get one of those these days for
about thirty K really, yeah, and it costs you another
fifteen K every time you need an oil change. Yeah, yeah,
that's a TV car. Some other notable TV cars are
the Dodge Charger from Dukes of Hazzard and the trans
(16:58):
Am from Night Writer once again getting some more love,
and the Grand Camaros. I don't know because even Star
Skiing Hutch use a Grand Toreno, they could use a Camaro.
They were bad. Yeah. Um, I often think of us
as the star skiing huts and podcasting. Yeah. Who's who?
I'm clearly uh Hutch, Okay, that's fine. Who is that?
(17:20):
David Soul? Yeah? Nice? Uh if you if you're talking
cars or Josh. A little company called Audie took it
to a whole another level, as we say here in
the South. In two thousand four, the movie I Robot,
which was had something to do with asthmaf Right. Well, yeah,
it was based on the book. Um, the Audi r
(17:41):
s Q concept car is really plays a central role
in that movie. And it wasn't just placed in that film.
It was built and constructed solely for that film, right
with the input of the director of the movie, like
they designed it together. Yeah, and just for this movie.
It's nuts. And did they ever release that as a
real car to the public. Most concept cars aren't released
(18:04):
as a real car. They're just kind of like, hey,
check this out, get excited about this, and then sorry, chumps. Uh.
Some other examples of non car who can forget Tom
Cruise once again, we can't escape his tiny shadow, the
ray Band, sunglasses and Risky Business. Yeah, classic scene and
um through to the loom underwear through to the loom. Um,
(18:24):
what else? FedEx and Castaway film cast Away but not
just FedEx like clearly FedEx features prominently in it. But
they did such the writer clearly this is the writer
did such an amazing job of Wilson Sporting Goods manufacturers
and their volleyball that he there's basically two characters in
(18:46):
the whole movie, and one of them is a Wilson's volleyball.
Probably exactly, but it's so perfect. This is actually maybe
an example of the almost being taken out of the seamless,
the product being seamlessly woven into the into the It
did work. I'm saying it works so well that I
(19:08):
don't think must go by Wilson volleyball. You know, Yeah,
it was just another character. Yeah, it was great. I
wonder well, I guess they've proven with things like Reese's
pieces that it works. But do you really get a
jump in volleyball sales because of that? I don't know.
It seems unlikely to me. It will the um CEO
of Wilson Sporting Goods please write us and let us
(19:31):
know if you guys saw a jump in sales. Yeah,
I'd like to know that, all right. Um you know, Josh,
now they have h It used to kind of be
just a willie nilly let me see what I can
do D D I Y thing, But now there are
most corporations have entire branches, well not a branch maybe,
but they'll have people that work exclusively with product placement,
(19:52):
and they search out films and contact them to try
and get their their products features they have. I think
they're called officers for um into. Graded Branding is the division.
Usually they always create such silly names. They want to
They want to leverage their brand on as most as
much of a granular level as possible to get schillmeister. Sure,
that's a great one. Um so chuck this uh, this
(20:15):
has become quite the booming little cottage industry big time.
In two thousand and six, they spent one point six
billion for product placement in movies one point eight billion
for TV. Wow. Most of that went to a show
called American Idol. Yeah, full of it. They will do
anything for money because remember a T and T. If
(20:37):
you call a T and T and you can text
a T and T and vote for your favorite person
on a T and T, and that way, when your
person wins, you can thank a T and T for
for being around. That's that's the kind of thing that
Secress dolls out each feel dirty, Chuck. You know what
they paid what everyone every sponsor a T and T
Coca Cola, and for each paid twenty six million dollars
(21:00):
each per episode, not per season. Is it per episode?
I think it is per well per ed deal. We
should say yeah, I don't know how many episodes that is,
but that's a lot of do it is? It is?
And the reality TV as a whole has really embraced this.
And this is where I don't mind it that much.
Like I'm a big Top Chef fan, and that show
is heavily sponsored. Um Like Padmo will come and say
(21:23):
if you notice in your ge monogram kitchen and you
see G monogram everywhere or we want to thank the
Glad family of Bags for supplying us with this blah
blah blah. But you know, reality shows, they don't have
the hugest budgets and if they can get an entire
kitchen donated by ge Monogram, then good for them and
give them a little love back. And it's reality TV,
(21:44):
it's what. It's not like ruining the through line. You
don't have to suspend disbelief to watch reality TV. It
takes the guesswork out of watching. I have to suspend
disbelief that Padma is not really my wife. I'll bet
you do. That's what at times, especially when your eyes
are shut really tight, um chuck. There's been some really
great examples of product placement um being treated tongue in cheek.
(22:10):
Remember in Wayne's World, where they're going off about how
they don't they won't do any product placement, they won't
be corporate shills, um. And while they're doing it, they're
there there showing the products that they're I think Pizza
Hut was one of them, right, and newprin little Yellow
different better and like the little yellow pill is on
his black and white hand. Yeah, it's a pretty good.
(22:32):
Josie and the pussy Cats. Apparently I didn't see the movie,
but I guess it. Uh. In there two minute trailer
there's like thirty instances of product placement. Yeah, as a
spoof though, right, I think they're just trying to take
the piss out of it, as our English fans might say, yes,
which means it shouldn't be bleeped out. Um. And also,
(22:52):
have you ever seen State in Maine? Chuck? I love
that man. I love that movie too. Remember Alex Alex
Baldwin crashes the car and then he just gets out
of the car and goes So that happened, right, He's
all kind of dazed a little. Yeah, he's hit his
head clearly. Um. You remember one of the very minute
subplots is that was about product placement. They were having
(23:15):
a real problem with it because it's the movie was
set in the nineteenth century, the movie they were making,
and they had corporate sponsorship from like a brand new
cutting edge like office supply company. Um. So they finally
figured it out and they kind of show it very
subtly at the end of like it's um like the
name of the office supply company printers or something like that.
(23:37):
It was exactly classic or Philip smore Hoffman was the
was the writer of that had to deal with that.
It's a great role. It was a great role, Um, Josh.
Not only if you're talking about American idol, not only
will you see ads splashed all over the place. You
A big thing now is to actually sponsor. I wish
(23:58):
I could think of the right word. It's not even
an ad really, but if you go to their website,
parts of their website are sponsored, like the old Navy
Fun and Game section And when the last mone went
to a Falcons game? I don't remember, Chuck, when was
the last? You know? The red zone is when a
when a team has evolved on their opponent's twenty yard line.
(24:18):
I'm familiar with the sport of football. Yeah, so if
they're inside the twenty of this the red zone, that
means you're trying to score touchdown. It is not the
red zone in Atlanta anymore? What is it? It is
the Ford Drive zone. I've seen that. There's also the
old Spice red zone. Um, depends on your team. I
guess what city is sponsored by what team or who
the highest bidder was that season? Yeah? I guess. So, Yeah,
(24:39):
you want to talk about books real quickly. Who's the
author here? I've never heard of her. Actually, Fay Weldon.
Apparently she wrote a book. She was contracted by Bulgari,
the jeweler, contracted to write a book. She didn't just
have an idea and they said, hey, can you slip
Bulgarian there? They contracted her to a book that centered
(25:00):
around Bulgari, and she did so, and it was called
the Bulgari Connection. Right, well, they did it. They contracted
her to write this book and it was exclusively for
their highest end clientele, right, just as a gift. Right,
see what we We got this famous author to write
a book about exactly and here you go, Mr money Bags.
But she did release it though as a as a book,
(25:21):
and was chided in many circles. I was imagined so
because that put her in league with such other titles
Chuck It's Coming as Um, Skittles Riddles, Math, the Hershey's
Kisses Edition Book, the Eminem's Brand Counting Book, Twizzlers Percentages Book,
and the Cheerios Christmas Playbook. Apparently kids books are rife
(25:42):
with this kind of thing. I didn't know that kids
book and Fay Weldon books, Yeah, I had no idea,
and Katherine gave a great example here. She said something about,
you know, if you think that maybe they just sponsored
the book and put their name on the title, not true.
The Oreo Cookie Counting Book. Literally, you're counting Oreos. Open
up the page and you're counting. This is how you
(26:03):
teach gets to count by counting cookies. Count delicious Oreo cookies. Um.
So we talked about the first product placement. We should
have qualified that Chuck. As far as we know, that's
the first product placement in a movie cat Hepburn throwing
Gordon's gin over the overboard. Right. Um. The oldest product
placement that Catherine could come up with was in a song,
(26:25):
take Me out to the ball Game, Buy me some
peanuts and cracker jacks. You got it. That's one of
the more obvious product placements. But from what we can tell,
was not accidental. But it was. He was certainly not
given cracker jackson. They didn't pay him anything to do that. Yeah,
but still very famous example. Let me give you an
example that has yet to happen yet. It's an example
(26:45):
of product placement from the future. Get this. On the
November eighth episode of the Family Guy, viewers will be
treated to what has been called pretty much a thirty
minute a for Windows seven. Really, is this one of
the things where they sponsor the show ad free, No,
(27:08):
the whole episodes about it? Huh. I can't imagine not
making fun of it, though, I'm sure they'll make fun
of it because they have to. You know, you want
a cool ad exact and seth McFarlane's not a complete sellout, Um,
but he I'm sure it'll be as cool as a
thirty minute infomercial cartoon can be, and probably even cooler
(27:29):
than it can be. Wow, got rich little sitting over here?
Good lord? Um, but do you want to know where
I found that little tidbit of information on Fox dot com? No?
I didn't. Where do you want to know? Yeah, folks,
there is a site out there where if you are
looking to arm yourself against product placement, uh, you can
(27:51):
go to and it'll give your heads up on what's
coming out. It's an industry website called product placement dot
biz www dot product placement dot biz. The actual name
of the site is product Placement News and it's all
like basically press releases and articles about the industry product placement.
It's pretty cool. That's awesome. Yeah. I guess the final
(28:12):
example that Katherine mentions in the article is noteworthy is
um rap music starting way back with Rundy m C
and my Adidas. I don't know that. I mean, I
think they did that themselves, that they're that's That's what
her point is is is most of the instances in
rap music, like uh, Busta Rhymes had a song called
Past the Cavassier Part two. Most of these come out
(28:35):
because of the artist fondness for the product, and then
afterwards the product will get in touch with them and say, hey, Busta,
thanks man, you really did as a solid and so
here's a year supply versus of Cavassier and some trees
and whatever else. Um, that's actually happened a lot earlier
than with the advent of hip hop what you just described.
(28:55):
There is a very deep seated rumor surrounding Janice Jomplin,
who yeah, you might remember head an affinity for Southern
Comfort with drink fifths of it on stage during the show.
We'll go through a fifth during the show. Yeah, you know,
she couldn't hack it the first time she went out
from Texas to San Francisco. Yeah, she she had she
(29:16):
had to go home, like she was like, I can't
do this, and then she, I guess, started really really
getting wasted and was like, okay, let me try again,
and that one took. She met up with pig Pen
and then it just went down home from there. Yeah.
Did you ever read those letters with my story? Well,
I'm not done with my party, all right, go ahead.
Did you ever see the letters from her sister that
she and her sister wrote back and forth that documentary? No,
(29:37):
I bet they went. No. It was actually very touching
and very sad. She wasn't like miss big pants rock star.
She was like a really sweet, down home girl that was,
like you said, it was very shy and nervous and
and close to her family. Pretty tragic somebody dies at
age seven, tragic, you know. Um. Apparently there's a rumor
(29:57):
that um SoC was so fond of her um drinking
their product and hawking it um just by taking it
up on stage, that they bought her the mink uh
coat that she was on the album cover for the
album Pearl Yeah, classic cover. Yeah, those big round classes.
I've also heard they bought the Rules Royce that she's
(30:18):
standing next to as well. Really, yeah, you know, I
got a little tip for you. Janice Choplin spent her
last night at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood, drinking Southern comfort,
went off to a hotel and died. Go to Barney's
Beanery in order the toad in the hole. Okay, thank
me later. And if you want to know more about
product I feel like such a jerk saying this. After that,
(30:40):
if you want to know more about product placement, you
can type product placement into the handy search bar at
how stuff works dot com. And that means it's time
for listener mail. Indeed, Josh, I'm just gonna call this
our favorite high speed story so far already. Man, Chuck,
(31:00):
you got turnover going. We did our Cannonball Run episode
recently and we asked for high speed stories. We got
a bunch of good ones. We don't want to plug
those because it's unsafe to drive fast kids. But this
came from Jamie in Chicago. Jamie works at a financial
advising firm and we helped him get through some long workdays. Josh,
he has an uncle Matt that's a pretty big car collector.
(31:21):
He never owns more than two to three cars, but
he always has a nice corvette or a muscle car
from the seventies go By picks up and then seller
trade cool. In the early nineteen eighties, Uncle Matt was
living in Kansas. He had just bought and fixed up
his corvette and he took it out on a nice
flat highway in Kansas to see what it could do.
He was going between when he saw the flashing blue
(31:42):
lights in the mirror and uh cop pulled him over.
Cop walked up and says, do you know why I
pulled you over, sir? And Matt said, I tried to
fumble through some answer about how fast he was driving
in the cops said, I pulled you over because in
this state we have a law that all aircraft must
have their tail numbers displayed on their wings. Turns out
(32:05):
the cop was a gear head and more interested in
looking under the hood than giving him a ticket, So
not only did he not end up giving him a
speeding ticket, he just said keep it down to more
of a land speed level and send him on his way. Sweet.
It's a good for Uncle Manol. Well, I guess we're
done with the speed stories, right, Yeah, we're not gonna
read to me in US. Well, then I guess that
(32:25):
means that we should just have a grab bag this week.
Huh yeah, grab bag. Anything you feel like saying to us,
you just go ahead and say it. Send it in
an email to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
(32:46):
that how stuff works dot com. Want more house stuff Works,
check out our blogs on the house stuff works dot
com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
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Josh Clark
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