Movie audiences today probably tend to think of product placement as a relatively recent phenomenon — perhaps dating back to the 1980s, at the earliest. This may be when the practice came to the fore in the public consciousness — with the conspicuous, impossible-to-ignore trail of Reese’s Pieces followed home by an alien named E.T. However, the truth is that advertising and publicity in the form of product placements goes back as far as the movie business itself. From the very earliest days of cinema, movie studios willingly featured products, or ads displaying them, in return for some much-needed financing. And while the masses may have remained ignorant about what was going before their eyes, it didn’t go unnoticed by everyone. For example, 1919′s The Garage, directed by and co-starring silent comedy actor Fatty Arbuckle, was strongly criticized in one trade publication for featuring Red Crown gasoline. Yet, as we shall see, the link between advertising and the moving image was established even before plots and narratives were in place as we would recognize them today. Here, then, are 10 insidious early examples of product placement you may not have known about. Read the rest of this entry »
