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