The Marlboro Man's Midnight Run
After a recent viewing of the film Midnight Run starring Robert De Niro I noticed a few funny things. The foremost being the blatant use of product placement. Throughout the film De Niro’s character, Jack Walsh, is buying and chain smoking Marlboro Reds. The amount of time that these cigarettes spend in the film, they should have received casting credits.
The movie’s protagonist is a bounty hunter trying to get the bond on an accountant who ripped off a famous mobster. This obviously entails intense and slightly comedic fight/chase scenes and De Niro shows exactly how badass he really is. While constantly massaging the reptilian and limbic parts of the brain with these cool fight scenes De Niro calms down with a Marlboro Cigarette.
The placement hit’s a high note when the two are in a coffee shop De Niro cracks a new pack while his companion complains about not having money for food. De Niro flaunts his pack and says something along the lines of “I need these cigarettes, you have whatever your going to have, I’ll have these.”
Around 2:17
This shows that Phillip Morris probably had something to do with the funding for this film. Although chain smoking cowboy killers obviously builds up Jack Walsh’s rugged, loner persona that this film tries so hard to convey it also serves as a constant advertisement. It uses many techniques of persuasion (perhaps unintentionally) such as strength, beautiful people and the quintessential Diversion. Showing the prestigious actor being a tough bounty hunter living on cigarettes and coffee. If I didn’t already smoke reds, this movie would seriously make me think about my brand of choice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment