Name: James Bond. Status: 007 with a License to Kill. Weapon of choice: Walther PPK. Drink of Choice:
As you are undoubtedly aware of, the 23rd James Bond film "Skyfall" opens this Friday. The film follows James Bond as he must do battle with his greatest villain yet, product placement. Confused? Much controversy has risen over the last few months because of the fact that James Bond will now be drinking Heineken. The move is part of a massive deal with Heineken that will prove to be a big pay day for the filmmakers. Heineken's product placement deal breaks down to this. Bond and other characters will be seen drinking Heineken in "Skyfall", while Daniel Craig as James Bond becomes the face of Heineken beer in their new advertising campaign. The flip side of this though is that Heineken is paying $45 million, all of which is covering the marketing budget for "Skyfall".
This one ad has been playing on both theater and TV screens for the past couple of months.
As you can see, this ad is a clear example of what I'm talking about. Daniel Craig is in character as Bond and selling you Heineken. You have the classic John Barry Bond theme playing throughout. There is an action movie vibe to the whole thing. One man gets mistaken for Bond only to run into Bond and Bond girl Severine. Everyone drinks a Heineken and sits back as the release date for "Skyfall" is bandied about. This only part of a larger campaign featuring Daniel Craig's Bond in scenario's that all end with him beating the bad guys and celebrating by cracking open a Heineken. See a theme here?
The main persuasive technique that is running through all these ads is the idea that Heineken is such a cool thing that even James Bond drinks it. The overall message trying to be conveyed is, "Hey I like James Bond. James Bond likes Heineken. I should go buy some Heineken before "Skyfall" comes out!" Association principle is clearly in action here. The ads are meant to create an almost Pavlovian response to Heineken beer. One thinks of Bond, they then think of Heineken and vice versa. The ad campaign has done a good job though of taking advantage of TV. I can't tell you how many times in the last week I've seen Heineken Bond ads. I'm not going to lie, they haven't been holding back.
To be honest, I've seen huge movies do these kinds of ads all the time. Case and point there was a mountain dew ad campaign for "The Dark Knight Rises" just a couple months ago that followed the same structure as the "Skyfall" ads. The target audience for these ads are obviously those of drinking age. Not only that but the ads are directed towards all those people who are excited for "Skyfall." The ads are meant to remind you that the movie is almost out and get you even more pumped up for it.
The ad campaign has had a few stereotypes that I've noticed. Namely the obligatory Russians speaking Russian and wearing the typical garb you would expect to find a Russian solider in an action movie. Also, there is the stereotype of the vaguely eastern European bad guys who don't speak English and chase our hero around throughout the entire ad. Nothing too offensive, but it still stood out.
So far the campaign has been doing a good job at raising awareness for "Skyfall." I'm not going to lie, every time I see one the ads, I get a little more pumped up to see the movie. As for how well it's selling Heineken, I can't really answer that. It's not like I can go out and buy Heineken but I'm going to assume that interest/sales of Heineken have shot up at least a little bit. The ad that I put in earlier is one that has definitely stuck with me. Granted that might be because I've seen it quite a few times but it's still stuck around in my head. As for weakness with the campaign, I've found that the ads are all basically the same. Some shady action scene occurs, Daniel Craig reveals himself at the end, and he drinks a Heineken. All the ads follow this formula to a t. It would be nice if they injected a little more originality into the ads. Also, I'm concerned that like so many of these deals, they will stick out like a sore thumb within the film itself. Seeing is how Bond will be drinking Heineken in "Skyfall", does than mean his Vodka Martini will be non-existent? Moreover, will there be a awkward line inserted into the film where a character remarks about how much the enjoy Heineken? I worry that this product placement will take away from my enjoyment of the film.
I'm not the only one who is more than a little skeptical about this deal. Roger Ebert even went so far as to say that Bond has finally "sold out." While I definitely have a raised eyebrow concerning this situation I don't think that I would go so far as to say that this film has sold out. Case and point, 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies" had its entire production budget covered by product placement deals. In today's world these big expensive movies need these deals in order to save money. It's just an issue of how well these placement deals are integrated into the films themselves. As for recommending Heineken to someone else, I'm not sure if I would. The ad campaign has been more focused on promoting "Skyfall" than really promoting Heineken. Heineken just seems like something kinda thrown in at the end of each ad. The ads don't really sell me on why I should drink Heineken so I'm not sure if I would recommend it to others.
All in all I was surprised by how much of an uproar this deal caused in the media. I was also surprised by how quickly people were ready to throw around the phrase sell out without realizing that Bond has done these kinds of deals for years. I also didn't realize exactly how much money Heineken was paying for this deal. At this point though, I can only hope that the product placement is well integrated into the film and doesn't pill me out of the experience.
