Transformers - Let the moychandising begin!

In the immortal words of Yogurt (if you don't know Spaceballs, you've got no business reading this blog ):

"Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made. Spaceballs the T-shirt. Spaceballs the lunchbox. Spaceballs the coloring book. Spaceballs... the flamethrower! Kids love it. And my favorite, Spaceballs the Doll -- me!"

Like many of you, I grew up in a time when the sole purpose of the cartoons on TV was to sell toys. There was no subtlety about it, there was no beating around the bush. The appearance of characters in a cartoon TV series was timed perfectly with the release of new lines of toys. At the beginning and end of virtually every cartoon on TV the most prominent logo was that of the toy manufacturer. Also like many of you, I grew up hopelessly addicted to the Transformers (and virtually anything else that appeared in a comic book, but that's another story entirely...).

We all know that product placement has gotten ridiculous in movies and TV lately. People are casually sitting in a diner and instead of zooming in on the face of an actor about to give an Oscar-winning performance, the camera zooms in on a beautifully sweating glass of Diet Pepsi. There is no more blatant use of product placement than in the upcoming Transformers movie, which might as well be one giant Chevy commercial. The only reason all of the robots in the entire movie aren't made by Chevy is that Chevy doesn't make tanks (Brawl) or helicopters (Blackout) , at least not that I know of.

Is this blatant commercialism, product placement, and obvious attempt to get me to buy merchandising going to stop me from seeing the movie?

Hell no! I will be there in the movie theater eating my Transformers popcorn, wiping my mouth with Transformers: The Napkin, drinking my appropriately placed Diet Pepsi and cheering for my new Chevy overlords. In the meantime, enjoy these two blatant merchandising and product placement ads. The first one is hilarious because Optimus actually jokes (he says "My Bad" after smashing some poor guy's car). The second is hilarious...well.. you'll see. Nothing immasculates a guy better than getting his car blown to bits by a giant transforming helicopter alien.

tags: merchandising  transformers  

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