The Book of EliPod

My opinion of “in film” advertising is well known. But for those that haven’t heard this rant, here we go again!

I tolerate pre-film adverts. I have come to think of them as a necessary evil, allowing the film industry to gain more money (although I realise this is an idealistic view and actually it all probably goes into the pockets of someone wholly irrelevant). I don’t include trailers in the “evil” category as these are intended to show me other films I might want to see = win. The exceptions of course are twilight and harry potter, both of these count as adverts rather than trailers ;).

When it comes to adverts actually IN the movies, that’s what really gets on my nerves. Sometimes it is very subtle, or is simply showing a modern day scene that happens to have a Mac / iPhone / iPod / Xbox / whatever in the scene, unobnoxiously and there is no direct reference to it, either through dialogue or through “look at me” brightness against a dull film background. This too is almost acceptable were it not for the fact that if I notice it, I instantly assume that they have paid money to be in the film, which makes me angry. It makes me angry because I have paid to see a film, not a 2 hour advert for something.

When it is not so subtle, I get so pissed off I want to switch the film off (to the point where if I had gone to see “the book of eli” in cinemas I would have walked out and demanded my money back!) This film is set in a post-apocalyptic future, food and water are scarce, surviving is a priority. Inhibiting your hearing by listening to an iPod while you sleep is not! He awakes, and lo and behold his iPod has run out of battery as he has slept with it on. He approaches a town, and the first thing that happens? he looks for somewhere that will charge his portable battery! Not food, not water (water is his second stop). Now I could have gotten this wrong, but there is no other electronic equipment carried during this film, so what other purpose could he have for trading for this service. Not least, he gets attacked and escapes, but makes sure to pick up his battery before leaving, thus getting him caught up in another fight. An entire subplot showing the trials and tribulations of getting your iPod charged in a post-apocalyptic future. This makes me angry.

Similar examples are Blade 3, where a human vampire hunter decides that “playlisting” on iTunes on her Mac and syncing it with her iPod before going to fight vampires and therefore also impeding her senses was a good idea. This film also felt it necessary to show a close up of the iTunes interface for good measure.

I,Robot where the first thing out of Mr Sellout Smith’s mouth was about his trainers, not to mention a light-hearted comment by the older generation about “what you’re wearing on your feet”. The reply to which as we all remember is “Converse All Stars Vintage 2004”. That’s not even to mention the Fed-Ex robot, and the futuristic Audi with a close up of the badge etc etc.

If you look back, it’s a time-honoured thing, a great many “classics” have advertising in them, but at least in the past this was restricted to the background. Film producers… if you’re adding extra dialogue to advertise a product, it has gone too far. If you’re creating extra scenes to fit it in, you’re going too far. If the actions of the characters are affected by the advertising product, you’ve gone too far.

Time this was sorted out.

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