Product Placement by Fast Food Restaurants

Whether it is Shahrukh Khan driving a Volkswagen New Beetle in Ra. One or Hrithik Roshan guzzling Mountain Dew in ZNMD or Kareena Kapoor walking with a Sony Vaio in tow in Bodyguard, product placement is the new ‘IT’ thing in Bollywood. Product placement means the prominent display of a brand in a movie (or even TV shows) where the characters use the product (Big bucks required for this!!) or there is a fleeting/ flashing display (Lesser money) of the brand in the background. This phenomenon has there been for quite a long time in Hollywood with successful associations with brands like Apple, Ford and Coca-Cola which feature in about two dozen blockbusters (above $100 million grosser) every year.

Kareena Kapoor with a Sony Vaio in Bodyguard (2011)

 

So, how does product placement work out for Fast Food restaurant brands? The movie studios approach a potential brand for a tie-up based on the script requirements or opportunity of product placement (to cover the production budgets). Sometimes brand associations are already present (as in the case of sequels or TV/Book adaptations) and such a relationship is continued for higher brand leverage and stronger recall. 

Dunkin' Donuts featuring in Source Code (2011)

However, there are a few challenges that are present. The biggest challenge that such brands face is the ‘Use’ part of the product in the movie. It is practically impossible for the makers of the movie to feature a 60 second sequence in which a character ‘primarily’ eats a burger or a pizza (while sipping a Diet Soda) without making the audiences get bored or miffed or both. Thus, the product placement needs to be cleverly done so that it fits in perfectly into the script and defines ‘a way of life’ for the character indicating his/her preference of the brand. This challenge is quite often overcome by filming a scene alongside a restaurant sign-board or showing the product packaging (pizza boxes etc.) among other techniques.

Pizza Hut featuring in The Invention Of Lying (2009)

Another challenge is identifying with the target audience of the brand with the character that is seen consuming the product. For example, when Dunkin’ Donuts made an appearance in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps alongside the character of Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf as a proprietary trader); it displayed the life of a young workaholic who elicits a certain kind of lifestyle, consuming products of a known fast food brand due to the trust factor (regarding the quality of the product) as well as the time factor (paucity of time due to hectic work life).

Dunkin' Donuts featuring in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) depicting the lifestyle of the character.

Similarly, Pizza Hut had a tie up in the movie Wayne’s World where the central character Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers as a TV show host) is prominently seen with the brand; the character displaying a laid back attitude and life of a young man.

Pizza Hut featuring in Wayne's World (1992) depicting the life of a carefree TV host     

The children are however, difficult to target in a direct manner due to legislative restrictions; and promotional tie-ins with brands are the way to do it. McDonald's for instance tied up with DreamWorks Animation's Shrek franchise by including its toys in its Happy Meals and also introducing a Guava-Mint flavoured dessert.

McDonald's Guava-Mint flavoured Dessert as a part of its tie-in with Shrek Forever After (2010)

But, both the studios as well as the fast food brands need to be cautious about the side-effects of such a tie-in, as was the case when McDonald’s had to recall 12 million glasses sold as promotional tie-in with the movie Shrek Forever After contained the toxic metal cadmium leading to a fall in share price by 1.7% for McDonald’s. Thus, before agreeing on a tie-in/ product placement with a given movie; the fast food brand should evaluate the theme of the scene in which the product will be displayed along with the overall target audience for the movie.

McDonald's Shrek glasses had to be recalled after the toxic metal Cadmium was found in them

The product placement phenomenon has become an extensive part of the TV shows and sitcoms, so much so that the TV presenters of the morning news of KVVU have McDonald’s Ice Coffee on their desks, even though they rarely touch the logo-covered cups. So, product placement is here to stay; but the job of the brand managers is to effectively reach out to their target audiences through these tie-ins. 

KVVU's Morning News presenter have Ice Coffee from McDonald's placed in front of their desks