Car Commercial or Movie Trailer?
Jul 13, 2005 by Vic Holtreman
Ahead of War of the Worlds was a trailer for the upcoming movie Transporter 2. I thought the first movie was a lot of fun, and I’m also a great fan of movie trailers, but something about this trailer really struck me.
We’ve all seen (and heard me rant about) product placement in movies… but I’ve never seen such an obvious example of promoting a product in a movie trailer. Seriously, if you weren’t familiar with the lead actor or if they just took out the “Fox” logo, the first 30 seconds of this trailer could easily be an Audi commercial.
Click on the image above to see for yourself, then come back and tell me if I’m nuts.
Ahead of War of the Worlds was a trailer for the upcoming movie Transporter 2. I thought the first movie was a lot of fun, and I’m also a great fan of movie trailers, but something about this trailer really struck me.
We’ve all seen (and heard me rant about) product placement in movies… but I’ve never seen such an obvious example of promoting a product in a movie trailer. Seriously, if you weren’t familiar with the lead actor or if they just took out the “Fox” logo, the first 30 seconds of this trailer could easily be an Audi commercial.
Click on the image above to see for yourself, then come back and tell me if I’m nuts.
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I totally agree. Actually, when I was watching it, I did think it was a car commercial at first. It was really confusing. I saw the first Transporter, but because of the begining of the trailer, I’m thrown off by the sequel.
Really this seems to be one sequel that sticks to the theory that if the first movie made money the sequel shouldn’t deviate from the formula.
At all.
Vic
well the first movie revolved around his BMW in the beginning, its just a different car
Jesse, I disagree. If you watch the trailer for the original film, you’ll see that for the most part the car is shown in much shorter segments, from close-in shots where it’s hard to make out the make and from wide shots that also don’t highlight the specific car.
In this trailer, the camera lingers all over the car and especially the Audi corporate symbol.
Click here to see the trailer for the original movie.
Vic
Roughly the first 30 seconds showed close-ups of the car, as Vic said. I like drive / chase sequences as much as the next person, but why show so many close-ups of the car and its logo? That doesn’t make sense, unless the car company is paying for product placement. That whole trailer was poorly done, IMHO.
Brian
Yep, you’re absolutely right – that’s a movie about a car…but not just any car. An Audi car.
Ugh.
Hrm; I noticed it, but it didn’t seem to actually make a mainstay for the remainder of the trailer.
Maybe Audi just wants something out of the trailer.
Uh, ya think?
Vic
Come on now, Vic– No need to poke fun at me
Clearly Audi is just a nice car and they wanted to make a…
Jeez, screw it.
I’m giving in and simply agreeing that they wanted product placement so bad they couldn’t see straight. Still, can’t complain– the movie looks pretty good.
LOL, I would *never* make fun of one of my beloved visitors.
And, yeah, it looks like a romp… although (beyond the obvious) I don’t see the point story-wise of an assassin who has to take her clothes off to shoot somebody.
Vic
You just don’t understand.
IF someone was going to kill me; I’d rather get myself killed by a woman who takes her clothes off in the process; I mean– It’s just male instinct.
This is clearly not a movie where story is all that influential, and it seems like a flick that will certainly reward its viewers with everything that is sexy in modern cinema. (Explosions, women, guns, drugs and money.)
I guess I’m just no longer satisfied with style over substance.
Vic
I can understand that, and in most cases I agree; however, when in the mood for something that grabs you by the head and says “I’m AN AWESOME ACTION MOVIE” and just kicks your ass, this looks to be a good bet.
Bah; I’m not even disagreeing, that’s the sad part– leads me to wonder why I’m still arguing.
Agree on the trailer being a commercial for audi. However, is it just me or the movie (storywise) just sounds like ‘Man on fire’?