Hasta La Creative!

Last night Will Ferrell boasted a new job—Little Debbie’s spokesperson—during a weird yet charming segment on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. As it turns out, the brand was just as surprised as anyone else to learn about their supposed new hire. 

“McKee Foods was delightfully surprised by Will Ferrell’s appearance,” said Mike Gloekler, corporate communications and public relations manager for Little Debbie’s parent company. “While this was not a coordinated publicity stunt, nor a paid advertisement, we appreciate both the humor of the segment and the exposure of our Little Debbie brand to Jimmy Fallon’s huge national TV audience.”

Ferrell went all out for the gag, wearing a Little Debbie costume and addressing the studio audience with the right sort of fake cheer that any brand spokesman should have.

The best part of the stunt was how Ferrell repeatedly used it as a distraction from plugging his new movie with Kevin Hart, Get Hard. Instead, he simply kept shifting the conversation back to Little Debbie, a Tennessee-based snack cake brand known for its Oatmeal Creme Pies, Swiss Rolls, Star Crunches, Nutty Bars and more. 

“In our opinion, Will Ferrell did justice to the cowgirl hat and the blue and white dress that are hallmarks of Little Debbie,” Gloekler said. “We appreciate his enthusiasm in playing the part. We also enjoyed seeing the studio audience so eager to get their hands on our delicious snack cakes.” 

Remember when you had to wait until the commercial break to be bombarded with brand marketing? Probably not, since product placement has been a Hollywood addiction since the 1980s.

Ever since Steven Spielberg featured Reese’s Pieces in 1982’s E.T. (after being turned down by short-sighted M&M reps), brands and content creators have embraced product placement as a sort of commercial symbiosis.

This Wednesday, we’ll be tackling the issue of product placement at #adweekchat, a one-hour Twitter conversation open to all. Join us at 2 p.m. Eastern for a lively discussion of the best, worst and weirdest examples of product placement in TV, movies and video.

In the meantime, enjoy revisiting a few of the more iconic moments of product integration (some paid, some not) that have helped to shape how writers and producers weave brands into their storylines—with mixed results:

 
Superman vs. Zod vs. Marlboro vs. Coca-Cola (1980)

And don’t forget the KFC box on the dashboard. This classic scene set the stage for 2013’s Man of Steel, which reaped an astounding $160 million from promotional tie-ins with brands like Sears and Warby Parker.

 
Wayne’s World Makes Pepsi, Reebok and Pizza Hut Part of the Gag (1992)

Looking back on this classic scene, my favorite part is that Rob Lowe never joins them in breaking the fourth wall. He seems earnestly baffled about why these two public-access TV schmucks are so into Pizza Hut and Nuprin.

 
Get Shorty’s ‘Cadillac of Minivans’ Is Actually an Oldsmobile (1995)

At the very least, you have to appreciate the John Travolta comedy’s commitment to making an awkward product placement (the Oldsmobile Silhouette) into a recurring gag. It popped up throughout the movie as character Chili Palmer’s signature coolness rubbed off on the ride. The original Swagger Wagon, you might say.

 
30 Rock Brings Back the Meta Humor for Snapple (2006)

This is my favorite product placement in TV history, and I hate Snapple. So much for my chances with Cerie (whose last name, by the way, is Xerox for reasons that are never explained in the show). In addition to the TGS Show’s love of Snapple, Liz Lemon also helped us see the magical splendor of products like Verizon Wireless phones.

 
Talladega Nights Really Loves Applebee’s, Except for the Rats in the Cobb Salad (2006)

You can almost hear the awkward conversation as the producer had to tell Applebee’s exactly how this lengthy, seemingly glowing scene set in the restaurant was going to play out. Hat tip to Adweek Twitter follower Heather Taylor for the reminder on that one. 

 
Frank Underwood Loves That PlayStation Vita (2013)

Many viewers were bemused by the House of Cards anti-hero’s obsession with the PlayStation 3 and the (rarely seen on Capitol Hill) portable PS Vita. Of course, many brands make recurring cameos on House of Cards. Check out this slideshow of appearances by Apple (oh so much Apple), Blackberry, Canon and more:

The Netflix show’s creators claim they don’t receive financial compensation for product placements, which are provided gratis by the brands. Discussing the PlayStation Vita mention, episode director James Foley told The Guardian, “If we use real products like people do in real life, somehow that’s perceived as being forced-in product placement when it’s just recording reality.”

 
Hawaii 5-0 Really, Really, Really Loves Subway (2012)

This is the Citizen Kane of product placements, an achievement so gratuitous you almost have to admire it. Although I’m really not sure it makes me want a sub, much less five.

What are some of your favorites? Don’t forget to join us on Twitter at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 13, for a whole hour of #adweekchat dedicated to product placement.

The Wooden Award is an annual prize that honors the best men’s and women’s college basketball players. Named after former UCLA head coach John R. Wooden, who lead his team to a whopping 10 NCAA Championships from 1963-1975 (during which time the Bruins also racked up a nearly unthinkable 88-straight wins), the prize today named its list 25 finalists. Due to an insanely good freshman class, including Duke’s Jabari Parker and Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins, it should be a fun race this year. I mean, not Super Bowl fun, but more fun than, say, watching 10 minutes of Pro Bowl.

Anyway, Wendy’s is the official sponsor behind this thing, and starring in a new online spot from Kansas City-based WPP agency VML debuting today is ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas. A Duke alum, Bilas led the Blue Devils to an NCAA Championship game in 1986  (they lost the title to Louisville) as a player and won two championships in the ’90s as an assistant coach. He’s joined here by “The Drain,” a humorous archetype of 1970s hoopsters which has been done nearly to death since Will Ferrell released Semi-Pro six years ago. (Hey, Andre 3000 was in the movie. Weird.)

The copy starts strong, with Bilas calling The Drain’s jumper “so smooth that it would get a co-ed’s number on the way to the rim,” but from there, the spot sort of stagnates. Perhaps it’s because the jokes just aren’t as good as the aforementioned simile. Perhaps it’s because, as I’ve said, we’ve seen this superfly funny-looking character TOTALLY DONE TO DEATH, which I’ve capitalized mid-sentence so you know that I mean it. In any case, this spot is the first of five coming out between now and the April 11-12 awards show. So, let’s hope VML and Wendy’s (which have been working together since late 2012) shake things up.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

IFC's upcoming The Spoils of Bablyon, a comedy miniseries that spoofs serious miniseries, is based on a book that seems to be sold out in Hudson News stores around the country. The problem with keeping the book in stock, though, is that there were never any printed copies.

Eric Jonrosh (and the jig will be up when he shows up on TV and looks a lot like Will Ferrell, who produces the series along with the rest of the Funny or Die crew) is the megalomaniacal author of the book, and his persona has become the avatar of IFC's marketing for the show. "[Andrew Steele and Matt Piedmont, who wrote the series] created a character—well, we don't even like to call him a character," head of marketing Blake Callaway tells AdFreak. "We like to pretend he's real. We've written the fake book reviews. He's committed to literacy, because if you can't read, you can't read Jonrosh."

The writer's megalomaniacal streak is borne out in the ambitions of the miniseries, which appears to span a period from the 1930s to the 1980s, if the trailer (see below) is any indication. So IFC has an appropriately grandiose ad campaign, with the book-focused executions littering bookstores and branded Little Free Libraries installed in cities like Dallas and Minneapolis in partnership with that organization.

Callaway says he hopes to entice writers from the blockbuster-ier end of the literary spectrum to turn out for the show's Los Angeles premiere in January. "[James Patterson] is on our wish list," Callaway said. "Our fantasy list is to have Jackie Collins, Patterson, Grisham—we think they should turn out to celebrate their colleague."

Jonrosh has also been hard at work "reviewing" current best-sellers (especially those with movie versions) like Ender's Game—there's a certain amount of subtext to that one—in wildly inappropriate ways. The Wolf of Wall Street and Fifty Shades of Grey have also suffered his attentions.

As for the miniseries itself, Callaway said, "We're going back to the ABC marketing division of the '80s," à la Roots (which is getting a non-hilarious remake, as well). Makes sense: The show has an ensemble cast that includes unlikely names like Tobey Maguire, Val Kilmer and Haley Joel Osment, who's had something of a comeback this year between Spoils and Amazon's Alpha House.

The show, Callaway told AdFreak, will be an anthology series, like another popular cable offering. "This will kind of be our American Horror Story," he said. "Every year, we'll put another Eric Jonrosh novel on the screen." Sounds like a candidate for renewal.

Dodge and Paramount have joined forces in a co-branded campaign from W+K launching the new 2014 Dodge Durango featuring Ron Burgundy (of Anchorman and the upcoming Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, but you already knew that).

The campaign, which spans television, print, digital and social media, debuted October 5th online and on television. Be prepared to see it everywhere.

“With the personal involvement of Will Ferrell, our writer / director Adam McKay, the comedy team at Funny or Die, and the Dodge creative team at Wieden+Kennedy, we were able to create a truly epic partnership,” says CMO of Paramount Picture Josh Greenstein in a statement. But are the spots actually funny? Some of them — they really very widely in quality. Each of the spots takes advantage of the 70s aesthetic in the Anchorman films, taking place in a colorful, very 70s auto showroom. The first spot, “Horsepower” is a bit of a letdown. It resurrects the tired “comparing horse power to an actual horse” theme commonly used in spots for powerful vehicles.

The staring contest with the horse at the end is almost worth a chuckle though. “Glove Compartment” is a lot better: it features Ron Burgundy toting the Durango’s glove compartment, which can hold “two turkey sandwiches or seventy packs of gum.” Another spot finds Burgundy struggling with a script that touts the Durango’s “m.p.g.” performance. The highlight is definitely “Ballroom Dancers,” featured above, which has a comically angry showdown between Burgundy and dancers that he thinks may “live in the rafters.” A lot of this is stuff that only Ferrell could get away with delivering, and only about half of the time is the writing worthy of his talent, but when it works it works. Plus, it will whet people’s appetites for the Anchorman sequel, which is kind of the point.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues debuts in theaters December 20th. Credits and additional video after the jump.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Você é uma marca de uma cervejaria relativamente pequena, como as milhares (sim, milhares) que existem nos Estados Unidos, mas quer fazer algum barulho no horário de TV mais caro do mundo. Possível? Old Milwaukee prova que sim.

A estratégia: contratar uma produtora mais conhecida pelo seu trabalho online, a Funny or Die, capitaneada pelo comediante Will Ferrell. Mídia? Comprada pontualmente para fazer a peça gerar algum buzz e, assim, ser vista na Internet.

A campanha em destaque foi exibida durante o Super Bowl 47 apenas nas retransmissoras de 3 pequenas cidades de Texas, Oklahoma e Montana. E olha que foi mais exibido que o do ano passado, que passou apenas em algumas cidades do Nebraska.

No Brasil, seria algo como a, deixe-me pensar, Bamberg (que é bem boa) contratasse o Marcelo Adnet ou o pessoal da Porta dos Fundos e veiculasse um comercial durante o último capítulo de Avenida Brasil ou o jogo Corinthians x Chelsea apenas em Presidente Figueiredo, no Amazonas, Pompéia (não o bairro), em São Paulo, e Quixeramobim, no Ceará.

Veja abaixo também o filme do Super Bowl passado:

E veja também a oportunidade em que Old Milwaukee se tornou uma marca global, quando Will Ferrell estava na Suécia e aproveitou para fazer uns vídeos e veiculá-los na TV local:

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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