Sugar free, sir? ... Daniel Craig in Casino Royale
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Writers regularly discuss product placement in the movies as though it were something sinisterly inscrutable and deeply evil, like some sort of celluloid equivalent of the black market trade in human organs. But while suddenly realising that your favourite movie character probably has a very good reason for being more than a little effusive in his or her praise of the wonders of Levi jeans or Gucci footwear can certainly leave a cheap saccharine aftertaste in the mouth, it's hard to argue that anyone's being kept in the dark when Coke are waxing lyrical about how excited they are to be involved in the new Bond film. Variety reports today that the soft drinks giant has signed a deal to promote its Coke Zero brand in association with Quantum of Solace, the forthcoming sequel to Casino Royale which will once again see Daniel Craig stepping into Bond's drum-tight Speedos.
You'll be pleased to hear that Craig won't be swapping his trademark Martini for the sugar-free beverage, however. But Coke are obviously more than happy that they will be getting value for their money, so the drink will no doubt be making a fairly prominent appearance. Given that Coke Zero is a sort of Pepsi Max equivalent marketed to young men self concious enough about their appearance to spurn full fat Coke but also aware that Diet Coke is a girlie drink imbibed only by hot office workers who enjoy staring at scandily clad men, we're guessing that 007 will bump into a complete prat somewhere on his travels.
The company's director of worldwide sports and entertainment marketing, who bears the spectacularly manly moniker Chip York, says Bond appealed because the tagline for Coke Zero is "the impossible made possible". "That's what Bond does every day," he adds, helpfully.
007 will also be getting financial help from Ford, Heineken, Bollinger, Smirnoff, Omega, Virgin Atlantic, Sony Ericsson and Sony Electronics this time around. Altogether that's around $100m in marketing wonga. Does any of this particularly bother you? And what's the worst example of product placement you've seen in the movies, Shane Meadows' Somers Town aside...
