Product placement is an essential part of the movie business. If you want to make a watch cool, you put it in a movie and give it to James Bond. If you want your laptop to sell more units, make it the hacker’s choice of computer in your picture. And if you want your alcoholic beverage to be enjoyed responsibly, you give it to Denzel Washington‘s character in Flight. Um, wait. No. That last one doesn’t work.
That’s how Budweiser feel, anyway, given that they’ve taken up issue with the way their drink has been portrayed in Robert Zemeckis‘ upcoming flick about a pilot who manages to land an aircraft against the odds and is branded a hero. It turns out, though, that he had alcohol in his system at the time of the landing… which is a no-no for all you would-be pilots out there. Their main issue lies with a scene in which Washington is driving around drunk with a Budweiser in his hand.
And apparently the producers of Flight never sought permission to use their product. A representative of the company had this to say on the matter:
“We would never condone the misuse of our products, and have a long history of promoting responsible drinking and preventing drunk driving. We have asked the studio to obscure the Budweiser trademark in current digital copies of the movie and on all subsequent adaptations of the film, including DVD, On Demand, streaming and additional prints not yet distributed to theaters.”
What do you think? Should Budweiser be removed from Flight or are the company overreacting somewhat? Do you drink Budweiser? Isn’t it delicious?
Source: The Film Stage