Product Placement

Today, for Mothers' Day, my mom decided to gather the family and watch Jurassic World (don't ask me why, because I truly don't know). As I was watching, I saw one of the main characters turn to the side, revealing the Beats logo on his headphones.

Obviously, this is an intentionally scene in the movie that makes us think about how great Beats are; it's like a subtle advertisement. However, I don't know how effective this ad is. It mostly made me confused about why we care about headphones in a movie where everyone is getting murdered by giant dinosaurs. I personally thought it was silly, but it did get my attention. As long as it got a reaction out of me, I'm sure that the company who makes the Beats are content. This one scene isn't the only attempt of product placement, however. The biggest one has to be the Mercedes advertisements. They're everywhere!

Whether the cars are in the background or right in your face, the Mercedes logo is always facing the camera. Every single car in this movie--and there's a good amount of cars--have some kind of Mercedes logo. This is probably to establish a good relationship/ feeling between the movie and the car, but I'm not sure which one helps the other. One side could be displaying a cool and intense movie, equaling a cool and interesting car. Or, it could be the other way around: an expensive, desired car must mean that this movie is high-end and knows what it's doing. Either way, the combination of dinosaurs and fast cars are bound to get an excited reaction from the audience. 

This may be a creative way of advertising, and this product placement must've helped pay for such a complicated amount of effects in the movie. However, this type of advertising has a negative impact on my experience with the movie. Whenever I saw some sort of logo or feel-known product within the movie, I lost my connection to the plot and emotion that should've been affecting me. Instead of getting immersed in the deaths and fear-factor of the film, I just found myself commenting on the product placement. That may be what those companies want, but it's not what I was expecting. I wanted more dinosaurs, and less products that barely anyone can afford.