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- And so he said, that is the origin of the word etymology.
(laughing)
Hey hey, before we all leave, guys, I'm kind of worried
about this product placement video we have coming up.
Well, not worried, but I just think we should
maybe talk it through a little bit,
everybody's on the same page, we all know what
product placement is, right?
(sighing)
- Here, okay, product placement is when companies
pay to have their goods inserted into the narratives
of film and television.
Done, boom, right?
- That's the literal definition, yes,
but there's a lot more to it than that, you know?
I challenge you guys, the next time you watch a movie,
keep a little scrap of paper and a pen
and count the number of brands
that you recognize in that movie.
You'll be blown away and it's kinda fun.
- Alright, well, how about we lead in with this,
did you know that in 2013 companies spent
1.8 billion dollars globally
just on product placement in movies?
I mean, that film Man of Steel,
they had like a hundred product partners.
- Yeesh, must be how they made themselves feel better
about having Superman kill half of Metropolises.
- Spoilers, Lauren!
- No, that's good stuff, Jonathan,
I mean that's exactly what I'm talking about.
And you know, publications such as Business Week and Forbes
have tons of articles on product placement.
What about you, Ben, I mean, you don't have much to say,
what's going on with you today?
- Product placement, totally, yeah.
One thing that I really dislike about product placement
is when advertisers think they're slick
and they sneak a product in using CGI or something
after they've already shot everything,
it looks so fake, you know?
And what is brand stuff about?
It's about reality and science
and it should feel organic.
- Ben, you're not, um--
- Josh, leave him alone, okay?
He's been having a hard time
ever since that income tax episode
and besides product placement
does not just happen in movies.
It's happening in books, video games,
even some YouTube channels are getting paid to do it!
- And if they're doing it well,
it can really add depth to a story.
Like in True Detective, when Matthew McConaughey's character
was turning those tall boys of Lonestar
into little bee rcan men, it made sense
because the character's from Texas,
it really added a level of engagement to the story.
If it would've just said beer,
it wouldn't have made any sense.
- Spoilers, Lauren!
But she's right.
I mean, these companies are really going to make this
even more prevalent when they start engaging
in negative product placement.
That'll be when they pay to have their competitors products
shown in a bad light in movies.
- (scoffing) Yeah, I can see that.
You know, it's kinda like how shark jaws
gives you such a better beer opening experience
than all that trash-it kitchen aide or Bed Bath & Beyond.
What's that old thing they say?
Twice the bite for half the price?
- Seriously, Ben, you're plugging shark jaws
in the middle of our meeting?
- But there are no rules against it.
The FCC pretty much only regulates product placements
in children's programming.
- Maybe we could put a little text at the bottom
of the screen whenever we do product placement
to warn people they're being psychologically manipulated
into buying something, you know?
- Josh, the advertisers would never go for that.
I mean, the whole point about product placement
is that it's supposed to be worked naturally
into the plot so it just seems like it
fits inside the story.
- Yeah, Josh, come on, man,
get on the product placement party train.
Product placement has been around since at least the 1950s
when Gordon's Gin asked Katharine Hepburn
to feature their products in the African Queen,
which was a good movie.
- Yes, it was, and I mean, how do you expect us
to get paid anyway?
There are entire agencies in corporate positions
that just deal with product placement.
I mean, we couldn't even do this amazing show
if we didn't have sponsors.
- Doesn't this bother you guys?
I mean, like, this wanting commercialization of free media?
That's not to mention when we start losing subscribers,
hemorrhaging them, I predict, because we're just
putting products in everything.
- Well, if we're clever about it, nobody's gonna notice.
The products just need to be visible in the scene,
they don't have to be the focus of the whole episode.
I mean, movies do this all the time with cars.
Think about the Delorean in Back to the Future.
- Spoilers!
- Look, I understand where you're coming from.
I mean, nobody watches commercials anymore,
so advertisers have a really hard time
getting through to potential customers.
And in a way, it's not even their fault,
it's ours for being so jaded.
- Well, look, if we're going to do this,
we should do it right.
We should at least mention that there are
three different ways that product placement happens.
- A lot of times to make a scene more realistic,
we have to have somebody using actual product.
- And other times, product placement works
by the company giving the crew a product
as a form of compensation, so, did you know,
that in that new Star Trek movie,
all of the crew got a new Nokia phone and service.
- Can we call Nokia?
- Sometimes a gift of a product alone is not enough
and that is where cold hard cash comes in, my friends.
The clients will provide a fee to the talent
as compensation.
- I think you're all fat cats.
I think you're sellouts and, you know what,
our viewers are gonna look right through you guys
and see right into your corrupt souls.
- If they have a problem with it, or if they really like it,
they can let us know in the comments.
- Yeah or on Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr.
- Yeah, and at the very least they'll go there
to interact with us to see what kind of
cool science content we're sharing.
- But you know what's better than product placement, right?
- Uh... - Shark jaws!
They're mean, they slice, they dice,
they cut, they bite.
Aren't you tired of opening bottles like a jackass?
Well why don't you apply two tons per square inch pressure
on your life with shark jaws?
Stop standing there, using an ordinary stapler,
people hate you.
Go to brainstuffshow.com and get five dollars off
your next set of shark jaws.
There's blood in the water and shark jaws are here to stay.
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