The Hollywood tradition of product placement will soar to a new level when Steven Spielberg-produced action film Transformers is unleashed on US cinema-goers today.
Based on the successful line of toys launched during the 1980s which spawned a popular cartoon series and several comic books, the new movie version of Transformers has become one of the most talked about films in years.
But while film buffs marvel at the spectacular computer-generated pyrotechnics, US automaker General Motors (GM) is hoping that big box-office will translate into big car sales.
Four GM models have prominent roles in the film, which sees them "transform" from cars into robot warriors battling to save planet Earth from destruction against evil rival robots.
The GM vehicles, which unsurprisingly feature in the film as the good guys on the side of mankind, have featured prominently in pre-release publicity for the film.
Dino Bernacchi, associate director of marketing alliances and branded entertainment at GM, said Transformers represents a rare convergence of big-business and Hollywood.
"We try to find properties where the cars are the stars, and literally our cars are the stars of this movie," Bernacchi told the Hollywood Reporter. "You don't get any more heroic than the roles that our four vehicles play."
The car-robot given pride of place in the film, a Chevrolet Camaro, went out of production in 2002 but is set to be re-launched next year.
Alongside the Camaro is a gas-guzzling Hummer H2, a GMC Topkick pick-up truck and a low-cost Pontiac Solstice convertible.
"I think this is a once in motion picture history-type opportunity for an automotive company where you have a film that actually incorporates multiple cars that are actually characters in the film," LeeAnne Stables, senior vice-president of worldwide marketing partnerships at Paramount studios, told the Reporter.
According to movie industry press reports, GM did not pay for the right to feature in Transformers, but instead has helped offset the huge promotional costs of the film by featuring the movie in recent advertising campaigns for its cars.
In exchange, Transformers director Michael Bay (Armageddon, The Rock and Bad Boys) has directed five separated commercials for GM.
Park Choong-whan, a professor of marketing at the University of Southern California, described GM's Transformers tie-in as "probably the most aggressive form of product placement strategy."
But Park also warned that the campaign could backfire.
"People may discount the true effect that may be possible from this tie-in because they already know about it," he said. "There's is a kind of boomerang effect ... If prior attitudes of the people towards General Motors are negative, then it may not have a strong impact at all."
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS