Budweiser wants off this Flight: when product placement goes bad | Product placement

In a scene from the new Denzel Washington film Flight, his character Whip Whitaker cracks open a can of Budweiser while behind the wheel of an aloft passenger jet. The can of Bud may or may not have helped Whitaker miraculously land the plane safely after it suffers a mechanical failure, but Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch

Film blogProduct placement This article is more than 11 years old

Budweiser wants off this Flight: when product placement goes bad

This article is more than 11 years oldAdvertising in movies is fairly ubiquitous, but some films take creative license to malign the products in the storyline

In a scene from the new Denzel Washington film Flight, his character Whip Whitaker cracks open a can of Budweiser while behind the wheel of an aloft passenger jet.

The can of Bud may or may not have helped Whitaker miraculously land the plane safely after it suffers a mechanical failure, but Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch has asked the film's distributor Paramount Pictures to obscure or remove the Budweiser logo from the film.

Flight premiered Friday and Anheuser-Busch said the film didn't ask for permission to use Budweiser in the film, though it's not really protected by trademark law.

The alcoholic Whitaker also drinks vodka often in the film though his tastes stretch across several brands, including Stolichnaya. The vodka's distributor said they didn't license the brand for the film and wouldn't have given permission to include it in the film if they had been consulted.

Product placement can be insultingly overt in some films, but with instances like Flight, it can have the opposite effect of promoting a product. Other films have taken creative liberty to dig at the products they feature. Warning: spoilers aplenty.

Jerry Maguire: Reebok

The only film on this list to face legal action for its subversive product placement is Jerry Maguire. The film's production company Tristar accepted $1.5m from Reebok for product placement and then villainized the company.

Cuba Gooding Jr's professional football playing character Rod Tidwell is angry at Reebok throughout the film because they won't sponsor him.

Reebok executives said they were promised an ending where this grudge ends because they give the player an endorsement deal and a commercial that says: "Rod Tidwell. We ignored him for years. We were wrong. We're sorry.''

Sony, who owns Tristar, claimed they were allowed to edit out the commercial from the film.

The two companies reached a settlement and the commercial now appears in the film credits.

Transformers: Mountain Dew

Between advertisements for GM and Burger King, Transformers director Michael Bay managed to pack an evil Mountain Dew vending machine into the film-adaption of the beloved toys.

The Decepticon Dispenser transforms into a Mountain Dew vending machine and can kill people by shooting soda cans at them – an act that may give some viewers pause next time they walk by that new, innocent seeming office vending machine.

Heathers: Drano

The 1989 classic makes a strong case for keeping chemical unclogging agent Drano out of your home, or at least far from scheming teenage girls.

Vindictive Veronica Sawyer has her boyfriend serve her social competition Heather Chandler some liquid Drano in the guise of a hangover cure. The corrosive agent cocktail kills the teen.

Words of wisdom from the murderous social queen: "It's one thing to want someone out of your life, but it's another thing to serve them a wake-up cup full of liquid Drano."

Zoolander: Aveda

When retired male model Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) returns to his coal-mining roots to visit his family and begin a new life after losing his friends in a freak gasoline fighting accident, he is confronted by his past work at a bar with his family.

The ad openly mocks the touchy-feely beauty company as Zoolander, clad only in a mermaid tail, swims across the screen and says: "Moisture is the essence of wetness and wetness is the essence of beauty."

Though proud of this commercial, he disappoints his rough and tumble family, giving the small contingent of coal miners who might happen to use Aveda products even less a reason to use them.

Killer Joe: KFC

The dark Matthew McConaughey flick was released last year and includes a scene in which MConaughey's hitman character forces another character to fellate a KFC drumstick.

It's likely to go down as one of the most unappetizing movie scenes ever.

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