A few weeks ago I wrote about Skyy vodka again being the official vodka of the movie Sex and the City 2. It’s now less than a month until the world premiere and more and more brands have been associated with this would-be box office blockbuster.
The latest brand which will try to get maximum out of product placement in SATC2 is Hewlett-Packard. This is quite a surprise, because Carrie Bradshaw‘s most loyal partner was her Mac. All of her columns were written on Mac. We could go a bit futher and say that Apple’s product placement in the Sex and the City TV series was one of the best placement’s of the last decade.
Mac was also featured in the first Sex and the City movie.
For HP this is not an unexpected move. At the New York Fashion Week designer Vivienne Tam presented HP’s Mini 210 as a part of her spring 2010 collection. Apparently they decided that using product placement in Sex and the City 2 would change/enhance their brand position. Tracey Trachta, executive director, Global Marketing, Personal Systems Group, HP said that “HP is increasingly recognized as a brand synonymous with breakthrough style and design.” Well, in my opinion the word Apple would be more appropriate in the above sentence.
The agreement will include appearances by HP’s PC’s and notebooks in the movie and a bunch of other global promotions – local pre-screenings of the movie; in-store events and window displays; VIP parties; interactive web experiences; online sweepstakes, and so on and so on. Sarah Jessica Parker will also appear in HP’s TV commercials, print, online and outdoor ads as a part of “PC is Personal Again” campaign.
I have already stated that Sex and the City is a prime example of product placement prostitution. This happens when corporate money directs the movie. The second movie is not an exception – I believe it will be a two-hour-commercial for something around 20 brands. I have already mentioned Skyy and HP, in the trailer for the movie you can see Mercedes and Dior, and there is news about Moet&Chandon, Emirates Airlines …
Nevertheless I have to admit that I partially agree with one comment on my previous post on SATC – Steki said that there’s not product placement prostitution in SATC, because this a movie about lives of a 4 modern women, whose main concern is how to be cool and how to express their own individuality in the modern world where everything but being average is acceptable…
Yes, maybe that’s true – but will Carrie even know how to use Windows?
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Hehehehe… now I am the so called ‘quoted commentator’…. – nice! Especially because I see that my point got through – the modern world is all about brands and products. It’s biological. It’s all about breeding. It’s all about sex. Sex and the City.
With brands you make statements. Like animals in wilderness we have to express our individuality and power. And because we cannot walk around with a sign: ‘I am a millionaire and I am a superb athlete’, we wear brands which make this statement instead of us. Because we can.
In my view brands play a crucial role in this movie. In the movie Sex and the Village you would not see brands as Gucci and Hugo Boss and Rolex, but cowboys with powerful tractors (like John Deeres or Deutz Farh) and huge ranches. For this is the sign of an ‘Alpha Male’ in the village.
I challenge the author of this interesting blog not to confuse the origin and the consequence….
I think it’s a bad change. One thing about Carrie in the show was that she was famous for having a style – A way to do things – And a collection of brands that she loved pretty exclusively.
The entire way through the series she has only smoked Marlboro Golds and nothing else. She wore Blahniks whenever she could.
Switching out the Apple for a HP isn’t true to the character.
I think Product Placement Prostitution is happening any time that the brands represented are no longer true to life or the characters …
For example, Carrie using a Mac all her life, even when it was the smaller brand for a while, then suddenly, when Apple explodes into a massive brand, she switches to a HP?
I completely agree with you.