Neighbors is one of those Judd Apatow movies: a raunchy, profane comedy with sex, T&A, drugs and a lot of four-letter words. I have to admit that I like Apatow-ish movies, but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of this type of humour.
Neighbors is about a young couple (Seth Rogen and Ross Byrne) who are forced to live next to a fraternity house after the birth of their newborn baby. Well, you probably know what happens next: parties, long sleepless nights, revenge, …
While the premise is simple and well executed, product placement is fairly average, but with one positive exception: Abercrombie & Fitch.
Let’s check the brands from Neighbors with obvious spoilers.
Apple
Apple’s products were visible, but not in a forced way. There was FaceTime, iPad (in a clever gag with a 3D printer) and MacBook Pro.
Pabst Blue Ribbon
We can see students drinking PBR.
U-Haul
U-Haul is moving equipment and storage rental company and their truck brought stuff to the fraternity house.
Ray-Ban eyeglasses
Mac (Rogen) was wearing RX5228 5043 brown gradient eyeglasses
Safety 1st
Mac and Kelly (Byrne) drove their baby in Safety 1st stroller.
Odd Future
Mac was wearing Odd Future’s T-shirt and baseball hat.
AT&T
One of the most interesting placements occurred in a job fair where Terry (Zac Efron), head of the fraternity group, talked to the AT&T representative and didn’t know what AT&T does. The representative then told him that they’re looking for some smarter students.
Abercrombie & Fitch
The last scene is probably one of the most memorable ones – when talking about product placement, of course. After the neighbors end their dispute, Mac sees Terry in front of Abercrombie & Fitch store, where Terry is working as one of A&F topless models. That scene works great as a A&F parody and also Efron’s self-parody. Kudos to A&F if they got involved in this movie.
We could also look at both AT&T’s and Abercrombie’s placement and say: “kids: partying will get you a job in front of A&F store, while those who will study a lot, might get a job at respectable company, such as AT&T.”
Conclusion
Neigbors is a funny, sometimes even hilarious comedy with fair share of mostly average product placement.