Product Placement and the Movie “Elysium”;
or, “Maybe That’s a Little TOO Exclusive”
Yes, product placement is simultaneously becoming more ubiquitous and more subtle (or not) — woven into the very narrative of today’s movies and TV shows.
And yes, Mercedes-Benz has spent decades assiduously cultivating an air of luxury and exclusivity for its brand.
But I doubt that its marketing folks are thrilled with the new sci-fi thriller “Elsyium,” starring Matt Damon.
Set 150 years in the future, the movie depicts a disease-riddled earth (see below) that has been polluted, overpopulated, and otherwise ruined, leading society’s super-rich to escape to a high-tech, low orbit “Noah’s Ark” that resembles nothing so much as a giant Mercedes-Benz hood ornament.
In defense of the movie’s producers, it has to be said that LEXUS and Acura’s logo’s aren’t exactly symmetrical.
Porsche??
See also, “Would that be Product Un-Placement?“; and “Look-alike Car Logo’s.”
Sci-Fi & Medical Technology: Reviving the Near-Dead (Plots, Too)
One of the more interesting questions posed by this year’s crop of sci-fi blockbusters is, “what exactly can — and can’t — be cured by future medical technology?”
So, doctors in the middle of the 22nd century (“Elysium”) apparently can “cure” such maladies as near-decapitation and (very) late stage leukemia (or more accurately, their machines can; there’s no sign of actual doctors anywhere).
More challenging: lethal radiation exposure, which the protagonist ultimately succumbs to.
Apparently, doctors need another 100 years to figure that one out.
Witness “Star Trek Into Darkness,” set in the middle of the 23rd century, in which Captain James Kirk is literally brought back from the dead after receiving a fatal dose of radiation.
