product placement: gaga and rihanna
Sponsorship and product placement aren’t new ideas. In movies, products are used to offset the cost of production. For events, sponsors are used to do the same. In Lady Gaga’s new video for “Telephone”, a number of brands are featured in the video, while some have paid to be there, others have not.
Notable brands include:
- Virgin Mobile
- Hewlett Packard
- Coors
- Polaroid
- Diet Coke
- Chevrolet
- Wonder Bread
- Miracle Whip
- Plentyoffish.com
Notice anything about this list? As Aymar Jean Christian points out, “the brands most prominently featured in the video are the ones who have to work the hardest to stay hip: it’s HP not Apple, Virigin Mobile not AT&T. It’s the brands people my age either don’t use, have become skeptical of, or find too old-sounding: Wonder Bread, Polaroid, Miracle Whip, Chevy”. Considering that Gaga is a product herself, she has embraced consumerism, taking the opportunity to poke fun at what has turned into a heavily consumerist culture.
In her video for “Rude Boy” Rihanna wears G-Shock and Baby-G watches. The difference between Rihanna’s and Gaga’s videos is that while Gaga’s is funny, Rihanna’s just seems like an extended commercial. At about two minutes into the video, it looks like it could be a print ad.
So what’s your take?
Finally, Finally…I’ve been looking for this information for a long time. Thanks