Brand Hype: Filmography

Compiled and annotated by Lesley Husbands and Matt Soar

"Behind the Screens: Hollywood goes Hypercommercial" (US 2000, 37 mins). Media Education Foundation

"Hollywood movies are rapidly becoming vehicles for the ulterior marketing and advertising motives of studios and their owners, rather than entertainment in their own right. Behind the Screens explores this trend toward "hypercommercialism" through phenomena such as product placement, tie-ins, merchandising and cross-promotions. It combines multiple examples taken directly from the movies with incisive interviews provided by film scholars, cultural critics, political economists, and an Oscar-nominated screenwriter. Behind the Screens presents an accessible argument designed for school and college-age audiences-- precisely the demographic most prized by both Hollywood studios and advertisers alike. It features examples drawn from movies such as Wayne's World, Forrest Gump, The Lion King, Summer of Sam, and Toy Story. Interviewees include Jeremy Pikser, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of the Warren Beatty film Bulworth; Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Communication at New York University; Susan Douglas, Professor of Communication at the University of Michigan; Professor Robert W. McChesney of the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Professor Janet Wasko of the University of Oregon." (MEF) This video can be viewed in its entirety on the Brand Hype website. Previews and purchase copies of this video can be ordered from the Media Education Foundation. MEF also provides online excerpts of most of its videos.

"The Merchants of Cool" (US 2001, 53 mins). Narr. Douglas Rushkoff. Frontline/PBS. This eye-opening documentary reports on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers using several case studies. The official PBS website for this documentary includes background resources along with the entire piece for viewing online.

"No Logo: Brands, Globalization and Resistance" (US 2003, 42 mins) Featuring Naomi Klein. Media Education Foundation

"In the age of the brand, logos are everywhere. But why do some of the world’s best-known brands find themselves on the wrong end of the spray paint can – the targets of anti-corporate campaigns by activists and protestors? No Logo, based on the best-selling book by Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein, reveals the reasons behind the backlash against the increasing economic and cultural reach of multinational companies. Analyzing how brands like Nike,The Gap, and Tommy Hilfiger became revered symbols worldwide, Klein argues that globalization is a process whereby corporations discovered that profits lay not in making products (outsourced to low-wage workers in developing countries), but in creating branded identities people adopt in their lifestyles. Using hundreds of media examples, No Logo shows how the commercial takeover of public space, destruction of consumer choice, and replacement of real jobs with temporary work – the dynamics of corporate globalization – impact everyone, everywhere. It also draws attention to the democratic resistance arising globally to challenge the hegemony of brands." (MEF) Previews and purchase copies of this video can be ordered from the Media Education Foundation. MEF also provides online excerpts of most of its videos.

"The Persuaders" (US 2003, 90 mins). Narr. Douglas Rushkoff. Frontline/PBS. This documentary explores how the cultures of marketing and advertising have come to influence not only what Americans buy, but also how they view themselves and the world around them. The official PBS website for this documentary includes background resources along with the entire piece for viewing online.

"Rich Media, Poor Democracy" (US 2003, 30 mins) Featuring Robert McChesney. Media Education Foundation

"This video connects the decline of journalism to the profit motives of the mega-corporations that own the media. Based on McChesney's award-winning book, Rich Media, Poor Democracy questions how media policy decisions get made, examines the way our media system affects news coverage, and offers suggestions for reclaiming our media - asking if there is a connection between independent, public media and a vibrant healthy democracy." (MEF) Previews and purchase copies of this video can be ordered from the Media Education Foundation. MEF also provides online excerpts of most of its videos.

"Value-Added Cinema" (US 2003, 47 min.) Steve Seid and Peter Conheim.

"Steve Seid, Video Curator for Pacific Film Archive and Peter Conheim of Negativland present a finely tuned montage of egregious product placement shots, drawing on 70 films—removing the gratuitous and unnecessary plots and leaving behind just the exhilarating core of consumerism. Commercial cinema is becoming just that, a commercial—ninety minutes of seamless advertising, corralling all artistry within the comfy confines of the saleable. In years past, the propmaster, like Wile E. Coyote, had a pantry filled with generic products: Acme beer, Acme cereal, or Acme explosives. Later, product placement infiltrated the Dream Factory with an array of lovely goods and foodstuffs—sneaky salutations to the merchandised environment. Now Product Placements surface in forms more numerous than flavors at a Baskin-Robbins: insinuated into dialogue, thrown front and center like loss leaders, even engulfing entire features until they become little more than cross-promotions for toy manufacturers. That most forward-thinking of films, Minority Report, heightened the practice with its talking Armani billboards and customer-friendly Gap, raking in a cool twenty-five million in the process. Value-Added Cinema offers up the stuff dreams are made of." SFIndie.com.

Last updated February 13, 2006.