It “listened” and provided company to Chuck. This product placement is very interesting for one particular reason: product was not just visible and used, and Chuck didn’t just speak about it – the product became a character. Wilson ball turning into Wilson character in the movie Cast Away (2000, 20th Century Fox, screen capture) During this time, a volleyball washed up on shore, inspiring him to add to the script one of its most creative elements: Chuck’s inanimate companion, Wilson. While researching for the film Cast Away, he consulted with professional survival experts and then deliberately stranded himself on an isolated beach for one week, thus forcing himself to search for water and food, and obtain his own shelter. I’ll analyse FedEx’s placement soon, but let’s check some interesting facts about Wilson.Īccording to Wikipedia Wilson was created by screenwriter William Broyles Jr. Apparently Wilson and FedEx, the other prominent brand that had a significant part in the movie, didn’t pay for product placement. That ball eventually became “Wilson”, Chuck’s only company on the island. When he opened boxes from the plane, he found Wilson volleyball. Somehow he got company … from the unlikeliest source. FedEx packages in the movie Cast Away (2000, 20th Century Fox, screen capture) The film shows his attempts to survive on the island using leftovers of his plane’s cargo, as well as his eventual escape and return to society. Just to remind you: in Cast Away Tom Hanks is Chuck, a FedEx employee who is stranded on an uninhabited island after FedEx’s plane crashes on a flight over the South Pacific. He even gained fifty pounds during pre-production to make him look like a chubby, middle-aged man. For a large period he was on screen alone. He was capable of being the lone character and the movie would still succeed. At the time of movie production Hanks was one of the hottest names in Hollywood. The movie Cast Away was acclaimed by critics and at the same time a box-office success. In 2000 Tom Hanks collaborated for the second time with director Robert Zemeckis in what was one of the most interesting stories about crashing to a deserted island. But in the year 2000 we had an excellent example of a fourth type: a brand became the character. A product or brand can be visible, used or someone can mention it. It means it remains in the people's minds.In my first post on Brands&Films I’ve written that there are three classic types of product placement. This thread is living proof that the impact was great, as the issue is being discussed here four years after the movie release. It's part of FedEx's 'people first' philosophy. What's more, I believe that all that display of attention Hanks gets from FedEx upon his return is very real, and very likely to happen if a similar circumstance should take place.
However, all of the above was measured against the chances of displaying FX's corporate image all over, and the obvious impact of being the first company to become a character in a movie, in its own right. FedEx's involvement was to put a Marketing team to follow up closely, and that's it.Īctually, FX was hesitant to participate in the movie,as there is more than one negative image shown: the obvious crash (at the end of the movie, Helen Hunt tells Hanks the crash was thought to have been provoked by a 'mislabeled hazardous material problem' (or words to that effect), not a storm) a dirty courier van in Moscow, a smoking courier using an old uniform and showing a four-day beard, a child running with the package for the last leg of the delivery (all the foregoing a problem being fixed by Hanks). DreamWorks thought FX was the only character that could set up the high-demanding standards necessary to add drama to the movie, in which Hanks' character could develop under ideal circumstances: his 'absolutely, positively, whatever it takes' attitude is indeed a FedEx trademark. FedEx had nothing to do with the producers, much less put money into it (it's against the corporate policies).
The exterior shots were made at FedEx's facilities in LAX, MOW and MEM, and in Monu-riki and other locations of the Mamanuca-i-ra group of Fiji. The interior shots were actually made on board an MD11.
0 kommentar(er)
