“So, Mr Bond, first I am going to give you this Omega watch, then I am going to kill you!”
06/05/2011

Back in Hollywood’s golden era, when a producer was pitching a film idea to a box office star, he would talk about it being a great ‘vehicle’ for his or her talents, a formula that probably led to the eventual demise of the star system: the integrity of the script was often compromised to the star’s whims, and their astronomical fees became harder and harder to recoup.

I was reminded of this by the news that the new James Bond film – currently shooting in India – has drawn down £45 million in product placement fees (from the likes of BMW and Omega, who bought into previous Bond films) making it the film with the most product placement in cinema history.

So move aside Daniel Craig, you are no longer the star.  The new Bond film is unmistakeably a ‘vehicle’ for its advertising sponsors (including Chinese electrical goods manufacturers, who are probably better cast as evil masterminds!)

It might seem strange to talk of compromising the integrity of a film that is little more than escapist popcorn, but when James Bond exchanges his licence to kill for a franchise to sell and becomes a jumped up brush salesman, he loses both his charm and his credibility.  Next time around – and this is the most deadly part – he loses his audience, and the whole exercise becomes self-defeating.

I’ve expressed my misgivings about product placement in a recent blog (Wake Up and Smell the Coffee – 1st March), and I repeat them here.  Some are of the opinion that all publicity is good publicity – witness the tasteless and deliberately provocative campaign for the United Colours of Benetton – but I disagree.

Product placement in the forthcoming Bond film will kill the goose that laid the golden egg.  Or as Dr No or Goldfinger might have said: “First I am going to give you this Omega watch, Mr Bond, and then I am going to kill you!”