You may have seen the poster for the film Best Friend?. It shows a girl pushing along a shopping trolley with her friend in it, while a boy hangs onto the trolley from the bottom.

Look again carefully next time you go to the movies, or on the movie page of this newspaper, and you will see the teenagers striking their poses with a backdrop of supermarket shelves stocked with one type of soft drink. Such blatant product placement is a new trademark of Indonesia films in recent times.

Product placement can be found in logos on posters, street billboards, advertisements in both printed and online media and in promotional goody bags, banners or product booths during the film's screening.

Given the bulk of a film's promotion comes before the premiere, perhaps marketers are trying to warm us up for the moment in the product appears in the film.

Sometimes the placement is a mere logo in the background as characters carry on, which often seems out of place, like when Kris Dayanti was upstaged by a bus advertising a washing detergent in Jatuh Cinta Lagi (In Love Again). Better marketers have their products subtly and seamlessly integrated with the storyline, so we hardly notice the product at all. It is common to see cigarette billboards along the roads of North Java, as depicted in 3 Hari Untuk Selamanya (3 Days to Forever), or mobile phone neon billboards at busway stops in LoVe.

Another form of placement is product usage by characters, which is always a win for the advertisers.

An example is Marsha Timothy applying deodorant way too many times in Coklat Stroberi (Chocolate Strawberry), Oka Antara sips a certain brand of green tea in Ayat-ayat Cinta (Verses of Love), a teapot displaying a particular brand of tea repeatedly appears in Medley, and Pevita Pearce is a proud consumer of a certain telecommunication company in Lost in Love.

In the case of Best Friend?, the drinking game, where the characters drink bottled tea instead of beer, is nauseating just to watch.

While product placement has had a recent resurgence, it is nothing new to the filmmaker's world. In the 1998 film Selamat Tinggal Jeanette (Goodbye Jeanette), Meriam Bellina's character gives her uncle in Paris a pack of cigarettes and proudly boasts of the high quality of Indonesian tobacco, as represented by the obvious product in the spotlight.

Within the same era, the 1987 Catatan si Boy (The Diary of Boy) was partly set at a particular Indonesia radio station, and products related to the station were placed in the film as well, like cars and cigarettes.

The recent boom in product placement can be credited to Hollywood, like in the James Bond series using Aston Martin cars and in Sex and the City: The Movie, where almost every scene is a parade of the latest haute couture products.

It is fine to see Carrie try on several wedding dresses because it fits in with the storyline. I rarely see that kind of integration in Indonesian films. Sometimes I see actors stop their cars right in front of a billboard just because a certain product is featured on the board, or they have to drink in such a way to make sure that we see the brand of their drink. This kind of thing is obvious and annoying.

Penny Sylvania, a college student, said "I'm fine with sponsorship, as long as it doesn't mess with the film. It's enough for us to see TV programs being ruined with running text and commercial disruptions. I go to see a film at the cinema to watch a film, not an advertisement."

Filmmaker Agung Sentausa agrees. "I made my debut film, Garasi (The Garage), with the help of a big sponsor. I was lucky, though. The sponsor wanted their products placed as subtly as possible, without disrupting the film."

Still, he understands what his fellow filmmakers feel. "I realized that as a filmmaker, I am responsible for making the placement look natural," Agung said.

He said "You've got to have a bargaining position. There is no way you should turn your film into a 90-minute advertisement, because you need that much money in sponsorship. It's a pretty delicate matter, I admit, because you the whole placement thing is necessary to finance your film.

"We need to remember that whatever we put in our films is going to stay there until the end of time. From cinema, the film travels to cable, to TV, to DVD, and God knows whatever other forms we'll have to watch the film in years to come."

Yungni Mulyadi, marketing communication manager of a telecommunication company, said "We are fully aware of what people think and feel with these all too obvious efforts. That's why in the case of film, when we want to jump into sponsorship, we make sure it is as subtle as possible.

"There are no regulations for product placement, but we are all movie-goers, and naturally, we are annoyed by any kind of disruption. Audiences are smart enough to notice it."

Marketers consider a number of factors in product placement.

"We assess basic things. We ask if the film reaches the same target audience as our products do, for example."

A women's brand of shampoo is not suitable for a horror film. A nutritional supplement may be good if a film shows young professionals at the peak of their physical fitness, for example.

"Equally important is the story and the way the product is being delivered in the film. After all, film is a niche market. People who go to cinema are people who are about to watch one particular film at one particular time. It is important to create a pleasant viewing experience," Yungni said.

"But it is wrong to waste money on one medium only. We go to see movies because film is seen as an alternative medium less saturated than others.

"As a product marketer, your product will only be exposed to a limited number of people watching the film. It's better to get in touch with customers at screenings than work on product placement," she said.

She said,"Personally, I prefer to sell my products than merely display them. If any elements of a film do not work, then as a product owner, I prefer to buy print-ad and TV spots with a guaranteed amount of exposure. If it must be in the cinema, showing advertisements before the film is another option. Audiences can easily remember those.

"At least I can remember to switch off my phone, thanks to the warnings before the film."

If you watch carefully, you will see none of the Best Friend? scenes are set in a supermarket, let alone with a rack full with nothing but soft drinks. When product placement is over the top, sometimes the advertisement it is simply forgettable.

Best Friend? is currently playing at 21 Cinemas nationwide.

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President