:: adgruntie :: Branding shifts and PP

+ What happens when a company’s business shifts and the brand needs to shift with it? This article takes an interesting look at how big brands go about shifting consumer's perceptions as they evolve with the times by expanding their product or services.

“It’s very hard to change a brand quickly because people don’t change their perceptions that quickly,” Matt Ross, senior partner at the advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather said. “As much as companies would like to have complete control over the way their brand is perceived, the customer has a lot to do with it, too.”

+ If there was an Oscar for best product placement, these would be the nominees according to Stuart Elliott of The New York Times.

AFLAC: The familiar duck that promotes the supplemental health insurance sold by Aflac made its film debut in "Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events," appearing briefly in a scene playing, well, itself. In the scene, the duck, inside a boat during a storm, is squarely in the path of an unfortunate event involving a flaming stove.

CLOROX: The Clorox bleach brand sold by the Clorox is prominent in an early scene of "Million Dollar Baby" featuring two acting nominees, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. A Clorox bottle is visible among the products on Freeman's cart as he cleans the gym where Eastwood trains boxers. "Why do you buy that expensive stuff?" Eastwood asks Freeman. "Bleach is bleach." Freeman replies, "I like the way it smells."
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HAI KARATE: In "The Incredibles," Hai Karate, a mass-market men's fragrance introduced by Pfizer in 1966, makes the kind of comeback that consumed Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard." A bottle of Hai Karate is visible as a character named Lucius (with the voice of Samuel Jackson) prepares to resume his secret identity as the superhero Frozone.

KLEENEX: The Kleenex tissue brand sold by Kimberly-Clark turns up in many scenes near the end of "The Aviator," set in the 1940s, when Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, began displaying symptoms of the obsessive-compulsive disorder that would eventually consume him.

SANFORD: Speaking of vintage, "Sideways," set in the wine country of Santa Barbara County, California, is a veritable brandfest, with the Sanford line sold by Terlato Wine Group playing perhaps the most prominent part.