Product Placement

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Styles Bitchley
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Product Placement

#1 Post by Styles Bitchley »

While lurking in the Hawaii Five-0 (rebooted) thread the comments on product placement got me thinking about Magnum. Was there any product placement at all. I know it wasn't as prevalent at the time, but I think it did exist.

I was already censured a while back for suggesting that Rolex may have paid to have their watch be so high profile (supposedly they have a policy forbidding such things?). But still, anybody know or have any thoughts? Ferrari, Ray Ban, Macho Taco, Coops?
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

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#2 Post by Braddah Kimo »

Yes. Coops beer was a real beer & in no way was created by the prop department as an ersatz Coors beer, and they (the Coops Brewery Company of Bilwaukee) did pay substantial fees for their product placement .

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#3 Post by J.J. Walters »

Coops was a real beer??

Magnum didn't have much product placement, but it did occur sometimes in the later seasons:

Little Professor calculator and Speak & Spell - "On Face Value"
TWA - "Deja Vu"
Gatorade - "Round and Around"
United Airlines - "Out of Sync"
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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#4 Post by steveadl »

I thought Coops was part of the Magnaverse??

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Styles Bitchley
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#5 Post by Styles Bitchley »

I'm pretty sure Kimo's being sarcastic. It's amazing though, there really was some opportunity there for marketers. I feel like I'd actually like to drink Coops just because Magnum did.

As a kid I remember drinking "Pepsi Free" only because Michael J. Fox drank it in Back to the Future. Man, are we humans easy to manipulate or what??

James, you think the Speak & Spell was placement or just a prop to be funny?
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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#6 Post by steveadl »

Ah ok :D

Know what you mean, I love my Duff Beer cans and also bought a 6 pack of long neck bottles when they were released in Australia mid last year.

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#7 Post by Styles Bitchley »

steveadl wrote:Ah ok :D

Know what you mean, I love my Duff Beer cans and also bought a 6 pack of long neck bottles when they were released in Australia mid last year.
The sell 'em here in Europe too, but I don't think Duff Beer exists in the States...
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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#8 Post by steveadl »

Styles Bitchley wrote:
steveadl wrote:Ah ok :D

Know what you mean, I love my Duff Beer cans and also bought a 6 pack of long neck bottles when they were released in Australia mid last year.
The sell 'em here in Europe too, but I don't think Duff Beer exists in the States...
The original cans I have were made right here in Adelaide by SA Brewing Co. and were a direct copy of the TV show cans. 20th Century Fox sued and the cans were pulled off the shelf within a couple weeks.

The 6 pack bottles released last year must have been under license from Fox.

I also remember many years back reading thet Fox also sued/threatened to sue a 'Duff Brewery' in New Zealand even though they had already been around for decades. From memory they settled with the family changing the name to 'McDuff's' instead.

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Styles Bitchley
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#9 Post by Styles Bitchley »

steveadl wrote:The original cans I have were made right here in Adelaide by SA Brewing Co. and were a direct copy of the TV show cans. 20th Century Fox sued and the cans were pulled off the shelf within a couple weeks.
These are the ones the have at my local grocery store. Pretty accurate, I think...

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"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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#10 Post by Danno »

Styles Bitchley wrote: As a kid I remember drinking "Pepsi Free" only because Michael J. Fox drank it in Back to the Future. Man, are we humans easy to manipulate or what??
Back To The Future had a similar effect on me as a kid.
I only wore Nikes and wanted a Casio calculator watch! 8)

I think there was a Polo Ralph Lauren deal that must have gone on either with Selleck himself or Universal. Selleck wore Lacoste in the pilot episode but almost exclusively wore Polo after that.

Also Styles- check it out:
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Help protect Hawaiʻi's Green Sea Turtles http://malamanahonu.org

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#11 Post by steveadl »

Wow, the ultimate photo - two of my favourite actors! If Arnie was in it as well I'd have to get it blown up and framed! :D

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#12 Post by Styles Bitchley »

Great photo indeed! It looks recent. Not sure about Tom's tie selection though. :wink:
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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#13 Post by Braddah Kimo »

back in the late 80's I popped into Ralph Lauren when I was in the Hills of Beverly now and again, while traveling. I wore much Ralph Lauren stuff. Loved their two story shop there. Made eye contact with Tom Selleck when we passed each other as I was descending the oak big oak staircase and he was going up to the second floor. I shoulda said hi guy!

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#14 Post by Visiting Stewardess »

Interesting, I always thought there was much less product placement in the old TV shows than there is now. The prop departments always made an effort to cover up most labels. But some things just can't be covered, like a lot of the sneakers (nike, adidas, puma).
I got myself some of the blue adidas with white stripes that Paul Michael Glaser wore as Starsky on Starsky & Hutch. One of the few things on the show that clearly showed a real brand.

Cars are also something that they cannot really replace with "make believe brands". On Starsky & Hutch for example, it clearly states in the end credits that Ford provided the cars (actually the baddies almost never drive Ford, they usually drive Chevrolet).

I have never noticed on Magnum that they credited a company for providing their stuff to the show.

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#15 Post by Thomas_Magnum »

I found some Puma Easy Rider '78s the other day on ebay! Great shoes, too.
...and that, as they say, is the hell of it.

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