Product placements may be added to classic films

&gt; Roy Taylor, the chief executive of Californian-based business Ryff, says his firm is taking digital product insertion one stage further. &gt; It has developed the technology whereby the product placement is targeted at individuals, and changes depending on who is watching.<p>A film is supposed to be an experience, and the products&#x2F;brands within it (whether &quot;organic&quot; or &quot;placed&quot; with the approval of the cast) is part of it. I don&#x27;t like how they&#x27;re planning to change it dynamically.

I&#x27;m imagining a black and white Oscar Schindler cracking open a beautiful, bright red can of Coca Cola and taking a sip.

Isn&#x27;t piracy great? You get a single file that you can be certain will not change the next time you watch it!

&quot;Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.&quot;

Two ad executives get to talk at length about how masterfully their companies are able to deceive the audience. A brand management professor says it will be great income for the poor TV advertising industry. A media director describes what a great source of revenue this could be for starving bands.<p>A marketing lecturer warns brands that they might end up in a bad PR situation due to something something scandal.<p>A film critic says it raises some questions about copyright, and that it might intrude on the work of the production designer.<p>Not a single word about how the heck this will affect the audience.

Imagine if some inspired tech founder started adding product placement to the paintings in the louvre (which were recently made viewable online here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;collections.louvre.fr&#x2F;en&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;collections.louvre.fr&#x2F;en&#x2F;</a>).

They will have to find an equilibrium between the optimal number of old movies to cancel, or retain to shove ads in.

There is a lot of cultural history out there just waiting to be monetized. Why limit ourselves to films? How about (e)books and music? Anything in a digital format really.

(1997)<p>&quot;Fred Astaire’s daughter, Ava, says she is “saddened that after his (Fred’s) wonderful career he was sold to the devil.” The “devil” in this case is the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. Fred is appearing in commercials in which his dancing props (a mop from “Easter Parade” and a coat rack in “Royal Wedding”) have been computerized and substituted with vacuum cleaners. The blurbs have already appeared in (very costly) spots on the Super Bowl and more are to come&quot;<p>(the reason it was permitted is because his widow was ok with it - she drew the line at &quot;putting words in his mouth&quot;, but a vacuum cleaner in his hands was ok by her)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;variety.com&#x2F;1997&#x2F;voices&#x2F;columns&#x2F;astaire-won-t-deal-with-the-devil-1117863031&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;variety.com&#x2F;1997&#x2F;voices&#x2F;columns&#x2F;astaire-won-t-deal-w...</a>

This idea is actually pretty old. Old episodes of Groucho Marx&#x27;s &quot;You Bet Your Life&quot; have a place in the frame for advertisers to be superimposed and swapped out.<p>Doing this on a gameshow seems strangely acceptable, but don&#x27;t touch the old films please. Even though old films themselves have product placement (continuing with the Marx Brothers - you can see an old cartoon-style flit gun in Animal Crackers (1930), which was used for one of the earlier product tie-ins), manipulating them seems wrong. People want to experience the movie as it was intended to be...

Now they just have to figure out how to break into my house and swap out my DVDs I suppose.

Some company is also digitally replacing billboards&#x2F;posters&#x2F;television content with &quot;newer ads&quot; in reruns. I forget who but it was posted and discussed here within the last year.

I&#x27;m assuming cigarette smoking in movies and tv shows, old and new, must have been the most widespread and profitable product placement ever.

If paid placements had to be declared, strangely this might not turn out so badly.<p>&quot;Ah, time to sit down for a relaxing film this evening. Shall we watch the romantic comedy where Coca-Cola paid $20,000 to place a can of Fanta in a sex scene -- everyone&#x27;s talking about it -- or perhaps this independent science fiction film; it&#x27;s a new director, no product placement?&quot;

Advertising is a cancer. Change my mind.<p>- Online privacy is basically dead because of it.<p>- Consumer manipulation is so well developed that it either borders on, or tips right into mind control territory.<p>- Targeted for political advertisement, it fractures the society and lets demagogues&#x2F;morons like Trump and Boris Johnson get elected.<p>- It&#x27;s nickling and diming us out of our attention on our smartphones and websites, assuming no countermeasures taken by the end user<p>- Now, it&#x27;s threatening to affect artistic and historic integrity of our recorded media by turning into a for-profit Ministry of Truth.<p>What else is it going to destroy?

If you could do one of two things:<p>1. Puts ads into old movies, or 2. Fix climate change<p>what what you do?<p>I know what humankind would do.

omg, I remember Fellini was pissed when Italian TV channels (first the Berlusconi private network, then the state TV, too) started to interrupt his movies with Adverts.<p>now this.. :(<p>omg, we will need a movie AdBlocker :(