David Lynch on Product Placement

Speaking of Commercial Whores. How about the way youtube is now putting commercials in videos? Youtube will become just another form of TV, It really sucks. I cut all the logos off my clothes too. Im not a billboard for Nike or anyone else. Yet some people love to walk around with brands all over them. Fools! And if its only David Lynch, Neil Young and Me that care, well at least Im in good company.

I always notice product placement in a film. For a moment it takes me out of the scene. I think thats what Mr. Lynch has a problem with. It sacrifices something. Most people can handle it fine but it irritates the hell of me. Im one of those guys who always mutes commercials when I watch tv. Some people just talk right over commercials and that makes no sense. Thats what the mute button on the remote is for. The problem with product placement is that I cant mute it during a film. Its Bullshit !!

I envy his hair.

Having products in a film is not product placement—if a character like Frank Booth drinks PBR then fine. But Lynch put it in because it was correct, not to get budget support. The point is that with PP you are giving up control of the film to advertisers—Lynch won't do that because he's an artist, unlike Richard Donner. Superman was fine, but it's not a great film. Blue Velvet is.

eraserhead also

I'll answer you.

There is a difference. The 'product placement' you are referring to in Blue Velvet is an organic one that was not paid for by either Pabst or Heineken. The product placement that he is referring to is a calculated investment by a company (or group of companies) that will portray their product in such a light as to enhance profitability for the company. There was no money changing hands, and, simply put, a cultural backdrop that screams 'Americana'.

This was a response for J20m07

Good analysis, Thanks.

well, as far as the gucci commercial goes, its a masterpiece, I remember the time i got a glipse of the end, when the lights gos VSSHHHHH and was stunned, and at the same time quite impressed, it takes you places, so even a comercial by david lynch is still a david lynch creation, under that perspective, I find no hypocrisy. You gotta get the money sometimes, but he is, and most people see that right away, a genuine artist, and hes excused in my book at least.