A Movie Or A Commercial For A Phone?

Alan Reiter is talking about a new movie where a camera phone plays a major role -- and notes that Nokia has paid for product placement. Product placement is hardly anything new. However, some people in the comments to his post worry that since the phone is so central to the plot, it's really a big commercial. Of course, you could say the same thing about "You've Got Mail," which didn't seem to bother too many users. If the product placement doesn't impact the story (and the story is good), who cares? Meanwhile, Reiter points out that the movie shows both good and bad aspects of mobile phones -- which he seems to think is a good thing. Of course, the "bad" doesn't have that much to do with the phones, but with the service or service people. It's no surprise that no carrier agreed to sponsor the movie -- as it's the carriers, and not the handset vendors, that take the brunt of criticism from users. Of course, Alan may have missed out on the bit of accidental product placement advertising that Kim Basinger (the star of the movie) did herself while visiting a local movie theater recently.

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