Film: Brave
Brands Spotted: 0 (if you don't count Scotland)
Standout Placement: N/A
Most Memorable Placement (positive): N/A
Most Memorable Placement (negative): N/A
Overall Product Placement Integration Grade (1-10): N/A
Comments: Some critics have called Brave, Disney/Pixar's new film, formulaic. It's an easy conclusion to reach. The idea behind Brave appears to be taking the popularity of young women archers (cue The Hunger Games, and already a Brave-themed attraction at Disney Parks), pinching some themes from other recent popular franchises (How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek), updating the Disney Princess juggernaut, and wrapping the whole thing in the aura of an earlier epic Scottish tale of bravery (Braveheart*). But Brave's guts aren't the only formulaic element of the film.Continue reading...

It seemed a little odd last year when punk metal icons Motörhead decided to do a little brand extending and it took the form of a red wine, Motörhead Shiraz. Fans of the band aren’t exactly known for playing polo and collecting antiques.

According to Gibson.com, though, the vino sold well enough that the band has decided to expand on its alcohol-based brand extensions. So prepare ye, world, for Motörhead Bastards Lager, a beverage that aligns with the popular perception of the group’s heavy metal fan base.

One small problem, thöugh — the new brew is only available in Sweden (it debuted at the recent Sweden Rock festival).Continue reading...

David Cassidy has probably sung “C’mon Get Happy” about seven zillion times since he joined the cast of The Partridge Family in 1970 and became a teen idol at the age of 20. That doesn’t mean that the now 62-year-old is pleased with the show or its producers. In fact, he’s furious.

After all the T-shirts, lunch boxes, posters, games, dolls, trading cards and other collectibles with his picture on them, not to mention the years of dodging screaming fans, Cassidy says he only made $15,000 in merchandising fees. He’s been on a long legal battle to get some of that dough, which could equal around $10 million, according to a press release.

An L.A. Superior Court judge is currently considering if he will hear the case against Sony in front of a jury. Cassidy isn't the only disgruntled '70s TV star, either. Some of the cast members from Happy Days are also suing CBS over their cut (or lack thereof) in merchandising sales related to the show.Continue reading...

Disney recently held its first National Princess Week in the U.S. with Julie Andrews and Target as the co-sponsor, and it's gearing up for its next generation of princess in the new girl-power Pixar movie that opens on June 18th: Brave, the story of "the heroic journey of Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald), a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson)."

And despite the recent resignation of the creator of the Disney Princess product line and critics such as author Peggy Orenstein (her book's title says it all: "Cinderella Ate My Daughter") of the view of womanhood that Disney Princess represents, the female dream team at Disney is bigger than ever overseas. With that in mind, all young Disney Princess lovers, start begging your parents to play a holiday trip to London — Harrods has announced a partnership with Disney that will have the princesses dominating the store’s windows when the Christmas holiday season hits.

Of course, the princesses won’t be wearing any old get-ups. They’ll be outfitted in dresses created by such designers as Oscar de la Renta, Versace, and Elie Saab, according to a press release from Harrods.Continue reading...

The product placements in Men in Black 3 have not gone unnoticed. From Ford to Dunkin' Donuts to cheesy tabloids, the franchise cashed in with brands looking to associate with the men in black (and the fans who love them).

One product placement that is causing some confusion, however, is the Men in Black's trademark sunglasses. No, not Sony's battle over who is to pay for the audience's 3D glasses, but the sunglasses worn by Agents J and K and, well, younger K (pre-K?)

It's one of the more bizarre cases in product placement recently that results in an officially licensed product being a knock-off of a product featured on-screen and long associated with the movie franchise.Continue reading...

New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin couldn’t take the court for the final five weeks of the regular season or the initial round of the playoffs due to a partially torn meniscus in his left knee, but the guy certainly left his mark on NBA basketball and the world this season, even if his gear is half-price in the NY Knicks web store.

For most of the month of February, Lin was seemingly unstoppable both as a basketball player and as some sort of cultural healer, bringing together people (and punsters) of all stripes, as well as cable TV execs who needed to get a deal done pronto. The guy could do no wrong. Everywhere you turned: Linsanity.

There were more than few people who jumped at the chance of making money off the pun-worthy moniker name, of course. And a few ever filed to get the trademark “Linsanity.” One of them, though, was the guy with the degree in economics from Harvard, Jeremy Lin himself. The Huffington Post reports that Lin is the last man standing in the battle for the “Linsanity” trademark.Continue reading...

Ford may still be awaiting better overall credit ratings so it can formally re-take control of its iconic Blue Oval logo. In the meantime, the company is farming out the famous marque to more and more licensees who want to get in on the growing renaissance at America's first surviving car company. For the first time at auto shows this year, Ford has been setting up its own boutique on show floors to sell such Ford-branded merchandise to consumers.

"We've got a whole group merchandising non-autos licensing now," Jim Farley, Ford's global CMO, commented on Monday at a press event discussing the automaker's global "Go Further" campaign.  Consumer and licensee interest in leveraging the brand in this way "is one of the best measures of brand health," he added.

Licensing deals to date, Farley said, include a Mustang-themed pool table (above) and a variety of toys. Ford, naturally, insists on approving actual products and their execution of Ford marks, not just concepts and proposals, so there's an area at corporate HQ set aside for housing and evaluation of all the proposed items. "It's a fun place to go," Farley said.

Nike has taken over the NFL’s jerseys from Reebok and redesigned them entirely, but don’t go thinking it’s the only North American football league that’s going through this process this year.

The Canadian Football League is going to have its own “re-engineered jerseys” from Reebok before the CFL's June training camps kick off, according to Canada's National Post.

The eight teams of the CFL will each get new jerseys designed by Reebok as part of the league’s 100th anniversary celebration of the Grey Cup, the championship of the CFL.

“While we will mark this historic milestone in many ways, we have also worked with Reebok to re-engineer team jerseys for the way the game is played today — and to help our athletes succeed tomorrow,” commissioner Mark Cohon said in a statement.Continue reading...