Product placement is a clever way for studios to fund movies by featuring a certain brand's product in a film, and Ryan Reynolds cleverly snuck all four of his brands into a Deadpool 3 update. But sometimes product placement can have an adverse effect and backfire.
Between aluminum Christmas trees, New Balance, and pork, Redditors note the movies that temporarily ruined certain consumer products, and in some cases, the products went completely off the market shortly after the movies' releases. Redditors might be taking some liberties with the word "product," but whether it's a musical group, a type of meat, or an entire industry, s believe they all suffered from their appearances in these movies.
Pork (Babe)
People might think pigs are filthy animals, but Babe will turn anybody into a pig lover. Wrydied explains, "Pork sales slumped after the Babe movie came out." According to The Irish Times, the sales of pork did in fact drop after the movie's release. That's hardly a surprise, as the titular pig is one of the cutest movie animals ever, and it'd be hard to eat any kind of meat afterward.
In fact, according to Pig, which follows a truffle hunter's relationship with a truffle-foraging pig, it's a wonder if the film will ahve the same effect.
Merlot (Sideways)
Sideways follows Miles, a depressed writer and wine aficionado, who goes on a road trip to Santa Barbara County wine country. Midway through the movie, Miles screams, "I am not drinking any f**king merlot!" when he's dragged on a double date by his best friend.
Getting their knowledge from working at a wine store in Nebraska, Sideways greatly affected the wine industry, and according to NPR, sales for merlot decreased by 2%, but pinot noir sales increased by 16% after the film's release. However, ironically, the reason why Miles doesn't want to drink merlot isn't that he doesn't like it, but because it's his ex-wife's favorite drink.
Aluminum Christmas Trees (A Charlie Brown Christmas)
Automirage04 notes, "A Charlie Brown Christmas killed aluminum Christmas trees." In the animated special, the aluminum Christmas tree is used as a symbol for the commercialization of Christmas, and The Baltimore Sun reports that it was the special that ended the faux trees' popularity.
But as A Charlie Brown Christmas, one of the most rewatchable Christmas movies, was first released in 1965, the special only halted the product's success, as aluminum Christmas trees had a huge comeback in the late '80s. The popularity reached an even higher peak than ever before in 2005. According to ABC, a rare pink aluminum Christmas tree sold at auction for almost $4,000.
Huey Lewis And The News (American Psycho)
In American Psycho, Patrick Bateman is a sociopath, a serial killer, and Huey Lewis and the News' number one fan. The businessman excitedly talked about the '80s band's hits as he was preparing to murder people, and because of that, YourLectorAndChef believes, "Huey Lewis and the News had their comeback dreams shattered by American Psycho."
Spotify wasn't around in 2000, so it isn't easy to see if fans' listening habits dropped off after the movie's release. But the band has toured several times since the movie's release and released more albums, and American Psycho likely would have had more of a positive effect on the song if anything. However, the movie's use of the band and their hit "Hip To Be Square" negatively affected Huey Lewis in other ways. According to Mlive, Lewis boycotted the movie because a press release from the studio claimed that he was offended by the violence, but he wasn't at all and he believed the studio said that to drum up excitement.
The Super Size (Super Size Me)
Few documentary movies have affected a certain industry in the way that Super Size Me did. The film is a hit on McDonald's, as Morgan Spurlock eats a McDonald's meal for every meal of the day for an entire month. His health decreased significantly, but it led to a positive change in the fast-food industry.
Because of the 2004 movie, McDonald's added salads to its menu, and as Quankalizer notes, "Didn't Super Size Me kill the supersize?" Not long after the movie was released, the fast-food chain removed the "super size" option, but according to Refinery 29, a McDonald's spokesperson claimed it had nothing to do with the movie and was a total coincidence.
New Balance Sneakers (Crazy Stupid Love)
When debating what products were ruined by a movie, Crazy Stupid Love and New Balances." New Balance trainers have become trendy, but a stylish Ryan Gosling mocking a very unstylish Steve Carrell for wearing them likely didn't do anything for brand recognition.
Funnily enough, that wasn't the only thing that Crazy Stupid Love ruined. The 2011 release hasn't aged well for unexpected reasons, as it references Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's relationship, Steve Jobs, and features a Borders bookstore. And within a year of the movie's release, Moore and Kutcher broke up, Steve Jobs ed away, and Borders filed for bankruptcy.
Hostels (Hostel)
Hostel must have had a negative effect on the hostel industry at the time. The Redditor notes, "Not sure if this is a widespread thing or just me, but ever since is watched Hostel, I will never use one. When anyone says they stayed or are going to stay in a hostel get nervous for them."
Though there are no available stats to back up the decrease in hostel occupancy after the movie's release, according to Director Eli Roth was apparently invited to a fully-paid trip to the country by the Slovakian tourist board to prove that it wasn't full of industrial estates and murderous children.
Photo Development (One Hour Photo)
One Hour Photo is about a creepy photo technician who works at a photo development store and stalks his customers. Rchoffer blames the thriller for killing the whole industry. The claims, "Former photo lab owner here, and the Robin Williams movie caused a noticeable decline in my business for about a year."
However, while the Redditor might have a point and is speaking from experience, it's far from just the 2002 movie that killed photo development. Digital photography was becoming more affordable for the general public at the time, and it wasn't long after that until people were using their cell phones as cameras.
