November 17, 2006
Today sees the release of the latest Bond movie, Casino Royale, in the UK.
Much of the film sticks to the tried-&-tested formula of brawls, bangs and babes (or misogynist portrayals of women, depending on your perspective), but there's some new additions to remind us that we're in 2006 - including some stunning parkour (aka free running), the anatomical spaghetti of Gunther Von Hagen's Body Worlds exhibition, and an intro sequence that should be fronting a late night poker show on Challenge TV, not a Bond film. It's like watching a future episode of I Love 2006.
There's also product placement that's more overt that that scene in Wayne's World. "Is that a Rolex?" enquires Bond's main love interest. "No," replies our new Squaddie-esque Bond, "it's Omega". "Very nice," she purrs, with an obvious undercurrent of "I can't believe I'm having to say this rubbish".
So what's product placement got to do with Digit? Well, there was one piece of -- I'm guessing -- unpaid product placement for the software at the core of every creative's lives: Photoshop. I'd say it's unpaid as after one of Bond's spy chums has framed a policeman with a doctored photo, he pops out the line: "it's amazing what you can do in Photoshop". Now, while it would be wonderful if Adobe did one of those traditional Bond tie-in adverts, with copy reading 'the next time you need to frame a public official to further your own ends, make sure you turn to Photoshop', it's rather implausible.
Though I suppose having your software associated with the spy game in a less obvious way can't be a bad thing, and as guerilla marketing it's quite effective.
Posted by: Neil Bennett
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The creative stuff we come across that we've just got to share (rather than simply getting on with creating Digital Arts magazine)
