X-Men Origins-Wolverine, Motorycle Product Placement and How Iconic Brands are Missing Huge Opportunity
The popularity of certain brands of motorcycle and their roles in film are permanently intertwined. From iconic Triumph bikes of Brando’s The Wild One to Tom Cruise’s Top Gun Kawasaki Ninja, bikes have lent their cool to film coolest characters and in return those characters have made those bikes unforgettable. And desirable by the plebes hoping to buy a little of that iconoclasm for themselves. (To see just how much the Ninja’s Top Gun role influenced one bike owner, look no further than this German gentleman.)
The last year has seen a number of films doing wonders for motorcycle product placement.
About a year ago Indiana Jones and Lucas’ Delusions of Grandeur the Crystal Skull featured a heavy amount of Harley-Davidson riding. After that there was last summer’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and its Indian and Triumph bikes. Now, X-Men Origins: Wolverine promises some more great Harley-Davidson action.
From a product placement perspective, there’s just one problem: None of these bikes are current models and, therefore, not really widely available for purchase.
The Indiana Jones Harley was a mid-century model. Ditto the Indian and Triumph bikes in Benjamin Button. And in the new Wolverine film the Harley is a 1948 pan-head classic.
Harley had an official tie-in with the Indiana Jones film. And it is wisely doing the same with Wolverine. Harley-Davidson Australia’s Marketing Manager’s official statement: “The film features several exciting scenes of Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) riding a 1948 pan-head Harley-Davidson motorcycle. It’s testament to the iconic status of the Harley-Davidson brand that a movie such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine, like so many other Hollywood blockbuster films, feature their leading character riding one of our motorcycles”.
Meanwhile, neither Indian nor Triumph had an official tie-in to Benjamin Button. In fact, it seems the brands were completely unaware of their respective starring turns. This was an incredible waste of potential.
For starters, Brad Pitt is a one-man product placement force. Any brand that even suspects to be associated with him in a film role should immediately move to capitalize. Put him in a role that takes place in the modern era (e.g., not Troy or Jesse James) and soon after questions will begin to appear online like the following:
“What sunglasses does Brad Pitt wear in Mr and Mrs Smith?”
“What type of suits did Brad Pitt wear in the Ocean’s movies?”
“What kind of watch did brad pitt wear in ocean’s thirteen?”
“What brand of sun glasses is Brad Pitt wearing in ‘Spy Game’?”
“Which kind of adidas pants wear Brad Pitt in the movie “Snatch”?”
And sure enough, for Benjamin Button: “What Indian Does Brad Pitt Ride in “Benjamin Buttons” Movie?”
While the Indian and Triumph bikes from Button have long since ceased production, the roles played by these brands (and Harley in similar period roles) are a form of product placement that goes unappreciated. Iconic brands have a great deal to be gained by reinforcing their past iconography. Indeed, part of what makes the Triumph, Harley, Ford Mustang or even Ray-Ban brands such mainstays today is their histories. In fact, taking an opportunity to reinforce their own mythology may be a better product placement play for these brands than attempting to place any current model or product. That is to say, most people buy a Harley or a Mustang or a pair of Wayferers because of what they were, not because of what they are (though what they were makes them what they are, if that makes any sense.) These brands’ pasts are their presents.
All it took was the Benjamin Button trailers to get each brand’s brand champions talking:
Throughout online Triumph forums, the bike’s turn as Pitt’s ride was championed, and seen as a validation of what the brand’s champions held near and dear: “With a movie that is trying to develop iconic images and themes…what brand of cycle gets the most screen time? The Triumph of course!”
But it wasn’t just about the bike brands that got in the film. In Harley forums, fans were upset at the slight: “There are a couple of motorcycles in the movie… One is a Triumph Twin (Blue) and the other is a Flathead Indian (Red). Harley was unable to obtain a product placement in this episodic period film (starts at the end of WWI) which will clearly attract worldwide attention. Why? Very odd. The entire film is played in flashback manner and I’m thinking that Harley would like to be transported back in time to change the motorcycle props.”
Like Ray-Ban sunglasses, Harley-Davidson, and the Mustang, Triumph motorcycles have a fantastic film pedigree. Triumph’s major starring roles include The Swinger, Officer and a Gentleman, Mission Impossible 2, Happy Days and, as the iconic ride of Brando’s The Wild One. Even more famously (or notoriously), a Triumph served as Steve McQueen’s Great Escape bike, though it was disguised as a BMW. These brands are a world apart from the products that hope to attempt to achieve even a modicum of success through product placement, like the Coca-Colas, Apples, Nikes, HPs, Budweisers, Nokias and such.
And yet, none of these brands have managed to put together even a simple page on their respective websites that embraces their incredible and envy-inducing filmographies. It is a mind boggling marketing oversight that would cost near nothing and yet reinforce so much. The real mind-boggler is that even before the Internet, Harley-Davidson was capitalizing on its onscreen exposure to some extent, such as promoting its starring role in the TV series Then Came Bronson. So, really, even though the bike’s roles have numbered more, product placement become more important a marketing tool, its brand become more iconic, its competition become steeper and the technoogy for taking advange of its exposure become easier and more effcetive, Harley has regressed in this area.
Two examples of doing it right are leather jacket maker Belstaff and hand-cannon manufacturer Magnum Research Desert Eagle. (The latter of which is a favorite of mine as having mastered product placement.) Both of these brands recognize that their film roles can be leveraged heavily to communicate to potential customers, those plebes wanting to feel a bit the hero. “You want to be like him? We’ll help you get a little closer.”
Belstaff maintains a fantastic “Movies” page. Note, the brand’s very full Brad Pitt Benjamin Button jackets page. And while Desert Eagle falls short of Belstaffs, the handgun brand does at least manage an effort with Magnum Films.
Back to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Without having seen the film, it’s difficult to say how big the reaction will be to the Harley role. (In fact, just judging by the bike appearing in the trailers, there either seems to be some kind of modified 1948 pan-head or a horrendous CGI-ed version of the ‘48, which will certainly not go any more unnoticed to Harley fans than did the mistakes with the Harley in Indiana Jones.) And though Jackman might not be Pitt, yet, no detail of his role as Wolverine goes unnoticed by us plebs hoping just a modicum of the cool will rub off.
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Comment by discount sunglasses ray ban — 8. July 2009 @ 00:29
It’s really too bad that the movie production companies don’t use current production harleys, or even big dogs! Great photos by the way and nice article.
Comment by Big Dog Motorcycles — 3. October 2009 @ 16:59
That Harley used in Indiana Jones WAS a current model! It’s a Twincam (i.e. post 2000 88″ or 96″ softail “Springer”) - you only have to note the hydraulic brake master cylinder on the right handle-bar - Harley Davidson did not put hydraulic disk brakes on their motorcycles until the early/mid 70s! It also has forward foot controls, back then all motorcyles had footboards or mid-controls. They only put saddle bags on it in a flimsy hope to hide the carbon fibre belt drive!
George Lucas and team are a bunch of amateurs - also to be noted that in an earlier Indian Jones movie the WWII Germans were riding Japanese motocross motorcycles. That sort of lack of attention to flagrant ana-chromisms makes me sick, why didn’t they just make the whole cast and crew wear digital watches and use cell-phones?
The producers and design team took a lot more care with Wolverine, that machine has a drum brake on the front end - now I never got a good look at the left side of the bike (to be able to see the left side of the motor and crank area), but they claimed it was a 64 model (that’s what the Aussie actor told Wolverine in the barn), so it probably IS a genuine Panhead.
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