I am sure everyone who saw the recent Michael Bay movie “The Island” would have been smiling when they saw the product placement [a.k.a. ads] for Microsoft in the movie. We see MSN Search powering the information directory, and also see a practice match between Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor through an “Xbox” system. These product placement ads are amusing at first, but when you think about it more, they act as advertisements in the movie itself and they do their job well.

Not only are you paying for the movie and have to watch ads before the movie starts, you now have to watch advertisements during the movie also. Besides watching the products of Microsoft in such prominent positions that make you focus on Microsoft and its products more than the actual scenes or the actors within them, you also see ads for Puma [shoes] which Ewan flashes in a very nice pose right in the beginning of the movie that actually does fit into the movie plot, everyone drinking Aquafina, and Scarlett buying every kid she could see Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and hands it to each kid herself while we keep seeing the name of the ice cream maker, taking about 30 seconds to make sure we know which company she prefers for her ice cream. I did not notice which company was used for all the credit cards in the movie [Visa, MC, American Express, or someone else].

The movie didn’t do well at the box office; this was Michael Bay’s biggest flop to date at the box office. Maybe the companies with the advertisement will think twice before placing their ads in an action movie like this in the future. It is, however, very important to find out whether these placements were paid for by the companies [like Microsoft], or if the producers of the movie were simply influenced to choose them by the respective companies. Either way, it is an interesting movie to watch [in a good way].