Who doesn’t love a little corporate synergy? OK, maybe no one except the executives and producers who push for placements and crossovers across a conglomerate’s various properties.
Sometimes, it can be kind of fun, such as when a trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered during Monday Night Football. One Disney property helping another, though Star Wars may have provided more of a boost for MNF than increasing exposure for the sci-fi blockbuster to a sports audience. That became an event.
Then you can have more awkward instances of product placement, as demonstrated in this scene from last Wednesday’s General Hospital that promoted Marvel’s Doctor Strange, which hits theaters in two weeks. Just in case you didn’t know, ABC and Marvel are both under the Disney corporate umbrella. But come on, you knew that.
Wow, that was subtle, huh?
Those characters really seemed like they wanted to see Marvel’s latest superhero blockbuster, and didn’t want to watch Benedict Cumberbatch take on Mads Mikkelsen in a sorcery showdown with anybody else. It’s kind of sweet. They miss each other and want to spend some of their newfound time together at the movies. Just hope you’re not sitting near this couple. They might not be watching the movie very much, no matter how exciting Doctor Strange is.
Doctor Strange opens in theaters Nov. 4, which gives you two weeks to express to that special someone how much you’d like to see it with him or her.
