Hollywood product placement turns anti-EV

As the director behind the techno-thriller Apollo 13, I rated Ron Howard fairly highly.... until now.

The opening scene of the trailer, possibly the opening scene of the movie, titled "The Dilemma" features third rate comedian and fully paid up member of the Hollywood brat pack, Vince Vaughn, delivering the first words of the movie: "Electric car are gay".

By now we should all be fairly well aware of the prominence in Hollywood films given to product placements. Basically if you ever see a brand or a branded product in a Hollywood film there is no question it will be a full blown, paid for, corporate sponsored, advertisement.

Any time someone in a movie is seen using an Apple computer or in fact if the entire film is set in a Cadillac Escalade ("Are we there yet 2005" and "Johnson Family Vacation 2004" to name two) it's all paid for by advertisers with the sales negotiations quite obviously starting at script level.

Given this is all common knowledge, it seems more than a tad coincidental to hear such an anti-EV scripted line in a film with a release date of January 2011, around the same date the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf hit the market as the first mass production electric vehicles to go on sale to the general public.

Now I'm not a huge subscriber to conspiracy theories but this kind of thing is just so blatantly obvious. It may or may not have been Chrysler (as named in the film) who paid for the spot. It may have been the same folks who contribute behind the scenes to anti climate change groups such as Exxon and/or Koch Industries. It may even be a classic Hollywood shakedown in a effort to coerce a few EV marketing dollars.

Either way, if Ron Howard can't find any better movies to work on than these D grade Hollywood comedies, why doesn't he just go on permanent vacation!?


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