And.... ACTION! Ford partners with film company for product placement



Ford's been working with studios to get its product featured in films for years, one of the first being the original Batmobile. But the automaker has now teamed with Our Stories Films to target minorities with the production company's family-themed movies.

Under the agreement, Ford will be able to examine scripts for product placement opportunities, and will even get to make script-change suggestions. Ford will also integrate promotion of the films into its Web sites, fordurban.com and lincolnlounge.com.

Our Stories Films was created by BET founder Robert Johnson and producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein. According to IMDB, the company's first film is the current box office blockbuster (watch the sarcarsm, it's dripping) "Who's Your Caddy?" and features Ford's Range Rover co-starring with Big Boi and Andy Milonakis.

"We are all grappling with our numbers in this audience," said Marc Perry, multicultural marketing manager at Ford/Lincoln, in a Brandweek article. "We know that we can do better than what we are doing and this opportunity allows us to go after a targeted audience. It's African-Americans in urban centers. This arrangement helps by allowing us to cast both characters and vehicles, and with our imaging onscreen." Sigh... kind of sucks the whole artistic angle right out of filmmaking.

[Source: Brandweek, IMDB]

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