Turtles that Came to the Defense of New York

Product placement is a technique used by producers to promote their merchandise. Huge corporations pay broadcasting companies for their products to be displayed in films and television programs. During the 21st-century product placement has gained popularity with the new technological advancements. Not only that but the product placement has made huge profits for both producers and broadcasting companies. California is known for its huge Hollywood movies. Hollywood movie companies such as Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures have embedded product placements in their films to gain the viewers’ attention. Some may say that the involvement of product placements has destroyed the movie industry that it’s more of a business industry instead of an entertainment industry. The movie being discussed in the paper is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a superhero film. The film was directed by Jonathan Liebesman. The film received negative reviews when it first hit the box office, but it made millions on a 125 million budget. The movie is about a criminal group known as the foot clan, invading New York, ruled by the shredder. At this point, the city is under chaos, but the four brothers rise from the sewers and become the teenage mutant ninja turtles. They work with April O’Neil, the fearless reporter to save the city from the foot clan. This paper will discuss how product placement plays a role.

The film consists of four turtles that are considered the main characters. Leonardo is the leader of the group, he is courageous and strong minded, he also wears a blue mask. The next member is Raphael, he is considered the aggressive one in the group he wears a red mask. Michelangelo is the next member of the group. He is easy going and adventurous. He loves to read comic books and eat pizza, his famous catch phrase is “Cawabunga”, he wears an orange mask. Last member of the group is Donatello, he is the smart one in the group, the inventor and technology connoisseur. He prefers to his intelligence during tough situations s, he wears a purple mask. As the movie continues other characters are introduced such as April O’Neil the journalist who decides to team up with the turtles when the foot clan captures her father. Shredder leader of the criminal group called the foot clan, who decides to bring chaos to New York city. Master splinter, the sensei who was able to take care of the turtles and training them to become ninjas. Lastly Casey, the hockey player. He decides to team with the turtles and fight against the foot clan soldiers.

The first scenes begin with the turtles coming back from a mission above ground. After the mission, they return to the sewers, and in the process of doing so Master Splinter catches them sneaking in. As a punishment master splinter sends them to the “Ha-shai”, a form of punishment. Leonardo’s punishment was balancing eggs, during this process he continuously encouraged his brothers to hold on tight, Raphael’s punishment was knitting on a tricycle. Donatello was experiencing intense nausea from a ping pong table moving in a circular motion. Michelangelo was upside down on a chair “Guys I’m in the zone. There’s literally nothing that could break me right now”. Splinter then brings a pizza box with logo pizza hut embedded on it says “Of course you’ve all tasted the 5-cheese pizza. But this – cheesemongers have speculated of its existence for centuries: Davinci’s original masterpiece, I submit to you {opens the pizza box} Novantanove Formaggio, the 99-cheese pizza”. Press pause and watch it again, in that single scene products have been advertised. The pizza from pizza hut was used to Crack Michelangelo because of his love for pizza. Michelangelo breaks down and says “Alright, alright, alright! We left the lair because the foot clan were taking hostages and we kicked some serious butt and there was this girl named April O’Neil who took our picture! But we took care of it”.

Press play, as the movie continues the pizza hut logo appears several more times, it can be indicated that the turtles enjoy pizza. What the film tried to insinuate is that pizza can be used to get information from a person at the same time convince. Just like the film splinter used it to get information from Michelangelo. It can also be concluded that the product placement was used to create depth in the story, and show the viewers how pizza from pizza hut is able to withdraw information from people. Such scenes were made to encourage the viewers into buying more pizza. Right after the movie had been published, commercials were made starring the turtles making pizza encouraging the viewers to buy. Looking at the reviews from the movie, a few viewers disagreed with the involvement of product placement in the scenes claiming, “the film was more of a pizza hut advertisement rather than a superhero film” at the same time there were other viewers who agreed wit the placement of products claiming, “they did a good job involving pizza hut in their scenes”, it demonstrates how viewers have different perspectives on the content they view.

The next scene is April O’Neil using google.com as a search engine. In the movie April is depicted as a journalist who is eager to learn more about the foot clan. In this scene April is having a conversation with turtles about the foot clan and shredder their leader. As they are conversating April decides to google recent vigilante news in New York. As the movie continues, April is able to find news on the vigilante activities in New York and shares it with the turtles. Google being incorporated in the film urges the viewers that they can find any information through google search engine. Not only that, but It also informs the viewers that people are most likely going to use google to gather information on a certain subject. Another scene where the product google is incorporated is when April first met the turtles. Looking at her facial expression, she was very shocked because she had never seen ninja turtles. April takes a picture using her smart phone and then uses google hoping to find more information about them. The message decoded from that scene is that google can also be used to search for images online.

The last product used in the film is a smart phone. This product is incorporated at the beginning of the movie, when April takes a picture of the turtles. It has reached a certain point where every individual has a smartphone and they are able to a video of them fighting. As the turtles head back to the sewers April snaps a picture of them and Leonardo says, “what’s that” and Donatello replies with “it’s a camera flash taken by that girl”. From that particular scene.

The main theme incorporated in the film is violence. The film is obviously about four turtles fighting to protect New York. The film portrays how weapons are used to settle down disputes between the two sides. The foot clan uses guns and grenades to attack the members of the city to get them to do what is dictated and on the side the turtles are using knives and other various weapons to protect and defend the people. The way violence is portrayed in the film is to show that in order to gain peace, violence has to occur. Violence can also be seen in todays society, how people struggle to fight for what they believe in and then in the wrong run

In conclusion, product placement in films will generate increase in capital.