The Wall Street Journal has reported that e-cigarette marketers — including Relativity honcho Ryan Kavanaugh — boast publicly about exploiting product placement in Hollywood movies.
That’s the opposite of Big Tobacco’s longtime custom of keeping tobacco placement deals secret — or at least deniable. Has blatant boasting about product placement paid off? Or back-fired?
2015 saw more movies with e-cigs than ever. Yet e-cigs have gone decidedly downscale since their 2010 premiere in the hands of Johnny Depp. E-cigs now show up in the hands of actors with lower buzz and in movies with smaller budgets (see table).
TABLE | Top-grossing US movies showing e-cigarettes
E-cigs appeared in 10 top-grossing US movies between 2010 and 2015.
The good news? All the major studios have kept e-cigs out of their kid-rated movies since 2011.
Not so good? E-cigs are showing up in movies marketed to young adults and potentially crossing over to teen audiences on video.
E-cig marketers face fire from local, state and international health authorities. They may be eager to get their products into low- and mid-budget movies before the door slams shut.
But flashing a big roll of bills to push nicotine on the Big Screen hasn’t helped them crash Hollywood’s A-list.
After all, Hollywood doesn’t like to look easy.
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Note: IMDbPro.com’s STARmeter rankings are based on interest shown by the site’s claimed 250 million unique monthly visitors. Actor’s peak rank consulted in the weeks after movie’s release. IMDb is an Amazon property.