In the 2008 film Iron Man, there is a scene where gazillionaire Tony Stark a/k/a "Iron Man" has just escaped from three months of captivity in the Middle East. The first item he demands is "an American cheeseburger." The next scene shows one of his myrmidons presenting him, in response to the order, a burger in a sack clearly emblazoned with the Burger King logo.
Iron Man, like many modern films, is saturated with product placements for different companies. In the case of Burger King, however, Robert Downey, Jr., the star of the production, had a special reason why he wanted to pay tribute to this particular fast-food company in the movie.
According to Downey, in 2003, he had a nasty narcotics habit and was driving one day in a automobile piled with "tons of (expletive deleted) dope." He purchased a meal from Burger King and had an epiphany about how his life was going down the toilet when he realized that he was preparing to eat "such a disgusting burger." Downey decided then and there to straighten out his existence and threw all of the drugs into the ocean.
Although Burger King probably appreciated the public praise heaped on it by Downey for his Road to Damascus moment, it no doubt would have preferred that it be for something other than producing a meal so nauseating that it would induce a major character shift in someone contemplating eating it. Nonetheless, the subsequent Burger King commercials featuring Iron Man characters and the use of Iron Man action figures in Burger King kid's meals suggest that all participants were (and probably still are) happy in their relationship.
No comments:
Post a Comment