Adrants reader Ed Misley wrote he just saw the documentary movie, “Enron: The Smartest guys in the room,” and noted a prominent Coke product placement he thought quite odd. He writes, “During many scenes of Jeffrey Skilling testifying before congress they digitally edited a Diet Coke can (with the logo prominently facing the camera). Now because of how they cropped the scene, the coke can was almost the size of his head. Now I watch a lot of C-Span and I don’t remember a time when I saw anything other than glasses and pitchers of water on the tables of those testifying. Why would Coca Cola Crop pay good money to have their product next to the bad guy?”
He continued, commenting upon a second product placement, “I also noticed a more subtle product placement of a water bottle, which I think was “Spring Hill” due to the green label but it was turned in such a way as to not see the label entirely. Was this a ruse to divert attention away from the suspicious coke can? This was during an exchange of words between Barbara Boxers and Jeffrey Skilling. Skilling had the blatant coke and Boxer had the subtle water bottle. The coke can appeared almost every time you saw Skilling testifying. I am not anti-adverting I just can’t figure out why this would help either Coca Cola or the filmmakers.”
Well, unfortunately, Ed, it’s all about the money. While we haven’t seen the movie and can’t comment directly, we suspect somebody needed money, Coke had money, transaction happened.
