Bearer Bond
The early Bond films based on Flemings’ books had the high class tailoring and exclusive clubs and cars which littered the pages of the book. Modern Bond films however have multi-million pound deals with the biggest companies in the world. Where would it end? Bond films are now just as much about the endorsements than the suggestive name of the Bond girl.
An interesting factor would be to look at Bond’s biggest rival for endorsements. An Englishman, who is a national hero, although has also had experience of being the villain, has married a stunning beauty and ex-spice girl, David Beckham.
Ex-England captain Beckham has shared many a coincidence with the super spy. Due to endorsements David Beckham makes millions by using the right pen, wearing the designer watch, and of course a certain sportswear company make his boots.
Now Bond, has the watch, has no need for the sportswear and I am sure Montblanc supply his writing instruments. But the thing Beckham would love to have is the Ford endorsement. Driving a Ford does not always inspire, but as it owns the rights to Bonds beloved Aston Martin, I think the footballer must be envious.
Yes the biggest endorsement of the films, the cars. In Quantum of Solace, the Aston Martin DBS makes a welcome return as well as the brand new Ford KA and Ford Kuga which is all thanks to a $100 million deal that Ford has for exclusive product placement rights. This probably also explains how Bond easily out maneuvers some Alpha Romeos early on in the film.
Another similarity between the spook and the player has to be when the endorsements end. Beckham for many years had the slick centre parted Bryclreemed hair, then the money stopped coming in and it was shaved off. However the facial hair went the other way as soon as the Gillette cash was slashed. The media had a field day on both occasions, and the PR men loved it. Beckham had well published deals, but as soon as they ended the sponsor’s names were still talked about and perhaps even more so than when the deals were in place.
The same can be said for Pierce Bronson’s Bond. The Aston, the car every little boy who has seen a bond film would love, be it the super sleek DBS in Quantum or the classic of Goldfinger with the built in submarine style tracker. But money got involved and the spy ended up driving a hairdresser’s BMW Z3. This change to the usual Bond line up caused a national outcry of disbelief, not only had the Brit’s darling Aston been removed, but sickeningly replaced by a German.
What followed was the Beckham factor; every media outlet was not only mentioning the new car, but the old as well. Luckily for Daniel Craig the Aston seems to suit him better than a Beamer.
It goes to show that whatever happens at the box office, Mr. Bond of MI6 will always make money, for a lot of people.
For those of you wondering, product placement allegedly earnt the film £50m! The list of products linked to this film generating 35% of the budget are:
Aston Martin and the Ford Motor Company including vehicle makes Volvo, Range Rover, and the new Ka; Corgi International Limited’s toy gadgets, die-cast vehicles and action figures; Sony’s “Mission for a Million” competition; Omega SA Watches, James Bond wears the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M; ; Coca-Cola’s Coke Zero (as in “Zero Zero Seven”); Smirnoff Vodka; Sony Ericsson cell phones including the Titanium Silver Edition C902 Cyber-shot Phone; Virgin Atlantic Airlines; four Scalextric toy racing sets; Heineken Pilsener Beer; Avon Products Inc.’s “Bond Girl 007″ women’s fragrance; UK National Lottery operator Camelot’s James Bond scratch card game; Ocean Sky Jets; Sony Electronics; Orbitz’ “Travel Like Bond” Tourism Competition Giveaway; Tom Ford tailoring for James Bond’s clothes; and Activision’s Quantum of Solace (2008) (VG) video-game
As well as product placement there’s always merchandise tie-ins which once again Bond is a master at. The best we’ve found so far is this Scalextric set:
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