Product Placement : Level "Jumanji sponsored by Sony"

So we got down to watching Jumanji's rebooted version yesterday. And after watching it, I have a kid who thinks he can kill everything and a sense of bewilderment of how far you can go with product placement.

So the movie started with this screen. And at that point of time, I didn't realise it, but it was a sign of the things to come.

This movie is produced by Columbia Pictures - a Sony subsidiary

And within a couple of minutes we have our first Sony product. The scene is based in 1996 and a guy is playing a game on his TV - a game called Twisted Metal which was a Sony Playstation exclusive.

And a quick fast forward to current day and we have the main protagonist Spencer's room. The very first shot has a poster of Uncharted 4 : another Sony Playstation title. And what is he playing? Read on!

That's Spencer with his Playstation (no prizes for guessing) controller.

And he is busy playing StreetFighter - another Sony Playstation title.

And then come the phones. Every phone shown in the movie is a Sony. Pretty funny, given that I haven't a seen an actual Sony phone in ages (my first "smart" phone was a Sony Ericsson k750i though). Spencer has a Sony phone as seen below.

And the door to Spencer's room has posters of another couple of Sony Playstation titles. RIGS and The Last Guardian!

And the last shot in Spencer's room is with him holding a Sony phone and a Sony PlayStation controller
Thankfully Sony doesn't make computers anymore and they stuck to an iMac.

And we move out to another character, Fridge's home and surprise! He is wearing a Sony headphone!

Next we see Bethany posting a pic on Instagram on her Sony phone.

To make matters worse, Bethany is a millenial stuck-on-the-phone girl. So we have every shot of Bethany with her mobile in her hand! Here's Bethany video calling a friend on her Sony phone.

And all this is within the first 10 minutes of the movie!

After a gazillion shots with the phone, they finally get sucked into the game. And I thought that's the end of the product placements. Since Jumanji is a thick forest area, you wouldn't be finding Sony products in there, right? WRONG!

Mid-way through the movie, the game character of Ruby Roundhose is tasked with the job of distracting some guards. When the distraction does not go as planned, we hear music. And guess where the music is coming from! A Sony "BoomBox" music system in the middle of Jumanji! Ruby then goes on to put into action one of her strengths : "dance-fighting" to neutralise the guards.

In hindsight I guess they made up the dance-fighting bit just to push their brand.