As a fan of author Dan Brown, I’m looking forward to the theatrical release of “Angels and Demons” on May 15^th, 2009, since the story is structured around a secret society called the Illuminati, and its quest to destroy Vatican City and the Roman Catholic Church all within a 24 hour time period. The story aims to retell the age old story of the struggle and skirmishes between science and religion and what ultimately led to the formation of the Illuminati.

With this being the case, I’m not counting on a significant degree of product placements in this particular film, although I do expect to see a few here and there. One major company that has a major placement in the film is Lancia automobiles. Lancia designed three limited edition versions of their Ypsilon, Musa, and Delta cars all to be featured in “Angels and Demons”.  Each of these cars will sport custom painted bodies along with maximum power engines (no Fast and Furious here) and exceptional emission standards. Sounds like a great opportunity to showcase your vehicles since there are several road trips and car voyages in the story in and around Rome.

One thought that comes to mind though is the recall measurement of Lancia’s cars. Being that the automaker is pretty much exclusive to the European market, are the Europeans really going to be the only ones who notice the automakers special edition vehicles? Let’s remember that “Angels and Demons” didn’t do nearly as well in sales as “The Da Vinci Code”. I think that Lancia has a great opportunity here to showcase their vehicles in a movie that should do well globally, and even more so capture a notable recall measurement in the European viewer market however; the recall in the US market may differ slightly. It would be interesting to compare the two recall measurements once the movie is released. Another thing that comes to mind is the degree of awareness viewers will have regarding the Lancia models, will the film showcase the vehicles in such a way that the driving scenes are outrageously crazy or will the placements flow seamlessly like in “The Da Vinci Code” where Sophie gets in her smart car and tells Langdon about the great features it has?

Let’s also hope that the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t get involved and start spreading the word not to see “Angels and Demons” because it talks about made up stories and conspiracies that the church may or not be involved in. Keep in mind that this was an issue when “The Da Vinci Code” came out both in print in on film. Something like this could greatly damage the recall and awareness factors by essentially limiting where the film is viewable and who will see it.

“The Da Vinci Code” was written to be as realistic as possible with the likes of product placements subtly integrated into the story line to make the whole adventure more believable. Brown did an excellent job by finding a way to keep the product integrations believable, while at the same time keep the reader or movie viewer from becoming annoyed. I hope that “Angels and Demons” follows along the same path and focuses on the story like “The Da Vinci Code” did. I’m all for product placements in films as long as they’re done in a non-obtrusive way. Stories and films like “Angels and Demons” have more than just a beginning middle and end, they stir the annals of your brain, and get you thinking, wondering, looking and wanting more. It would be a shame if advertisers and marketers seek to ruin such a wonderful written story.

By: Gary Trandiak