question of the day: What’s the most ridiculous summer movie product tie-in you’ve seen (or can imagine)?

What does Dr Pepper have to do with anything?

Gwyneth Paltrow's character's name is Pepper Potts. Is she a doctor? Does it matter? Heh.

As for ridiculous summer movie product tie-ins, nothing is coming to mind though maybe that's because every year we do get saturated by these ridiculous tie-ins so that I just don't even notice them anymore. Sad, right?

Maybe not ridiculous in terms of product-film connection, but I once got a "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" promotional Mountain Dew from a vending machine in Kansas... in June 2001.

The summer of 1989, I sent in a proof of purchase and a couple of bucks to receive a "Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier Official Marshmallow Dispenser". Just like the one used by Spock in the film! Well, except Spock's version made a cool futuristic noise. And I'm pretty sure his wasn't made of incredibly cheap plastic or covered with badly-applied decals.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Marshmallow_dispenser

But sure enough, you could insert 5 or 6 marshmallows into the thing and get them to come out with a little plastic slider on the side. It worked great as long as you didn't mind your marshmallows turning into little white rocks between the time you inserted them in your kitchen and the time you got around to dispensing them at the camp site.

I actually still have an unopened 'Ghost in a can' from Macdonalds which I got in a happy meal when Ghost Busters 2 came out.
I always rather let movie tie in promotions roll on by me. I feel like they cheapen the movie so much. I don't want the movie saturating my real life existence. I want it to be another world I escape to when I watch it.
Haha... I had never really considered it this way before. I'd always just assumed the movie tie ins were advertising for the movie, rather than the other way around.

I actually kind of like the peanut butter cup tie-in. "Peanut butter was just peanut butter...until it built a chocolate suit."

This brings to mind the idea of superheroes in Candyland.

Anyway. The most ridiculous? Any tie-in where the brand name in question cannot appear in the movie for obvious reasons (such as PepsiCo's deal with Lucasfilm for Episode 1), which means they have to step up the actual advertisement. I mean, I like that Tony Stark simply said "I want an American cheesburger" and then when he walked into the press conference he was wolfing down burgers from a relatively subtle Burger King bag (Burger King's bags not being very much decorated). But from the start you knew you weren't gonna see Amidala suckin' back slices from Pizza Hut(R)(C)tm and washing it down with a refreshing Diet Coke(R)(C)tm. So the cross-pollination was disgusting for Episode I.

Although that may be more sequelitis. I mean, the first Transformers and Iron Man weren't bad for it, but RotF and, apparently, Iron Man 2 were/are apparently going to be terribad.

Ok. I've seen it. This is totally ridiculous:
http://www.onlythebrave-ironman.com/_ww/_ww/ironman/index.htm The site also takes a ridiculously long time to load, so you might prefer to see what this is about via this: http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/features_fashion/2010/04/summer-blockbuster-iron-man-2-gets-a-fragrance-from-diesel.html

Yes, you've read that right: Men's Cologne. For Iron Man.

Personally, I like the smell of sweat from someone with loads of testosterone and clean living. Something tells me that is NOT what will be in that bottle.

Aww, come on, LaSargenta! I think Iron Man cologne is brilliant. XD

Actually, Bluejay, upon reflection, I think you are right. It IS brilliant! I just hope that no one I alley cat around with is wearing it.