Disney’s Haunted Mansion Features An Absurd Amount Of Product Placement
Disney’s new Haunted Mansion movie is filled with lots of ghosts, spells, jokes, and apparently an absurd amount of product placements. While it’s normal for films to feature some products from big brands, it appears that Disney went above and beyond with their latest film. An X (formerly Twitter) user shared a post that called out the film for featuring at least 11 different brands throughout the movie.
Disney’s Haunted Mansion includes over a dozen instances of product placement, some are natural, but others are included in the script with all the grace of a pair of Crocs.
Some of the instances where Haunted Mansion referenced a brand name were seemingly natural, like when Rosario Dawson’s character accidentally puts too much Zatarain’s seasoning on her eggs. However, some other references were more forced into the Disney movie, like when Tiffany Haddish’s character mentions that she bought a pen and pad from CVS, or when LaKeith Stanfield’s character says his wife died on her way to Baskin Robbins.
Some of the other product placements included a Black Panther action figure, a Marvel comics edition of Monopoly, and vanilla-scented candles from Yankee Candle (that were delivered by Amazon). Other product placements that are a little more subtle, but still absurd, include jalapeno poppers from Burger King, a Fujifilm digital camera, and Zillow.
As X users flooded to the comments section of the controversial post, they called out even more product placements that were missed in the initial list, like the fact that Tiffany Haddish’s character got her sage from Costco.
While some fans are unbothered by product placement or actually enjoy seeing brands on the big screen, others find it distracting. One user shared that Victoria’s Secret product placement in Transformers was so distracting that it took them out of the film.
Other X users pointed out that Disney’s Haunted Mansion isn’t alone, and in fact, it pales in comparasion to Transformers: Age of Extinction’s 55 instances of product placement.
Another X user shared that they actually want to go see Haunted Mansion so that they can find all the product placements that Disney shoehorned into the film. For them, it would be like spotting Stan Lee’s cameo appearances in Marvel movies.
In addition to promoting lots of name-brand products throughout Haunted Mansion, it seems like Disney also promoted itself. An X user noticed that a child referenced “Tower of Terror,” which is a ride at Disney World. However, it is also an upcoming Disney movie that is being rebooted and will be directed by Taika Waititi and will star Scarlett Johansson.
While it’s perfectly normal for a movie to include product placements, it seems like Disney went over the top in Haunted Mansion. One reason for the excessive amount of brand names could be that Disney is trying to cut costs and save money.
Product placement is a common practice in Hollywood to bring in money to offset the production budget, Disney’s Haunted Mansion is just less subtle about it then most.
After several of their big-budget movies (like Lightyear, Strange World, and The Little Mermaid) flopped at the box office, Disney could be trying to recoup lost dollars. With each product they reference in their movies, they make a large profit from the brand. The bigger the reference, the higher the profit.
If you want to see all the absurd product placements for yourself, then you can go see Disney’s Haunted Mansion in theaters. It stars Owen Wilson, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, and more great cast members as they try to rid a new home of ghosts.
