[ The appearance of a wine bottle in television and film is almost
never an accident; it’s a carefully brokered deal between the wine
brand and the production’s prop master.]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

HOW PRODUCT PLACEMENT GETS WINE BOTTLES INTO SHOWS  
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Esther Mobley
February 9, 2023
San Francisco Chronicle
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_ The appearance of a wine bottle in television and film is almost
never an accident; it’s a carefully brokered deal between the wine
brand and the production’s prop master. _

Murray Barlett (left) and Nick O'erman in episode three of “The
Last of Us,” featuring conspicuous shots of Caymus and Louis Jadot
wine bottles., Liane Hentscher/HBO

 

Like many wine lovers, I was tickled to see the starring role that
wine played in episode three of HBO’s “The Last of Us.” Nick
Offerman, playing an antisocial prepper whose paranoia is vindicated
by the arrival of a zombie apocalypse, had stocked his compound not
only with guns and ammo but also cases of Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon
and Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages.

The Jadot, in fact, was a minor plot point, as a wine that
Offerman’s character served at two fateful meals bookending the
episode. Some wine nerds have complained that a Beaujolais Villages
was a poor casting choice: It’s a simple, inexpensive red, and yet
was positioned as a special-occasion bottle on Offerman’s table.
I’d argue, however, that it was a wise choice because Offerman
served it with rabbit, which is known to pair well with a light,
earthy red like Beaujolais.

But I digress. The lingering glamor shots on the Jadot labels, which
seemed so conspicuously placed in the frame, got me thinking about
product placement. I’ve been vaguely aware that the appearance of a
wine bottle in television and film is almost never an accident; it’s
a carefully brokered deal between the wine brand and the
production’s prop master.

 I wanted to learn how this brokering actually works. So I made a few
calls. (Kobrand, the importer of Louis Jadot, did not respond to an
interview request. A Caymus representative said that the winery did
not pay for product placement in the episode.)

As it turns out, much of the set that we see onscreen is likely to
have been “placed.” Steve Moore, the founder of Hollywood
product-placement agency Legacy Entertainment Services, has placed
everything from the Donzi boat that Charlie’s Angels ride to the
Klein bicycle that hangs in Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment (and which
now hangs in the Smithsonian). He also places wine — lots of it.
“We do about 200 films a year and almost every primetime television
show,” said Moore. “Almost every single project we work with needs
wine.”

Most recently, he got Napa Valley’s Davis Estates into “She
Said,” the movie about the New York Times’ Harvey Weinstein
investigation. According to Moore, Davis Estates wines appeared in the
movie on 18 occasions.

About half the time, Moore said, a prop master will come to his agency
with a specific wine in mind that they’d like to include in a film,
and it’s then up to him to track down the wine. (He recently got
just such a request for Memento Mori, a high-end Napa Valley wine, so
Legacy got in touch with the winery’s publicist.) The other half the
time, he’ll go to the prop master on behalf of existing winery
clients, many of whom are on annual retainer, and explain why he
thinks a given brand would be a good fit for a scene. Legacy’s
services start at $7,000 for a guaranteed two placements.

The advantage of working with a product-placement agency for the
producers, Moore said, is that they can “reduce their window of
vulnerability” by having an iron-clad contract giving them legal
permission to display a brand’s logo. Also, the movie or TV show
gets free product. (In the case of some very expensive products, like
Volvo construction equipment or Mac trucks, both of which Legacy
represents, this saves the production quite a lot of money.)

The wine companies get a say in how their product is shown — it
can’t be used in conjunction with underage drinking, for example, or
spoken of in a negative light. “Let’s say we have a movie with a
mafia guy, very wealthy, and they want him to be drinking a high-end
wine,” said Moore. Some wineries will relish the opportunity to be
seen as the mafioso’s beverage of choice. Others will say no,
“we’re a family company,” Moore explained.

Consider the final scene of “Hannibal,” in which Anthony
Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter, a cannibal with refined taste, enjoys a
bottle of 1996 Phelan Segur on a plane. The Bordeaux winery’s
then-importer, Seagram, decided that was great publicity and gave the
green light, said Evan Goldstein, a San Francisco master sommelier who
worked for Seagram at the time and negotiated many product-placement
deals for the company’s wine brands.

Sure, the wine was being consumed by a deviant cannibal. “But it was
Anthony Hopkins,” said Goldstein, who added that the goal of any
appearance in a film was to make a wine look “associative and
aspirational.”

Not all placements are equal. Sometimes a wine bottle’s label
can’t be seen fully, or it’s blurry. “Verbals are the biggest
deal if you can actually get them,” said Goldstein: an explicit
mention of the product name. Or clear, lingering shots in which the
bottle is held by one of the film’s protagonists, like Elizabeth
Hurley handling Perrier-Jouet Champagne in “Austin Powers” —
another one that Goldstein arranged.

Perrier-Jouet was also a frequent fixture in the background of
“Seinfeld” episodes. “Everything you saw in ‘Seinfeld’ —
Tequila, whiskey — was a Seagram product,” Goldstein said.

There seems to be a general consensus that appearances in popular
television or film is a home-run marketing win for wineries, though
the return on investment can be hard to track precisely. Moore said
that his agency’s clients see “more than a billion” impressions
a year. He argued that placement is much more cost-effective than
traditional advertising — not only do his services cost less than
producing a commercial, he said, but people tend to avoid watching
them.

Or maybe the ultimate allure of product placement lies in the
possibility of a product becoming consecrated in the pop-culture canon
— on the level of Pahlmeyer Chardonnay in “Disclosure” or Dom
Perignon in “Dr. No.” What winery could resist a chance at that
immortality?

Esther Mobley

Senior wine critic Esther Mobley joined The Chronicle in 2015 to cover
California wine, beer and spirits. Previously she was an assistant
editor at Wine Spectator magazine in New York, and has worked harvests
at wineries in Napa Valley and Argentina.

©2023 Hearst Communications, Inc.

* wine business
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* product placement
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* Advertising
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