Terminator. Product Placement in the Movie Series.

Alexey Cherkasov
7 min readJan 30, 2020

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Watching the latest Terminator movie I’ve noticed some familiar electrical engineering brands. Working in the field of marketing and sales in the power electronics industry I got curious about product placement of various brands (including the brands of competitors, customers, partners in power semiconductors and power electronics industries) in the movies that define the genres.

Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent.

So today I would like to share with you product placement I’ve gathered watching five parts of Terminator movies. And since there are always a lot of cars involved in the filming procedure, in my posts I will not take into account cars, motorcycles, etc.

The Terminator

In the first Terminator movie we see many familiar brands from electronics to FMCG. And the first brand placed in the movie is the Nike sneakers.

When colleagues of Sarah Connor learn about the death of a woman with the same name they invite her to watch the news. And here we see a can of Sprite.

When Sarah returns home and talks to her friend Ginger Ventura we see a pack of Tampax, a Procter & Gamble comapny brand.

Then during the police chase we see a very familiar fries logo of McDonald’s.

Some time later we see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character wear the Gargoyles glasses.

During the interrogation of Kyle Reese we can see Sony and Toshiba brands of the VCR and TV.

Closer to the movie’s end we see Coca-Cola vending machine in the motel area, where Sarah and Kyle stay to hide. And then we see it again at the gas station in Mexico.

When Sarah makes records for John we see that she uses TDK audiocassette. And finally a Mexican boy takes an instant photo of Sarah (the photo that will travel a lot through time and movie series) using Kodamatic 940 camera produced by Kodak. What a time!

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

When the Terminator arrives, among all the garbage in the street we see a Dunkin’ Donuts cup.

When he enters the bar in search for the clothes and transport we spot Pepsi and Miller there.

When John tries to hack the ATM he uses ATARI computer, which perfectly works for that.

In the laboratory where Miles Dyson works, and later in the mall we see the already familiar drink logo. I bet by that time you already think about a can or two.

Another scene in the mall, where Terminator fights the T-1000, gives us a nice view of the Pentax camera.

When John calls to his foster parents he doesn’t realise that T-1000 is already there. Here we see the pack of Lady Lee low fat milk.

When T-1000 arrives at the asylum he takes the look of the policeman who thinks it is his lucky day. Next to him we see the Pepsi vending machine. And the last brand in the movie is Mobil, which Terminator and John pass on their way to asylum to rescue Sarah.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

In the beginning of the movie we see John sitting on a bridge with a bottle of Budweiser beer.

When T-X arrives she takes over a car and uses Nokia phone to access the database to get the information about the targets of the mission. That was the time when Nokia produced the best mobile phones.

When T-X is stopped by the policeman for speeding she sees the Victoria’s Secret billboard, which gives her an idea how to convince the policeman to let her go.

After that we find Kate and her fiance in Bloomingdale’s department store picking some stuff for their home.

When Terminator arrives he again heads to the bar to get some clothes. Here we see a lot of beer scenes including Budweiser and Heineken brands. Together with the stripper clothes he takes a very nice Audemars Piguet watch.

Then again at Kate’s home we see Nokia phone. The next scene, when Terminator together with John and Kate escape from T-X shows us McDonald’s and Taco Bell restaurants.

When they stop at the AMPM store and gas station to get some food and fuel we see various products and brands inside the store including Procter&Gamble, Pepsi, Durex, Kraft, etc.

Finally when Skynet is to be launched to fight the virus, we see DELL computers that are used in the facility.

Terminator Salvation

This part of Terminator movies has the lowest product placement of all, however, here we see the companies that have been working in the robotics business for many years.

First we see Sony brand when John uses his computer to analyze the sound.

When Kyle, Star and Marcus come to the abondoned store we see that this is 7-Eleven store, where some resistance people hide.

And when John arrives at the very heart of Skynet we finally meet the robots produced by Fanuc and ABB companies. This is the moment I like the most.

Terminator Genisys

In Genisys we meet many old friends very familiar to us from the previous movies about Terminator.

And the first one is Nike. Kyle takes the Nike sneakers in the department store, right, exactly same Nike.

Further we move to the hospital where we can see many popular brands like Nokia smartphone, Pepsi and IMRIS Visius eye for MR scanners. The first scene is Genisys launch countdown. And the second is when Terminator fights against John.

And again we meet robots in this movie. This time it is Yaskawa robot that helps Terminator to fight against John. Robot using robot to fight another robot. Incredible!

So this is just the beginning of the new direction for my blog. I will continue to contribute and soon you can expect new product placement posts about the movies we love. And of course I will update this article with the latest Terminator: Dark Fate movie as soon as it is available.

Originally published at http://www.marketing-psycho.com

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Alexey Cherkasov
Alexey Cherkasov

Written by Alexey Cherkasov

Marketing and sales professional with over 10years experience in b2b industry of power electronics and power semiconductors.

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