Product Displacement

Budweiser Does Not Want to Be in Flight Anymore

No chance of a tie-in commercial.
No chance of a tie-in commercial. Photo: Robert Zuckerman/Paramount Pictures

Anheuser-Busch says it had “no knowledge of the use or portrayal of Budweiser” in the movie Flight before it was released, reports Reuters. They’re not too happy with the Robert Zemeckis film, which depicts Denzel Washington as a heroic airline pilot beleaguered with vices including cocaine and on-the-job drinking. Zemeckis’s previous live action 2000 film Cast Away featured another unintentional product placement in the form of Wilson the volleyball which went on to inspire the sporting goods company to manufacture a special edition tie-in ball with a faux-bloodied handprint. There’s really no chance of something like that happening this time around, and Budweiser has asked Paramount to digitally mask its logo in all extant digital copies of the movie and subsequent versions. [Reuters]

Budweiser Does Not Want to Be in Flight Anymore