Too much Product Placement?

Ever since watching Thor and discussing the over use of product placement I can not help but notice every little trademark, logo, or label in anything I watch. The whole reason that I hated Thor was that I believe the over use of product placement was insulting. I felt like they did not want to tell me a story (the whole point of a film) and just wanted to sell me everything thing they could. But now that I have notice product placement in just about everything I see I have to ask the question. Where is the line when it comes to product placement?


I understand the reasoning behind having product placement in a motion picture. It helps with advertising before the movie comes out and it's a easy way of making some money by just adding a trade mark here or a logo there. But can you make a motion picture without product placement, of course you can. There is no product placement when a movie maker directors a period pieces. Or some do not use product placement and just create all of the trademarks, logos, and companies in their movie.

These are the men and women that I feel care about their story or the story that they are working on so much that they would do nothing take their viewers out of it. Should these people be viewed as righteous in the eyes of the audience? Should we raise them higher because they care more about their story than money? I believe that the answer is yes. This person is clearly showing that first and foremost they wish to tell a story through the art of film, and if they make some money then that's a win win for them.

But in that vain I guess I must not assume that every movie maker cares not for their story and only want as much money from product placement as they can get. I'm sure that they are not all heartless money grasping jerks. I'm sure that there are a few out there that want to tell a story with their movie and by have a few logos here and there does not hurt that much. It's very understandable for movie makers to want to have product placement in their movie but when does the story that they are telling with elements of a commercial, become a commercial they are selling with elements of a story?

I'm sure that this line is different with different people, as all things are, but I feel like the movie makers are crossing that line whenever the product placement takes me out of whatever I'm watching. A dell computer in the background is fine, the characters are in an office that makes sense, a three second close up to a LG phone I don't think is needed for story purposes. I think that product placement can be used in a movie but it should not be noticed more in a scene than the story itself.