In the past twenty years, people have become very much aware of product placement in media. We are used to seeing the Coke can with the label facing out. We also know that Apple will only allow the good guys to use their products (often a dead giveaway in movies).

However, we now have the phenomenon of the full-product movie. Films like Air and Tetris have finally arrived, shining examples of the direction the industry may be heading. These movies are about the birth of a product or our favorite modern geniuses and their road to discoveries. Yet these discoveries are never earth-shattering. They have not cracked the genetic code and are far from the next Marie Curie. So why is Hollywood making them, and what does that say about our consumer culture?

Welcome to Hollywood, Promotional Mecca

Renee Russo Thomas Crown
Universal

For years, Hollywood has been creating movies that use product placement. In fact, one of the earliest known examples was a Buster Keaton film called The Garage which came out in the 1920s. Even then, the sign for Firestone Tires was front and center, along with promotional items for Red Crown Gasoline. It’s nothing new.

Since then, the entertainment industry has realized there is real money in allowing advertisers into their movies. They will say people use the products, so why wouldn’t they be there? However, it does get egregious to the point of being laughable.

A perfect example is The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). The movie is remembered for being a sexy heist, cat-and-mouse remake. Yet it is also known for having a blatant scene depicting Renee Russo buying a Pepsi One, cracking it open, and taking a deep sip with the label facing out. After drinking deeply, she sighs and looks at the can as if to say it is the most refreshing part of her day. This is despite the fact that she has spent the movie talking about how she drinks green concoctions that are so healthy to the point that other characters call her out on it.

Nostalgia Plus Product Equals Box Office (Hopefully)

Original Jordans
CNN

We see quite a bit of movies cashing in on millennial and Gen X products. That is where the films like Tetris and Air are starting to show their cards. For people who enjoy their product placement as subtle-not-subtle, look no further than the new Super Mario Bros. Movie marketed as a fun-filled cartoon romp.

However, when we all look at it for what it truly is, we will see the complete cash grab that hits not only the kids today playing their Nintendo Switches but their parents who remember blowing on their old Mario Nintendo cartridges. They even grabbed Jack Black to play Bowser as he is a bridge between the High Fidelity and Kung Fu Panda crowds. Universal has already created its Super Mario Bros. theme park, and Lego is making the toys. Be sure to pick up your favorite plush and retro bedsheets. Nerds will collect the Funko toys, and their kids will play the retro Mario Kart until the inevitable sequel.

They are not shy.

Related: Ben Affleck On Michael Jordan's Involvement in Air: 'Oh, This Isn't About Nike'

And with Tetris and Air, we are now witnessing the next phase of this process. The dramatization of past trends with the hottest actors in Hollywood. These people can see the big payday and a strangely nebulous area of film where they play caricatured versions of real people to make their stories seem worth a story. It doesn’t matter if the actual person had very few personal struggles. Ben Affleck or Brad Pitt will play him with a life-altering physical difficulty, bringing gravitas to a person that really just went to work every day with a good idea.

But we all know and remember how the advertisements made us feel and how cool we were to have the products. We remember Christmas morning when our parents got us the pair of Air Jordans we coveted or the Tetris game for our computer. Heady days. Studios see that, and they think, why would we show a person drinking a Coke when we can make a movie? It can be about how the secret formula was devised by two CIA agents in Venezuela who fought their way through hell, and the only thing that saved them was a concoction of what they found in a forest and whatever they had in their backpacks. Forget that the real story was a soda jerk with time to kill. Stories of innovation are not always that interesting, and when they're not, Hollywood wants to make sure it is and that we are sensationalized.

Air and Tetris: A Study Selling the Myth

Air 2023 movie with Ben Affleck
Amazon Studios

Air is the story of how the Air Jordan sneaker line was devised and implemented around a rookie basketball player named Michael Jordan. Tetris is about Henk Rogers, an American who discovers Alexey Pajitnov and brings his game to the United States. But are they intrepid stories that deserve films?

The truth is that they may be interesting, but they will inevitably fall prey to the internet hive mind. These people will mine the truth, and inevitably the videos will begin to appear on YouTube with titles like “Tetris: Fact from Fiction.”

Related: Tetris Directors Say the Film Includes Balance Between the Game and the Political Aspect of It

The public loves a good underdog story. As members of the public, we know this. However, the hero’s journey is not a cookie-cutter mold that every story can be forced into. But Hollywood will try. We may all fall for it, but much like other stories, we will inevitably realize that these movies existed and disappeared from theaters and appeared on Prime Video in a more spectacular fashion than Michael Jordan dunking. The products will be given new life, Hollywood will be totally underwritten, and we forget that the drama we’re being fed is just an updated version of the same old cash grab.