Sony good or bad?

heartbroken_mr_drax

Do you guys think that Sony Pictures takeover of MGM (only for Bond ofcourse) is a positive thing for the movies?

I thought product placement was a little overdone, but in terms of budgets and Sony pushing EON to pump them out more, more publicity etc. its a good thing.

What do you guys think?

jamesbondagent007

I personally hate Sony, their viral marketing, and their arrogant contempt for the general public. But, as long as they just supply the money and technology, and keep their hands out of the creation of the Bond films, I'll be content.

PoorMansJB

jamesbondagent007 wrote:

I personally hate Sony, their viral marketing, and their arrogant contempt for the general public.

As someone engaged in viral marketing, I recognize there's something of an underhanded aspect to it (indeed, there are some posts to this very site which I'm certain are from licensees), but what with the virtual death of conventional marketing--thanks to things like TIVO--I'm afraid it's the wave of the future.

But, as long as they just supply the money and technology, and keep their hands out of the creation of the Bond films, I'll be content.

Actually, the technology bit concerns me. I used to work for a firm that hapens to have had placements in all the Brosnan films. Despite vastly superior quality and selection, you'll never see that company represented again as Sony is a competitor. Now this is very minor technology and really has no overall affect on storylines or anything, but it's an example of Sony displacing what's probably the more appropriate choice in favor of their own product. I think the use of Sony mobile phones* and laptops is futher evidence of this direction; they're there because Sony is the producer, not because they're the right choice (or, as the film would seem to have you believe the only choice as no other brand of either is seen; shades of the SONY placements in YOLT).

It could be worse I suppose, they could have insisted on a SONY logo for the defibrilator ...

*I should note my comments are based on experience with Sony prior to their partnership with Ericsson who--unlike Sony--have a strong, long-standing position in the mobile industry. I do have to assume that it would raise Sony's reputation and temper the decision to include Sony phones in films where we've generally been lead to believe we're seeing the first/best of a given technology.