The inaugural episode of the new Apple TV+ series The Studio starts with frazzled movie studio exec Matt Remick, played by Seth Rogen, receiving an assignment for an unusual project. His boss (played by Bryan Cranston), enamored with the success of movies like Barbie, has asked him to make a movie about Kool-Aid.
Kool-Aid was not directly involved in the development of The Studio, but in the first two episodes of the season, the brand has played a big role. And not always in the most positive light: Remick, who sees himself as a champion of serious, auteur-style filmmaking, isn’t enthusiastic about the project, and only agrees to work on the movie to secure a better job at his studio. Kool-Aid is also repeatedly poked fun at throughout the first two episodes: one character, for example, says that Barbie, whose IP was transformed into a blockbuster movie in 2023, is “ten thousand million times better IP” than Kool-Aid. It culminates with Martin Scorsese (playing himself) and a script about the Jonestown massacre—yes, the same massacre where a cyanide-laced Kool-Aid-like drink played a somewhat infamous role in the deaths of hundreds of cult members. Kool-Aid declined to make an executive available for an interview.
It’s the latest example of how getting name-dropped can be a blessing for brands—or, depending on the context, a stroke of bad luck.
Brands don’t always get to pick whether they’re depicted in shows or movies, and while being featured can highlight the cultural and societal relevance of a brand, it may not always be flattering. It all comes down to how brands react to their moment in the spotlight.
“Brands have a lot of opportunity to embrace being discussed,” Caressa Douglas, SVP of strategic partnerships product placement at BenLabs, told Marketing Brew. “There’s that old adage…no PR is bad PR. [It’s] just being a part of the conversation.”
Spoiler alert
This year, Duke University got top billing in The White Lotus’s third season, when a character, the wealthy Duke alum Timothy Ratliff (played by Jason Isaacs) dons a Duke T-shirt while experiencing suicidal ideation and thoughts of murdering his family after learning that he could lose everything due to a financial investigation.
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Douglas said the T-shirt was an intentional part of character development, noting that “brands, in that case, really move the character forward.” Duke, however, wasn’t so keen on the connection.
“Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling, but characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists,” Duke’s VP for comms, marketing, and public affairs, Frank Tramble, said in a statement provided to multiple media outlets.
A post on Duke’s X account also noted that “suicide is the second-leading cause of death on college campuses.”
“Some imagery,” the post continued, “goes too far.”
Companies like BenLabs can help clients find opportunities to showcase their brands in shows and movies, Douglas said. But there’s no guarantee that brands will appear in a positive light, since a brand’s depiction in a show all comes down to creative choices.
“We work with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of these prop masters or costume designers, producers, transportation,” Douglas said. “I really can’t name a time in my own experience where any one of those individuals was like, ‘I purposefully want to put a brand in a situation that’s compromising.’”
Less-than-flattering depictions of brands in fictional series is far from a new phenomenon. One infamous 2021 episode of the Sex and the City reboot series And Just Like That, depicts Carrie Bradshaw’s longtime love interest Mr. Big having a heart attack and dying after a workout on a Peloton. In response, Peloton released an ad featuring actor Chris Noth, who plays Mr. Big, very much alive, and extolling the health benefits of cycling. (The ad was pulled after two women alleged that Noth sexually assaulted them; Noth has denied the allegations.)
Making an ad about being included in a hit series might not be a feasible reaction for all brands or in all instances, but Douglas said that the fast-turnaround Peloton ad highlighted the ways in which brands can try to capitalize on an unexpected moment in the cultural spotlight.
“What a brilliant way to lean into being a part of the conversation,” she said.