Gatorade Wins Product Placement Award

One of my favorite Web sites, BrandChannel.com, has given their 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for Product Placement to Gatorade. Here's what the BrandChannel's Abram Sauer had to say: "Gatorade owes a great thank you (if not back royalties) to former New York Giants football player Harry Carson. During Super Bowl XXI, the former athlete dumped a cooler over the head of his victorious coach, and the brand catapulted into the spotlight. Gatorade's real-life sideline omnipresence has made it a sports film necessity in order to achieve a realistic scene -- an enviable position for products attempting to get into films and fight the 'it's just not natural label.' As Darren Rovell, author of First In Thirst: How Gatorade Turned The Science of Sweat Into A Cultural Phenomenon, puts it: 'If you can't use the pro uniforms, if you can't use the real players or real coaches, having Gatorade on the sidelines immediately conveys to the movie viewer, 'This is authentic.' If you are making a sports movie that has any action, Gatorade is one of the most natural fits.' Gatorade's increased presence in real-life sports through the 1990s and the new millenium has translated to an increased presence in screen time. With appearances in far such as Juwanna Mann, The Sixth Man, Like Mike, Friday Night Lights, Jerry Maguire and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, as well as 2005's Coach Carter, Rebound and Kicking and Screaming, it's rare that Gatorade misses an opportunity. In addition to putting in video game appearances, Gatorade is making its mark in uncredited roles as well; in the 2005 drama North Country, the human waste in an overturned portable toilet was made of Cocoa Puffs, pumpkin pie filling and Gatorade."