Episode 9: Carve & Polish

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Not all commercial messages are confined to the normal boundaries demarcating such messages, thanks to sneaky efforts from marketers everywhere. Episode 9: Carve and Polish takes one such case in point: consider a bad movie that was so obviously underwritten by a beverage manufacturer that silly steps were forced on the production team to avoid casting the beverage in question in a negative light. The steps are so obvious as to be laughable, and in the end the desired end—having the beverage become more culturally iconic—failed. Still, not all brand building in the movies is bought and paid for by the companies pushing product, as the second portion of the episode considers.

The two movies under consideration here are Bad Boys, a 1984 release starring Sean Penn; and David Lynch's 1986 Blue Velvet, with a fabulous performance by Dennis Hopper. Excerpts from both are heard.

Closing the show we hear "Shine, Shine, Shine" from Jupiter Makes Me Scream.