‘Wednesday’ Woes:’ is plastic bottle product placement still a thing?

‘Wednesday’ recently premiered on Canadian Netflix, to much applause/fanfare/oos and aahs. But, per usual, Jan and I live under a rock and didn’t notice until a friend recommended we check it out. Finally, we did.

If you want the short version of this story, here it is:

• Beautifully shot
• Amazing music
• Really, really poor product placement. Plastic bottles. In 2022. *facepalm*

Here’s the whole story…

Well, shoot. Wednesday is beautiful: the cinematography, locations, storytelling, VFX, actors, (most of) the acting, and music (side note: can Danny Elfman score the soundtrack of my life?). It’s all very much first-class, which is no surprise once you realize Tim Burton is behind the entire series (or, most of it? He directed four out of the eight episodes and executive produced the whole series).

I don’t think there’s a Tim Burton production I haven’t liked (with the rare exception of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I blame that on my upbringing and indoctrination into the classic, Gene Wilder original O:-)).

And, I would have loved this show fully, were it not for Episode 2 (“Woe is the Loneliest Number”) kinda throwing me for a loop. No, it wasn’t a plot twist that did me in (I wish). No, it wasn’t some out-of-line scriptwriting (again, I wish).

It was the damn product placement!

Both Canada Dry soda and Fiji water are prominently featured, being drunk by students at Nevermore Academy. There are two things wrong with that picture. Soda is still being promoted as a beverage option for teenagers, which is ridiculous. But, the plastic bottles on-screen, in 2022, blows my mind.

For those who are curious, here are the time codes for the plastic atrocities:

• Episode 2, 40:27 and 40:43 (Fiji water)
• Episode 2, 41:00 (Canada Dry)

#flipthescript on product placement

If you recall, I recently wrote about an initiative by the Plastic Pollution Coalition to #flipthescript when it comes to single-use plastics being shown on the big screen. The PPC’s theory is that seeing single-use plastics on camera is a form of subliminal messaging and sends a signal to the viewer. The message? That single-use plastics are OK.

I know this might sound “out there,” but it is so very not.

Here’s the thing: product placement is fine. It’s part of the Hollywood thing. There is product placement in virtually everything we consume. And, for the most part, it passes us by. We are so used to seeing Apple logos on laptops and BMW logos on cars, we probably don’t even realize we’re seeing them anymore.

I can’t remember when I first started noticing product placement, but after working at Seventh Generation for a couple of years, I recall that I began noticing when their products would appear on camera. (Like, Weeds for instance) 

And, of course, the webinar from PPC shed light on this, too. 

Get with the times

Now look, I’m not here to say we need to scrub SUPs out of all the content that already exists. To me, seeing SUPs in older shows and movies is a bit of a time capsule. Right now, I’m re-watching Gilmore Girls when I need a brain break and have been so shocked that bottled water and single-use coffee cups are so casually tossed around in Seasons 1 and 2. Seems so crazy!

There are certain excuses one might make for SUPS on-camera in TV shows and movies. “It was the 80s!” or, “Coca-Cola paid us a lot of money!” or, “It was the 50s, plastics were all the rage!”

Fine. Whatever. Let’s chalk it up to not knowing any better.

The future is now

Last I checked (quickly checks calendar) it’s 2023. We can no longer hide behind the “we didn’t know any better” excuse.

This is the future! Sure, we don’t have affordable hoverboards (or even affordable housing) but we sure do have reusable water bottles and healthy beverages like water and other non-soda options. So why the single-use plastic soda bottles in ‘Wednesday’?

Messages in a (plastic) bottle

Here are the messages the production team of Wednesday is sending, and messages they aren’t sending, by their choosing to include plastic bottles filled with Canada Dry and Fiji Water in their show. (IMHO)

1. It’s acceptable for teenagers to drink soda when research shows that it inhibits development and is terrible for teeth health.
2. Have we forgotten that many bottled water companies sell tap water and market it as spring water, all while exploiting and expropriating water resources around the world for their profits? *facepalm again*
3. That it’s OK for consumers to purchase bottled soda and water, despite the knowledge that these products are housed in plastics that are made from fossil fuels, which promotes their extraction and furthers carbon emissions into our atmosphere, contributing to a warming climate. Even though we know we need to be reducing fossil fuel extraction and making less plastic. FFS.
4. It’s not cool to carry around a reusable water bottle, and it’s obviously not cool to outwardly show that you care about the planet. (OK, fine, maybe I’m being dramatic here but do you see what I mean? These are the subliminal messages that play out on-screen when you support something like plastic flipping bottles!)

Lots of eyeballs

According to recent stats, Wednesday was played 341.2 million hours in one week. Obviously, there is no way to infer how much of that time people were watching Episode 2, but we can assume that it was…a lot. That’s a lot of eyeballs watching students guzzle soda and bottled water. I would hazard a guess that most people didn’t even notice there were plastic bottles on-camera. This is effective product placement: when it’s subtle. It’s also subliminal.

I don’t know why the directors of Episode 2 did this. I’m not sure why the show’s product placement coordinators Adam and Cat Stone thought this was a good idea, either. I’m sure it was part of their deal with The Wonderful Company (owners of Fiji Water) and Keurig Dr. Pepper (owners of Canada Dry – were you surprised by that? I was!).

The future is now: time for better product placement

If a TV show with as large of a budget as ‘Wednesday’ can parade out a very obvious and prominent Apple MacBook product placement, drop TikTok references at every corner, and also make numerous references to iPhones and smartphones, it can also drop single-use plastic water bottles from its show.

Single-use plastic water bottles on camera, in this century, are like seeing clunky, Dell laptops from the early 2000s on-camera, now: antiquated and outdated. Do you see what I mean? Why plastic bottles?

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, I’m sure you didn’t mean to rile up the plastic pollution environmentalists of the world through your agreement with The Wonderful Company and Keurig Dr. Pepper, but could you at least renegotiate your next deal so that they must promote reusable bottles and no more flipping soda? Thanks.

PS – plastic forks (Episode 2, minute 41) are also a thing of the past, you might consider letting your set department know.