How Unfriended is Changing Product Placement

All reviews aside, advertisers should be jumping for joy at the newest horror flick to hit the box office.  

Unfriended, while at surface level may reek of low-budget millennial cliches, is the first silver screen production to attempt an immersive cyber setting. The film takes place in a Skype video chat between five friends and is supplemented by their interactions across different platforms as their video chat is hacked by an anonymous user.

What Unfriended lacked in plot development it made up for with a goldmine of advertising opportunities. The genuineness of main character Blaire Lily's digital multitasking allowed for inconspicuous product placement disguised as background noise. Aside from obvious homages to Skype, Spotify and iMessage, names like Tumblr, Teen Wolf and Forever 21 made B-list appearances within the tabs of Lily's browser.

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Unfriended applies a popular new trend in mass marketing. As a successor to banner ads and pop-ups, native advertising aims to camouflage advertisements as native content in the forms of photos, videos, magazine articles and even news stories. Its morality has been scrutinized as mainstream media like Twitter, Instagram and Buzzfeed continue to rely on sponsored posts to replace their traditional advertising business models.

Thus far, headlines seem to approve of the tactic's use in Unfriended. The Huffington Post, CNN and the New York Times praised the thriller for its "realism," "savvy" and "intimate interactions." Alan Scherstuhl of LA Weekly says the film is "a more accurate portrayal of online life than anything Hollywood has ever managed," and Alex Abad-Santos of Vox says, "It's far smarter and meaner than it looks."

Time will tell whether or not viewers agree. According to Flixster, the film has earned respective critic and user scores of 61% and 46% and made $6.2 million since its April 17 release.

Tim Bekmambetov both produced Unfriended and assisted in its creative development. Photo courtesy of CinemaPlex.

Producer Timur Bekmambetov says Unfriended won't be the last of its kind. In an interview with The Verge, he relayed his hope of expanding this new genre of "screen movies." In a time when consumers have become hyper-aware of advertising, it's worth wondering whether or not Unfriended copycats will triumph with longevity.

Bekmambetov isn't concerned.

"Stories are emotional," he said. "If people are still driving cars in real life, and kissing each other, and fighting on the street, then movies about cars, fighting, and kissing will be popular and will be interesting for the audience. And the same is true here. As long as we’re clicking, sending messages, Skyping, the movies with those elements… it’s reality."