"It's not just this scene either" That's because the entire game was conceived from the ground up as a Skittles game. "Product placement" doesn't seem like the right term to use.

Yeah. Especially via branding, which is basically this entire game. Same with M&Ms or Reeses or Dots, etc. You take just one out of the bag and eat it, you still legally consumed one M&Ms.

Exactly. Grammar is sacrificed on the altar of the marketing style guide.

I drive by the taco bell on W burnside on my way to work. I never got over the huge ad they put up, saying: "My doritos is a taco! My taco is a doritos!".

Oh Lord, gimme some of that Old Time Grammar!

Reminds me of a moment on The Simpsons that sounded weird because of that - and even weirder because of how the brand name is pronounced. Someone pushes what looks like a button on a desk and Lisa says, "That's a Mento."

MENTO: A FRESHMAKER!

Grammar are dead.

W Burnside Taco Bell.. oh the memories.. by that I mean non-memories where I was too drunk to remember that I was eating taco bell after the matador, if that's the same one. Matador's gone now :(

The opposite happens too, like in the case of LEGO (whose official plural form is "LEGO" but you can also say "LEGO bricks" if that bothers you).

What's weird is that Dr Pepper can say "Doctor" in their commercials, when really it's just however you pronounce "Dr" without the period. Dr Pepper breaks all the rules.

Could be something like how the Lunar games had all demons changed to "Fiend" in translation because the head guy was a Jehovah's Witness and his faith wouldn't allow it.

Man, I completely forgot this game. At least it's marginally more connected that Myst clone Cherry Coke tried to pawn.

I just can't think of any religious group that would object to snakes specifically ... at least not one which would say that hideous green-faced witches who encourage children to perform black magic with the aid of Skittles candies, THEY get a pass, but snakes oh no snakes are going too far.

Maybe one of the Mars Corporation's executives *is* a snake...?

@UMC That game was "The Lost Island of Alanna"

There's definitely more blatant examples of product placement in games, like McWorld or those Xbox games that came free with Burger King meals, but this is pretty deceptive.

http://tinyurl.com/ojocs5m

That's the description on the back. It's only in the tiny print that it says anything about Skittles and the Mars corporation. I mean, same could be said for a game like Tony Hawk or Gran Turismo, both great games with plenty of product placement, but if I was just looking for some "Tomb Raider Style Adventure With Magic," which is literally what it says on the front of the box, I'd have no idea I was buying a game related to a candy corporation unless I read that one tiny line.

Bill Hicks was right.

"I just can't think of any religious group that would object to snakes specifically"

Hindus? Pentacostals?

At first I was thinking maybe Pentecostals, but that doesn't explain why the rest of it - the pagan hag, the Skittle-fueled black magic - was considered kosher.

I highly doubt anyone at Mars is a Hindu.

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/from-the-archive s/from-the-archives-sweet-secrets-opening-doors-on-the-very-privat e-lives-of-the-billionaire-mars-fami.php


Snakes. They're definitely snake-people.

At least with Mac and Me (and correct me if I'm wrong, brave movie-watchers who have made it through the whole thing, which I have not) it was a clever tie-in which might have worked if it wasn't such a post-ET-cashgrab. The boy names his alien friend Mac because they're at a McDonalds, not because the alien came to earth in search for the best burger in the universe, which seems to be the context in this game, but for Skittles. Even the Big Lebowski was great for In-n-Out Burger, and David Lynch probably had a lot to do with PBR being the beer of choice with PBR swilling hipsters with a single line from Blue Velvet.

I like that movie. I like In-N-Out. I tolerate PBR.

But I had no idea either of those things were in that movie.

Whenever I think of movies that raised awareness of In-N-Out, Fletch comes to mind first.