Google arranged a product placement in “The Internship,” which is the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy scheduled for June 7 premiere from 20th Century Fox. The movie is rated PG-13 and Google cooperated with “The Internship” that uses its workplace as a backdrop.
“Amidst the comedic hijinks, the film indeed delivers a picture of a kind and gentle Google, a company that offers free food and exercise classes and is in every respect the place you’d like to work,” says a Reuters report by Ronald Grover and Alexei Oreskovic. “Various Google products get plugs in the film, and co-founder Sergey Brin gets a cameo role.” Vice president of Marketing Lorraine Twohill oversaw Google’s involvement.
The Reuters article says that Google insisted on creative control over how the film portrayed its products, which is fairly common when consumer goods companies strike deals for placement in movies. “Google executives may have cringed at some scenes, such as one in which interns get drunk at a strip club,” says the Reuters article.
In the real world, Google gets unwanted attention in public policy debates over its privacy policies and also from government regulators over its practices given its dominating share of the search market. So it was under pressure to come to an accord with “The Internship” to be involved in shaping its presentation. Another internet titan-Facebook—and its founder–got the star treatment in “The Social Network,” from which Facebook avoided direct involvement. “Social Network” was based on an unflattering true story.
Late add — According to a Wall Street Journal article by Rachel Dodes and Amir Efrati, the company permitted the filmmakers to create an exact replica of its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters building—complete with a multicolored slide, nap pods and gourmet food stations—at the Georgia Tech campus (the film was shot in Georgia), where most of the interior scenes were shot. ‘Literally right down to everything you see on every white board was photographed at Google and recreated precisely on our set,’ says director Shawn Levy.”
Being cooperative helped Google convince the producers to drop a scene where a Google self-driving car crashes, according to the Wall Street Journal. In test screenings, versions that would be expected to get an R rating and PG-13 rating were tested, and PG-13 was best received by the audience. The release version of “The Internship” is rated PG-13.
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