Thursday, July 2nd, 2026 – 1:00 am
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Way back in 2013, I got into a fight on Tumblr with another user complaining that Marvel movies included too much product placement. They cited the billboards shown at the end of the first “Captain America” movie, which I argued didn’t count because the scene takes place in the middle of Times Square.
In hindsight, that user might have been trolling. (They didn’t mention the fleet of Acura sedans that drives into the scene, which is a much more credible example of shoehorned product placement.) Back then, most TV and film productions didn’t bother with replacing the existing out-of-home ads in major metropolitan filming locations, except maybe to add an easter egg or a bit of in-universe set dressing.
Technology’s come a long way in the last decade, though. And for some marketers, the billboards that appear in the backgrounds of shots – or, heck, even just the blank walls of a building – feel like prime real estate for even more ad placements.
