Selling Out: A Brief, Highly Selective History of Product Placement at the Movies
Who's Minding the Store? (1963)
Jerry Lewis starred in two movies that gained huge notoriety for product placement. Who's Minding the Store? featured some 20 name brands, from Sealy mattresses to Raisin Bran cereal to Channel Master televisions and radios; in exchange, those companies gave plugs to the movie. The New York Times scoffed that it was "one of the most skillful movies ever made in at least one respect. That is in the use of commercial tie-ins." But for Channel Master's advertising manager, it was "the most successful single promotion" in the company's history. In 1981, Lewis topped himself with Hardly Working, which featured multiple plugs for Dunkin' Donuts and even less artistry. (Roger Ebert wrote, "I was absolutely stunned by the vast stupidity of this film.")