‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Features the Dumbest Product Placement in Movie History
This article contains mild spoilers for Jurassic World Rebirth.
The Jurassic Park/World franchise has a long history of gratuitous corporate tie-ins. For example, the original 1993 film’s partnership with McDonald’s is what led to “Dino-Sized” — later renamed “Super-Sized” — meals, presumably because they had no leather-clad chaotician to warn them that they were too preoccupied with whether or not they could, and didn’t stop to think if they should.
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That trend has continued with the newer movies, too, hence why Jurassic World paused to showcase Jimmy Buffett enjoying a delicious Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville margarita during a pterosaur attack. And we regret to inform you that this random, self-serving cameo has subsequently been immortalized in action figure form.
The newly-released Jurassic World Rebirth similarly features a number of cross-promotional deals with major companies, including candymakers Mars, Inc. You may already have seen the commercial in which two cartoon M&Ms watch Rebirth while cheering for the dinosaurs to eat the humans and “see how they like it.”
Yeah, apparently the M&M characters are secretly super-upset that we’ve been mass slaughtering and devouring their brethren for decades.
There are also several shots of Mars products in the movie itself, including M&Ms and Snickers. While some of these happen in a sequence toward the end of the film, set in a convenience store, the movie actually starts with a character deciding to eat a Snickers bar — but that decision immediately leads to his bloody demise.
The film’s opening sequence is set in a secret InGen laboratory, where researchers are working on creating the giantest, scariest, Xenomorphiest dinosaur ever. Why? Who knows…
In any case, one of the scientists is finishing up a Snickers before entering the highly-secure area of the lab, which requires turning two keys simultaneously to open the door. But once he gains access, the dummy just drops his Snickers wrapper, which promptly gets sucked through the door, landing in a mechanism that prevents the interior doors from closing properly. As a result, the “Distortus rex” escapes, and eats the scientist while his colleague watches in horror.
This lab is abandoned for decades, all because of this one chocolatey snack.
Did the Snickers people seriously sign off on this? We’ve talked in the past about some big product placement fails, including how American Airlines became the official airline of child endangerment in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. But at least Kevin McCallister never got eaten by a monster. This would be like if the first Jurassic Park began with a character being disemboweled by a pack of velociraptors after they slipped on a McNugget.
Jurassic Park fans are now joking that the “true villain” of Rebirth is, in fact, that one Snickers bar, which is arguably responsible for much of the movie’s carnage.
But hey, all publicity is good publicity, right?
