Wine Goes Hollywood

Filed in archive Wine News on July 18, 2006

Product placement in the movie and television industry is nothing new. Very often while watching an action scene in a movie, you'll see the car chase passing by or even plowing into large billboards advertising all kinds of products.

Believe it or not, companies actually play for what is called "placement." Their product is strategically "placed" within the setting of the movie or television show, and of course, this is like a nonverbal advertisement.

Normally, these products have been dominated by soda pop and maybe fashion or even sports related items, but now the wine industry is starting to catch the hollywood placement fever.

From More wines nose their way into TV shows and movies: Wine has paired with movies for decades -- James Bond baffled a villain or two with his vintage know-how. But the connection between Hollywood and wine has picked up in recent years as more vintners seek to get their brands in the picture.

Unlike some industries, wineries don't generally pay for product placement. Instead, they try to get attention by donating cases of wine to show-biz events and celebrity parties and hiring agents like Turnbull who look for opportunities by reading scripts and keeping in touch with studios.

Picking the right wine for a scene requires close attention, says Turnbull, who spent 10 years with Fox, most recently doing product placement for 20th Century Fox, before founding her own business, The Placement Agency.
So, when a prop master called asking for wine for a family dinner scene in HBO's "Six Feet Under," she sent over a case of cabernet sauvignon from Turnbull Wine Cellars, a Napa Valley wine she admires as an "elegant, special-occasion kind of wine."

"We don't say, 'You want a red wine? Here's a red wine,' " says Turnbull, who has no relation to the winery. "We try to make it really appropriate for the setting."