Mexico appears to have found a solution to the aversion of tourists and businesses in going to the coutnry with rising drug-based violence, kidnappings, and corruption: they are bribing movie moguls to scrub the image of the country in major movies. MGM and Sony reportedly ordered changes to the new James Bond movie to give positive views of Mexico and drop the image of a Mexican villain. Now that is product placement.
Mexican officials were reportedly allowed to change the script to insist that the villain would be played by a non-Mexican actor (from a less generous country) and to drop the mayor of Mexico City as an assassination target as well as the removal of the Mexican police as the law enforcement force in the film. Other changes were made to show positive features of Mexico, including the use of “known Mexican actress” as the “Bond girl.”
While such demands might be shocking from an artistic perspective for most people, movie executives make the members of Mara Salvatrucha look like moral purists. The news report says that then-Sony Chair Amy Pascal told the filmmakers to “add whatever travelogue footage we need in Mexico to get the extra money.” (It appears that all North Korea had to do is offer Sony money and could have forgone the hacking effort. “The Interview” could have been changed to an assassination of the South Korean president with uplifting scenes of the Workers Paradise that is the Hermit Kingdom).
Source: Foxnews
At least Mexico is learning the thought control mechanism that is propaganda. It’s most effective here in the United States, with the UK a close second.
Beyond anything the US has developed intellectually, the vast structures of our propaganda system will likely be remembered for its effectiveness.
TJustice. On this we can totally agree. We are the Kings of the Propaganda and Marketing Spin Doctor Machine. We ought to build a University to it out of 18 carat gold. 😉
Michael Jackson said Sony is the Devil and he is dead
bigfatmike
Sometimes
Hmm, you’d think that maybe the 20m could be put to good use fighting crime or something, but what do I know…
bigfatmike
First to thread; there hasn’t been much if anything in the way of imagination.
@Issac ” there hasn’t been much if anything in the way of imagination.”
Now wait just a darn minute. Sometimes it is very imaginative the way some people manage to weave the left/right, conservative/progressive debate into every single issue – regardless of the subject, its importance, or how it relates to the US.
China will give you money if you don’t bad mouth them and insert their stars into the movie when it is shown in China. The people in China think it is a joke, since it is not part of the plot.
With all that money and determination, why not, oh, I don’t know, actually fix the crime wave wrecking their image?
Mine was also a reference to an old “Pogo” comic strip using that same wordplay.
So I win 2 prizes.
So Mexico will give you money for promising to not bad mouth them…hmmmmm.
Pogo wins today’s prize for bringing in Obama, congrats.
So, Mexico will give you money if you promise to not bad mouth them..hmmmm.
Oh Yeah, Pogo gets today’s prize for bringing up Obama.
“Oh Yeah, Pogo gets today’s prize for bringing up Obama.”
I have forgotten. Is the prize for being first in the thread or for having the most imaginative details?
Colombia had brave politicians, journalists, cops and judges, who turned their country around from being run by narco terrorists into a pretty good place now. Mexico is taking another tactic, I see.
“Dangerous precedent”
No need to bring Obama up here.
Dangerous precedent
Un cerdo con pintalabios.
Sony got wow factor from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. So Mexico was a carbon copy.
Business has been good. The Aztec Sacrifice scene could have been edited in Bond film to divert attention away form current Mexican problems.
” So why are so many of its people fleeing across our boarder?”
Ummm,…. With economic development the standard of living increases giving people the resources and leisure time for travel?
Everything is wonderful in Mexico. So why are so many of its people fleeing across our boarder?