So why is having stuff that we have (reddit, YouTube, selfie sticks etc) in the modern day bad in a movie set in the modern day? Like, this type of complaint happens all the time and I don't get it
It's unrealistic to put stress on pointing out various brands and product placement, as opposed to letting such brands/products seamlessly blending into the world.
It would be like, using a fake example, if there was some scene where someone drinks Sunny D. The overly obvious product placement would go like this:
MAIN: Want something to drink?
FRIEND: If ya got Sunny D, hell yeah!
*Main character pours Sunny D into a glass and hands it to Friend*
FRIEND: Nothing beats Sunny D...
*takes a long swig into the camera*
FRIEND: ... it's better than regular orange juice!
Letting it seamlessly blend in would be to have the main character just serve the friend Sunny D without addressing what it was, nor the friend not making a big deal about drinking it.
Think about real life, do you make a big deal about everything you eat, drink or use WHEN you eat, drink or use it? That one scene in Wayne's World that pokes fun at product placement, while not subtle, was pretty spot on how shameless it can get. Look at a lot of the Michael Bay Transformers movies for other, "in your face" product placement examples. One, if it looks like a commercial within a movie, it's bad. Two, if they toss out product names for the sake of informing the audience about said brands, it's bad.
Somewhat related, a part of me miss the times when laws were a bit lax and there wasn't as big of a stick shoved up the asses of product rights holders. Back in the 80s, you had a lot of smaller movies that took advantage of this and the result were realistic settings as you can get. An example would be how you can get a child's room that had Star Wars bed sheets, ET plushies, Legos, He-Man figures and Spider-Man and Batman comics. And they weren't product placement more than objects placed in the room to make it look more believable as the room of a child "back then"(which, as kids, a lot of us back then had all that type of stuff, so it kinda was). In the kitchen, you'd have people drinking cans of both Coke and Pepsi(again, it wasn't a brand thing, considering how big these two have competed against each other). And all the while, people aren't focusing on what they are drinking, or what is in the kid's room. It all seamlessly blends into the world. No where does someone say, "I'll take a Coke!", or the kid say, "Sometimes I let my Luke Skywalker join He-Man on adventures!". They are just THERE, to make the world more believable, and that's it(they don't beat you over the head with it). And you know what... it works! You can't get away with that shit anymore, though(not making brand use believable, but using so many different brand names in one movie without paying out the ass to gain the rights to use said names).
