The interesting thing about this film’s gentleman is that he is strongly associated with Bollinger. In fact, James Bond did not touch any Bolly until the eighth film Live and let die with Roger Moore from 1973.
In the films, this gentleman’s agent has a flair for everything from Smirnoff vodka and Bollinger’s champagnes. In the short stories, 007 drinks everything from Löwenbräu to Jack Daniel’s whiskey. It is with dismay that I discover that in the new film he is sipping on a Coca-Cola Zero (referred to as Coca Cola Zero Zero Seven)… Where is the world going? Thankfully, Bollinger announces that he will also be drinking a magnum 1999 La Grande Année encased in a futuristic package.
Product palcement is not a new venture in film and culture if you think so. Beverage-related product placement is dated by historians back a couple of millennia, at least to ancient Rome. The poets Horace (65 to 8 BC) and Martial (about 40 to 104 AD) both mention specific wines. According to author and historian John Hood (Selling the Dream: Why Advertising Is Good Business), they may have been paid by wine-producing areas for this purpose.
