zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: You know, I love James Bond movies as much as
: the next guy, and I really love my Bond
: Seamaster. Having said that, I can't help
: but find it a bit amusing to read the words
: "James Bond's Choice" on Omega's
: homepage. I think that, in the interest of
: full disclosure, Omega should add a
: disclaimer to their homepage so they don't
: confuse people who may not be entirely
: "with it". Perhaps something like
: this: NOTE: James Bond did not actually
: choose to wear Omega watches. The reason he
: did not choose them is because he is not
: real. As such, he is incapable of choosing
: anything. The people who actually chose
: Omega are the producers of the James Bond
: films. The reason the producers chose Omega
: is that we paid them a lot of money to make
: this choice. We at Omega believe that the
: James Bond character and the films in which
: he is depicted are great marketing tools for
: our watches. As such, we paid a substantial
: amount of money to require the actors who
: depict James Bond to wear our watches
: onscreen. Again, we want to stress the fact
: that a fictional character did not magically
: come to life and choose to wear Omega
: watches. We sincerely hope that this
: eliminates any possible confusion.

: Any other suggestions or opinions?

: -John

Well, of course what you say is literally true. Advertisers always have the goal of associating their product with the good feelings you might get from associating with someone/something. That's why beer commercials advertise "getting the girl" while the truth of course if you drank all the time, you wouldn't. The technique is often called "Transference", in the advertising world. Advertisers often associate their products with celebrities, like Tag does with Steve McQueen, and Longines with Humphrey Bogart, and Audemars Piguet does with Jay Z, etc.

The business that owns the rights to the Bond films is family owned and they have used the same advertisers for some years now, i.e., Heineken beer, Sony, Ford, of course Omega, etc. In most of the cases, they have been the same group for more than 20 years now. These companies don't actually fund the movie or contribute fees, instead they provide props for the movie (Ford provides the cars, Sony the computers, Omega the watches, etc.) and agree to cross promote their products with the Bond films, in essence, providing extra advertising support, for a certain period of time. Interestingly enough, it is one of the overall most successful advertising/promotion campaigns of all time and that's why the advertisers keep sticking with the Bond films--you'll notice how consistent this group is--nobody wants to leave.

So I think the Bond film production team deserves some credit because they have a loyal group of advertisers who have stuck with them so long--they are obviously getting their money's worth. Omega is a smart company who knows where to put their ad dollars. Rolex, of course, is run by a charitable trust and therefore has a different financial motivation, but they too use celebrities to promote their watches. Omega has hit on a really good thing and it works for them. But I take your point as well, of course. Our world has become perhaps too commercial--who wants to see christmas decorations after labor day?