Nokia, cheesiness featured in new Star Trek movie

by Joshua Topolsky posted May 10th 2009 at 2:14PM

Do you like your Star Trek movies riddled with Beastie Boys songs and Nokia product placements? Yeah, neither do we. Still, if you've been to see the reboot of the franchise, then you probably noticed the outrageous spot for the Finnish phone-maker. Said ad comes in the form of a futuristic "Nokia ring" coupled with a large, touchscreen device placed in the dash of the totally tubular Corvette a young James T. Kirk is about to smash up but good. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and check it out in the soon-to-be-pulled-by-the-studio clip after the break.

Filed under: Culture, Handsets, Nokia

Tags: captain kirk, CaptainKirk, james kirk, james t. kirk, JamesKirk, JamesT.Kirk, movie, movies, nokia, product placement, ProductPlacement, star trek, star trek movie, StarTrek, StarTrekMovie

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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MatthewJ @ May 10th 2009 2:36PM

I'd like to know why people don't assume Nokia, which has already survived 140 years of existance, wouldn't survive again as long? I mean this was a 'vintage' car after all, going by the fact that it had wheels, unlike everything else in the film (Kirks vintage motorbike aside). It actually struck me as making sense. The Bud thing too, theres nothing more stable than the need to get drunk.

People complained about Nokia in Cloverfield too, which I never understood. It wasn't like Smallville ffs.

Neutral

j @ May 10th 2009 10:54PM

Yeah the product placement took me by surprise, but I guess it wasn't terribly intrusive. Kirk's bike definitely had a different engine sound than what I would expect, plus I believe that there were no spokes in the wheels.

Neutral

Tor Slettnes @ May 11th 2009 4:26PM

Nokia the Communications/Cell phone company has not been around for that long; more like late 60s, early 70s.

There have been other "Nokia" companies though, all of which started in the town of Nokia, Finland. One produced toilet paper, rubber boots for the Russian army, etc.

Neutral

carcomptoy @ May 10th 2009 3:06PM

Honestly, I'm totally fine with product placement. I think it's fun and it adds an element in the movie because you can share with the characters.

What I didn't like about this was that the phone's ring was like distorted. If it's gonna be in the future, shouldn't the ring be high fidelity??

Neutral

momchil karabulev @ May 10th 2009 3:18PM

that ringtone is available as a free download through Nokia.mobi

Neutral

chabba @ May 10th 2009 5:07PM

well, for me, that placement means that Nokia still considers the idea of producing competitive touch-screen phones a part of the sci-fi world. Because Nokia should have come up with such phones many-many years ago, not in the 22nd century.

Highly Ranked

jpfeeney285 @ May 10th 2009 7:26PM

gotta love the bias against all that isn't apple, if that were an iphone, everyone would be talking about it nonstop for the next week.

Neutral

T @ May 10th 2009 7:41PM

Seems that they wore AIr jordans in the future as well...

Neutral

ogami_ito @ May 10th 2009 8:44PM

It seems to me that there is a subtle Ferenge in this movie. However, my understanding was that first contact between the Ferenge and the Federation did 2364...many years after the events depicted in this movie.

Neutral

Montusama @ May 10th 2009 11:18PM

The movie is a prequel/alternative reality of the universe. When you think about it they kind of "have" to do that because they need "fresh" actors to help extend the life of the franchise.

As for the Nokia product placement. I saw it I didn't really care it was a short part of the film and didn't truly have that much "place" for the event of the movie. As for why it was a Nokia, out of all the cell phone manufactures I believe Nokia as a company has been around the longest. (Not 100% sure on this). The only cell phone company that comes near the age of Nokia is NEC.

Neutral

MatthewJ @ May 11th 2009 4:36PM

Thats because the explosion of the Kelvin caused a shockwave that the Ferengi detected, and therefore made early contact with the Federation. The time-travel really is a masterstroke of getting rid of all those years of terribly useless continuity.

I've seen many posts around the net still trying to debate it though, like they're all in denial!

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