The release of Foolproof Oct. 3 has for many in the film and TV business brought the practice of product placement front and center. The film is rife with strategically placed brands and it also features a tie-in with Pizza Hut.

But according to the people who do these deals, Canadian producers believing they can get $1 million in gap financing or even a few hundred thousand if they let products play a role in their films or TV series are mistaken. Cash deals are few and far between even in the U.S.

‘The likelihood that you’re going to offset production costs and subsidize your production with product placement fees is a billion to one,’ says David Newton, president of Toronto-based Premier Entertainment. ‘It’s not going to happen… the money isn’t there.’

MMI Product Placement in Toronto generated a number of product placement deals for Foolproof. But, according to Philip Hart, MMI’s president, not one was a cash deal. Still, Hart estimates Alliance Atlantis, the film’s producer, saved about $25,000 in production costs thanks to placements, including the free use of Doritos, Pepsi-Cola and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Beyond saving thousands of dollars in craft service costs thanks to a thousand bags of corn chips, gallons of pop and all-you-can-eat donuts, MMI also helped offset licence fees that would have otherwise needed to be paid.

While $25,000 is not huge money considering the film’s $7-million budget, it was still money AAC could allot to other areas. ‘No one else is knocking on their door saying, ‘Let me save you $25,000 for free,” says Hart. ‘It’s found money. That’s the beauty of my business.’

The film also got hundreds of thousands of dollars in free promotion. Seeking an opportunity to leverage its placement in the film, Pizza Hut stamped the Foolproof logo on one million pizza boxes. It’s not a particularly elaborate tie-in, but it did bring the pizza chain’s involvement back to point-of-sale, which was good for Pizza Hut. It was also good for Foolproof, since it got a significant and valuable promotional push without distributor, Odeon Films, having to pay a cent.

According to some reports, it boosted Odeon’s P&A to nearly $3 million from somewhere above $2 million.

Many will be tempted to point to the film’s poor box office as a clear indication that such broad-based marketing and cross-promotion campaigns do not work in Canada.

But in terms of made-in-Canada tie-ins, these are still early days. This kind of promotional program is not much more advanced than one done in 1951 between The African Queen and Gordon’s Dry Gin, which saw Humphrey Bogart as a pitchman for the liquor brand on billboards across the U.S.

Part of the problem, with all due respect to Foolproof star Ryan Reynolds, is that he is not Humphrey Bogart. The irony, of course, is that if Reynolds were of Bogart’s calibre, the extra value in a Pizza Hut promotion would not be so critical – providing Reynolds was still making movies in Canada, at all.

That said, disappointing box-office results will not impede the momentum. Producers, distributors and broadcasters will find the angles that work well in Canada. It’s just a matter of time.