Another Simple Favor product placements ranked from bad to worst

This is NOT what Italian summers look like: A Simple Product Placement Movie

I love tv series, I love watching a good show, but there’s nothing I like more than going to the movies.

You know, the full experience: pop corns, ads (which I am probably the only to one in the theatre to enjoy lol), trailers, movie start, finishing the popcorns by the first 2 minutes, and the next couple of hours to follow.

I came to peace with the fact that nowadays the great majority of movies is based on sequels. From a quality/awards perspective, most of sequels just don’t top the original; from a commercial point of view, it’s a whole another story.

We’ve become so lazy and in need of effortless distraction, that even entering a full new narrative universe is becoming a nuisance. Better to rely on something we’ve already seen, watched, digested.

This way, even movies that should not have a sequel appear to have one: A Simple Favor is the perfect example.

Did we need a follow-up? Absolutely not.

Did I enjoy watching it? Again, absolutely not.

But what I’ve really enjoyed was checking all the product placements. I didn’t spot them all (mostly were from fashion and I am not an expert sadly), but I found three stunts worth mentioning.

If you have watched the original video ‘A Simple Favor’, you surely will remember the unashamedly cringe Aviation gin product placement (Aviation gin owned by Ryan Reynolds, husband of Blake Lively).

Reynolds sold Aviation for $610 million to Diageo in 2020 (and retained an ownership stake in the company).

To honor this vintage product placement, I’ll rank the ones I spotted in this sequel (?) in a cringe order: the further you go, the cringest it gets.

Disclaimer: I might have missed some, but I fell asleep THREE times watching this movie. Somehow a record.

3. Artingstall’s Brilliant London Dry Gin

You might think ‘At least she’s not promoting her husband’s gin’. It’s the director’s gin brand. No shit.

In the first movie the martini played such a central role, even ending twice on the poster, both in Blake’s hands and with its silhouette.

Here, the martini scene is more like an homage to the scene in the previous film. The brand is clearly shown during a tactical ‘pause’ during the martini preparation, and the bottle has the premium design feeling to be featured in such a movie.

Eater said it best: In Another Simple Favor, the martini goes from exacting and symbolic to, well, mostly an aesthetic choice: marketing bait for all the filthy-martini girlies with TikTok-fueled dreams of Italy.

2. Vespa

After sitting hours close to a random Vespa, the girls just jump on it and drive it in the Italian sunset. Doesn’t look like Vespa has any great anti-theft protection system right?

1. Babbel

The reason I’m listing this as #1 in my list is that it’s the MOVIE. OPENING. SCENE.

Within the first TWO minutes (credits included), we have a blatant, obvious, cringe brand mention.

In fact, in the end it’s a missed opportunity: why didn't they add a code that actually works rather than ‘hi, moms’ (some ideas: himoms20, moms20, trythiscodeforreal)?

Did I miss any better/worse product placements? Let me know in the comments/on TikTok/on a flying pidgeon