Wayne's World Casino
Following countless requests from fans and neighbors alike, Wayne Newton has finally opened the gates of his legendary 52-acre Las Vegas property to the public. “Over the years, I’d get letters from fans and notes left in my mailbox and onstage asking if there was any possible way to see my horses and the ranch,” Newton recalled. The Casino is operated by Genting New York LLC d/b/a Resorts World Casino New York City, a member of the Genting Group, a group of companies founded in 1965, operating destination resorts in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, the United States and all four oceans through its Star Cruises and Crystal Cruises. Welcome to Vegas World, the fun social casino game where you play FREE Slots, Bingo, Poker, Texas Hold'em, Blackjack, Solitaire, and more with friends! To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 11.0.0 or greater is installed.
Here’s the third part of the Top 40 product placements of all time. It’s my personal and very subjective list. You can check placements from positions 21 to 30 here: Top 40 Product Placements of all time: 30-21 and positions 31 to 40 here: Top 40 Product Placements of all time: 40-31
No. 20 – Pizza Hut, Pepsi, Reebok, Nuprin and Doritos in Wayne’s World
Benjamin: Wayne! Listen, we need to have a talk about Vanderhoff. The fact is he’s the sponsor and you signed a contract guaranteeing him certain concessions, one of them being a spot on the show.
Wayne: [holding a Pizza Hut box] Well that’s where I see things just a little differently. Contract or no, I will not bow to any sponsor.
Benjamin: I’m sorry you feel that way, but basically it’s the nature of the beast.
Wayne: [holding a bag of Doritos] Maybe I’m wrong on this one, but for me, the beast doesn’t include selling out. Garth, you know what I’m talking about, right?
Garth: [wearing Reebok wardrobe] It’s like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that’s just really sad.
Wayne: I can’t talk about it anymore; it’s giving me a headache.
Garth: Here, take two of these! [Dumps two Nuprin pills into Wayne’s hand]
Wayne: Ah, Nuprin. Little. Yellow. Different.
Benjamin: Look, you can stay here in the big leagues and play by the rules, or you can go back to the farm club in Aurora. It’s your choice.
Wayne: [holding a can of Pepsi] Yes, and it’s the choice of a new generation.
Wayne’s World is an American comedy from 1992 with Mike Myers (Wayne) and Dana Carvey (Garth) in the leading roles. Product placement in Wayne’s World is hilarious. It’s not the proper product placement, but more like promotion of five brands in a satirical way. In some ways it’s a prediction of things to come in the movie industry.
No. 19 – Bubba Gump Shrimp in Forrest Gump
Wayne S World Character
It’s very rare that a fictional brand from the movie goes into mass production or in this case into restaurant business. Forrest Gump was a major box-office success in 1994. One of the stories from the movie was Forrest’s investment in shrimp boat and later in shrimping business. The Bubba Gump restaurant was named after Gump and his friend Bubba.
The first Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant opened in 1996 in Monterey, California by Viacom Consumer Products (its parent company Viacom is also an owner of Paramount Pictures, the distributor of Forrest Gump). Today there are 32 Bubba Gump restaurants worldwide.
The Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant chain is a fantastic example of the power of movie industry. The producers first created a fictional brand and then with the help of movie success moved the brand in the proper business. They succeed there too. Fantastic!
No. 18 – Omega in James Bond
Omega’s first appearance in the James Bond movies was in 1995 in GoldenEye, where Bond wore the Omega Seamaster Quartz Professional. Since then he’s been wearing various Seamaster models. Before GoldenEye Bond had worn the Rolex Submariner, but in the 1990s Omega was eager to participate in high profile movies through product placement, something that Rolex generally avoids.
According to Jean-Marc Lehu Omega wanted to be permanently involved in the series, so they agreed a partnership with Film Media Consultant. Omega’s obligation was a media investment of $7–8 million per film. With that deal they can use the image of James Bond’s actors for its communication. Thanks to this partnership Omega has benefited from sales peaks of 35 per cent after the release of each of the films.
However, sometimes producers abuse product placement and include the brand in some weird situations. That was the case with Omega in the movie Casino Royale. When Bond and his colleague Vesper Lynd were travelling by train she asked him about his watch: “Rolex?” Bond replied: “Omega.” Vesper finished this short conversation about the watch with one word: “Beautiful.”
Ok, the watch might be beautiful, but that was the obvious case of product placement prostitution and we (moviegoers) don’t like that!
No. 17 – Mini in The Italian Job
Wayne's World Casino Slots
The original movie The Italian Job is a 1969 British caper movie with Michael Caine in the leading role. In 2003 F. Gary Gray directed an American remake with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Edward Norton. Both movies are very interesting from the product placement point of view: they both include Minis.
British movie featured the “original” Mini and director Peter Collinson admitted that the car’s maker BMC only provided a few Minis for the shooting and the movie production company had to buy the rest of them. BMC’s decision was somehow strange, because the movie received a lot of attention and publicity. In 2004, Total Film even named The Italian Job 27th greatest British film of all time.
American remake includes new Mini models, which were integrated in the story perfectly. The use of Minis seemed absolutely normal for a robbery, since t Mini is a very compact and mobile car. It is believed that BMW didn’t pay for the placement of Minis, but provided 32 vehicles matching the specific requirements of the production. Product placement was apparently very successful. BusinessWeek reported in 2004 that sales of the Mini in 2003—the year in which The Italian Job was theatrically released—had increased 22 percent over the previous year. Product placement certainly helped.
No. 16 – Junior Mints in Seinfeld
Sometimes product placement can be so well done that it can get a brand name in the title of a TV episode. One of the best cases of such placement was in TV series Seinfeld: in the 20th episode of the Season 4. The episode is called The Junior Mint.
Junior Mints is an American candy consisting of small rounds of mint filling inside a dark chocolate coating. Their role in the Seinfeld episode was hilarious, but also very well done. It included all three types of product placement: the name of the brand was mentioned several times, the product was visible for a few seconds and one of the main characters (Kramer) has even eaten the candies.
In the episode the funny moment occurred when Jerry and Kramer observed the surgery of Elaine’s friend Roy. Jerry refused to take Junior Mints from Kramer and somehow the latter dropped it into the patient. Soon after the surgery Roy’s condition deteriorated, but eventually improved. The doctor thought that the reason was “something from above.”
Apparently the opportunity for product placement was turned down by M&Ms and Lifesavers (among others). “Some companies didn’t want to see their candy falling into the cavity of a patient: They overanalyzed it and lost the humor in it,” recalls Patricia Ganguzza, owner of AIM Promotions, the New York City-based agency that placed the candies on TV. Some reports from the web also stated that no money exchanged hands between Tootsie Roll (Junior Mints’ parent company) and Seinfeld.
The candy was also included in several conversations among the main characters. The funniest line came from Kramer who stated: “Who’s gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint; it’s delicious!”
No. 15 – California wines in Sideways
Sideways (2004) is an American comedy-drama, directed by Alexander Payne. It follows two forty-something year old men Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), who take a week-long road trip to the wine country of Santa Barbara. The movie became a huge success, both at the box-office and with the movie critics. It won an Oscar for the best adapted screenplay and 4 other Oscar nominations.
Wine is a central element of the movie screenplay, and tasting sessions often provide the opportunity for a central close-up on the bottles and brands. In the movie Miles often spoke fondly of Pinot noir, but he didn’t like Merlot that much. Following the movie’s release in October 2004, Merlot sales dropped 2 per cent while Pinot noir sales increased 16 per cent in the Western United States. In the following months sales of Pinot noir rose by 22 per cent on the whole US market. Pinot noir brand Blackstone achieved even bigger boost – its sales increased by almost 150 per cent. The wine-growing valley of Santa Ynez in California also received a boost in tourism and at the restaurant ‘The Hitching Post’ which also appeared in the movie, business increased by 30 per cent.
No. 14 – Red Stripe in The Firm
This is one of the classic cases of excellent product placement. The product was visible, the brand was mentioned, it was included in a summer blockbuster with Tom Cruise and it was also very successful from the business point of view.
The placement of the brand occurred on Cayman Islands where Gene Hackman asked Tom Cruise to give him a bottle of Red Stripe beer. As you can see on the picture below the label wasn’t clearly visible on screen, but the choice for the specific product was spot on, because the beer is brewed in Jamaica. Within a month of the film’s release, Red Stripe sales in the United States had increased by more than 50 per cent. A few weeks later, company owners sold a majority stake in their brewery for $62 million to Guinnesss Brewing Worldwide.
No. 13 – BMW Z3 in GoldenEye
The BMW Z3 was the first modern mass-market roadster produced by BMW. It was introduced as a 1996 model year car, shortly after being featured in the James Bond movie, GoldenEye, in 1995.
GoldenEye was the first film of the BMW’s three picture deal. BMW decided to include its latest roadster Z3, even though it was featured in the movie months before its release. Z3 didn’t have much screentime and none of Q’s gadgets were used. However, it was the BMW’s multimillion-dollar promotional campaign that made the placement so successful. BMW ousted Aston Martin as Bond’s vehicle and created such a buzz that a month after the movie opened, BMW had received 9,000 orders for Z3.
“What made the Bond thing so terrific was that it was a brand-new car and a brand-new segment for us,” says Tom McGurn, general manager of retail and industry relations for BMW. “A very high percentage of the first year’s production was presold, and when the car finally arrived and was actually delivered to customers, there was a long waiting list.”
BMW entered the world of James Bond in spectacular style. According to Mary Lou Galician, head of media analysis and criticism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication the news coverage of Bond’s switch from Aston Martin to BMW “generated hundreds of millions of dollars of media exposure for the movie and all of its marketing partners.
No. 12 – Mac PowerBook in Sex and the City
Carrie Bradshaw is the main character of the American cable television series Sex and the City. The show was broadcast on HBO from 1998 until 2004, for a total of ninety-four episodes. The show was a huge success. Over its course of six seasons it won 7 Emmy Awards and 8 Golden Globes.
Carrie is the narrator and each episode is structured around her train of thought while writing her weekly column, “Sex and the City,” for the fictitious newspaper the New York Star. She works on her PowerBook in her apartment, writing a newspaper column focusing on the different aspects of her relationships.
Carrie used a variety of Powerbooks stretching from probably the first PowerBook G3 (Kanga) to the last Powerbook G3 (Pismo). You might also remember that her computer had an upside down apple logo, which was always very clearly visible.
Mac was Carrie most loyal partner and I’m sure a lot of people bought a Mac just because they saw Carrie Bradshaw using one.
No. 11 – BMW in The Hire
The Hire was a series of eight short films produced by BMW for the Internet in 2001 and 2002. All eight films featured famous movie directors (Wong Kar Wai, Ang Lee, John Woo, Guy Ritchie …) and Clive Owen as the ‘Driver’. The movies highlighted the performance aspects of various BMW cars, but even if you consider that they were paid ads, some of those short movies are in my opinion small masterpieces.
The Hire was a global success. “What began as a “big idea” grew into a cutting edge, first-of-its-kind entertainment event that was unprecedented in our industry,” said Jack Pitney, former Vice President of Marketing for BMW of North America. “We are proud that The Hire had more than 100 million film views.”
The Hire series is brilliant. If you haven’t seen it, watch it immediately. My favorite movie is The Follow: it was directed by the great Wong Kar Wai and includes stars, such as Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Forest Whittaker, Adriana Lima and BMW.
By Heather Turk
Following countless requests from fans and neighbors alike, Wayne Newton has finally opened the gates of his legendary 52-acre Las Vegas property to the public.
“Over the years, I’d get letters from fans and notes left in my mailbox and onstage asking if there was any possible way to see my horses and the ranch,” Newton recalled. “Everyone always thought the walls were to keep people out, but really they were to keep us in.”
Home to more than 60 Arabian horses and several exotic animals, including penguins, wallabies and a curious Capuchin monkey named Boo, guests can now tour Newton’s lush Casa de Shenandoah grounds by booking one of several guided tours available Monday through Saturday. Depending on the type of tour booked, guests will be able to enter the barn, walk through Newton’s childhood home and tour his breathtaking two-story mansion, which houses several hidden rooms and priceless pieces of art—including a painting Margaret Keane made specifically for Newton.
See Wayne Newton’s Arabian horses up close during a guided tour
Guests will also get to watch an Arabian horse demonstration or see one of Newton’s horses swim in the private horse pool and visit the Wayne Newton Museum, which details Newton’s career and history performing for the troops. The museum includes Newton’s luxury automobile collection, too, and his old private jet, in which guests can take a picture while seated in the cockpit.
“The cars and animals were my decision [to include], but my wife gets full credit for the museum,” Newton stated when asked about the tours. “I felt too close to be objective, so I called upon my wife, who is not only an attorney but also an incredible interior decorator, to put it together piece by piece.”
While the museum has hundreds of items on display, including letters from former presidents and costumes his mother made for him when he was just four years old, Newton said there are “100,000 other things” still in storage, so he keeps adding things as he finds them. “I’m a bit of a packrat,” Newton stated with a laugh.
“We may have opened the Wayne Newton Museum, but the truth of the matter is the museum is anything but,” Newton humbly stated. “There’s stuff about Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Jack Benny on display. People constantly have been sending me things over the years that have nothing to do with me, but we wanted to include them to show others the history of Las Vegas.”
Although Newton and his family no longer live on the property, Newton still visits daily to walk the barn and check on the animals whenever he’s in town.
“It’s the first thing I used to do when I’d come home from work and I still do it today,” Newton said. “It gives me a sense of peacefulness that allows me to go to sleep. It’s my place to get away.”
Fans can also see Newton performing in his new show at Bally’s Las Vegas, “Wayne Newton: Up Close and Personal,” which Newton said is different from anything he’s ever done.
“If people want to hear a song, I’ll do it. If they have a question, I’ll answer it,” he said of the intimate 398-seat production. ”I want to show people [the type of show that]made Las Vegas.”
Wayne's World Casino Entertainment
Always a champion of the city, Newton may joke that the only reason he’s Mr. Las Vegas is because he wouldn’t leave, but the truth of the matter is that he’s Las Vegas’ biggest fan. In fact, memorabilia from his favorite Las Vegas memory—which just happened in April—was recently added to the museum’s collection.
Show costumes
“I was very honored to be asked to help open up the new T-Mobile Arena,” Newton said. “I asked myself, ‘What kind of show should I do for 20,000 people?’ and decided to write a show that pays tribute to the performers who made Las Vegas what it is. I closed my segment with ‘My Way’ as a tribute to Frank Sinatra, and as I looked out into the crowd as a single spotlight shone down on me, 20,000 people turned on their cell phone lights. There’s a picture of that moment and it’s the most incredible picture I’ve ever seen. I’m not a crier, but I actually teared up when I saw it, and I called Barbara Sinatra and told her I had a gift for her. If she ever thought her husband’s influence has waned, I wanted her to have that picture. She cried just hearing about it.”
Fans will see a copy of that photograph inside the museum and learn more about Newton and the lives he’s touched during a short introductory video on him and Casa de Shenandoah that’s shown before every tour. For more information, visit casadeshenandoah.com and for tickets to “Wayne Newton: Up Close and Personal,” visit ballyslasvegas.com.