Why is much of 'Resident Evil' trailer a shill for Sony gadgets?

Some are aghast that half of the new "Resident Evil: Retribution" trailer consists of a slightly banal presentation of various Sony products, but is this an attempt at meta-cleverness?

Maybe it went something like this.

"It's 'Resident Evil: Retribution,'" said the Sony marketing department. "It's kind of cool. Well, coolish. So why don't we showcase some Sony products in there? Just to make them seem, you know, kind of cool?"

The trailer-makers' pinched faces failed to hide their inner aghastness. Somewhere, they believed this series to be high art. This was a glorious video game brought to celluloid life. Five times. Or, wait, was this, "Resident Evil: Retribution," the sixth?

They couldn't remember. Making movies and then making ads about movies takes up so much of your mental energy that you lose track of, well, everything.

Naturally, the marketing department won. They were fresher. They were smarter. They had the higher heels and the longer whips.

So the trailer-makers thought: "OK. We'll feature all these Sony products in an ad, just like at the beginning of earlier 'Resident Evil' trailers. But the cool thing here is that those Sony products will look a little cliched, naff--as they say in the United Kingdom--because that's the only way we'll make the movie look sexy."

They made the trailer. Indeed, most of the first half looks like a very cliched Sony ad, despite featuring such fine gadgets as the new PS Vita.

"Resident Evil" fans were aghast when they saw it today.

They railed against this blatant commercial exploitation of Milla Jovovich's acting skills. They howled about Sony stuffing its gadgets down the throats of movie goers, whose mouths were open merely because they were so excited about the movie.

But the question remains whether Sony's marketing department is full of clever people. Might they sneakily think that slipping their products into this trailer is just so very meta?

The logic would float like this: "We want to make our products look cool. We know they'll not look cool in this trailer. But that just goes to show how cool we are and how cool our products are, right?"

Might there even be little details in there that offer subtle, wise clues to those who find them?

Or might someone with precious little taste have demanded that the products be rammed in, regardless of the coolness of the context?

Because that does happen sometimes.


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