Brandhunter

I saw a petition going around asking Netflix to finally make season 3 of Mindhunter. I doubt that will happen considering how costly that show was to produce, but I would love to see it.

It did jog my memory that I had started and never shipped a little project I intended to call “Brandhunter.” Like other Netflix shows, Mindhunter had some pretty intense product placement. Much more fun to spot in this show though, with really detailed 1970s and ’80s era design and packaging.

I ended up tracking all the brands that pop up—from many defunct companies and plenty of still thriving ones. I appreciated the more subtle world building some brands provided, but I especially loved the record scratch, take-you-out-of-the-scene product placement.

Maybe if they make a season 3, I’ll end up shipping this project for real, but in the meantime here are a few of my faves:

a group of guys at a gym, a vintage metal Igloo coolor off to the side Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford sitting in a dark room, his face illuminated by a giant Pepsi logo on a vending machine behind him Holden sits at a kitchen table next to a box of Cheerios Holt McCallany as Bill Tench lights a cigarette outside while holding a yellow vintage Coleman cooler Tench walks through the airport and passes a Coca-Cola advertisement that says “Have a COke and a smile” Anna Torv as Wendy Carr in a dark bar with a neon Miller High Life sign behind her, the sign is more centered in the shot than she is Holden interviews an inmate and can of Coke sits on the table Joe Tuttle as Gregg Smith doing paperwork and a green can of Sprite sits on the table Stacey Roca as Nancy Tench grabs a brown paper JC Penney bag a hand irons a shirt in the dark and a nearby lamp illuminates a can of boiled peanuts and two Pringles containers a man is making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Skippy and Wonder Bread a technician sits in a surveillance van next to a weirdly placed box of Bugles