Season 1, Episode 4 when Luis is looking for his SNL tape
I was a PA on a (very bad) movie and got tasked with “greeking” (I forgot why it was called that) the products in the kitchen. The one I was most proud of was making faux Tostitos…Fostitos…
What am I looking at here?
Soda can that looks like it has BOBOB or something written on it. It was a soda brand (that I think is now defunct) called Surge. As for why it was done that’s both more complicated and stupid. In many cases brands are obscured because studios tried to extort payments from their owners for “advertising” and the company refused. In other cases companies may have requested to have their product removed due to the content of the show or movie, although usually it’s the former reason.
The other reason is that movies/shows don’t want to SEEM like they’re advertising a brand.
Ah, I see it. Thanks!
BOB
BOBOB? BOBOB!
hey yall, im a props master, builder, set dresser in the film industry for the last six years.
thats called “greeking” which is used to cover up brands that a film or studio may or may not have the rights to, to avoid copyright, or associating the brand itself with something they may not want to be associated with, and then getting sued for it. (for example i recently worked on a film about a domestic terrorist, and coca cola wanted nothing to do with it. so we either had to turn labels for all of their brands, cover them with fake labels, or edit them in post, or blurr them in the background, etc)
you may be wondering why its called “greeking” and the answer is back in the old days they would remove or scratch off certain letters (we still do this sometimes) until you could look at it and say “its all greek to me” meaning you couldnt understand what it said.
Goddamn, I loved Surge. RIP. SUUUUUURGE!!
