Google has lent its homepage to promote a movie—the upcoming comedy film “The Internship” got a huge marketing support from the web giant, which placed the announcement of the Google+Hangout with the film’s co-stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson right beneath the search box on its main page, Google.com. The movie tells a story of two laid-off forty-something men, who are interns at a successful internet company (apparently Google), where their managers are in their 20s.
Pic.: A snapshot of the announcement of «The Internship» Hangout, Google.com
The Google+ Hangout was hosted by Conan O’Brien yesterday, February 13, and the users, who joined it, were the first to see the official trailer of the film, slated for a June 7 release in the USA. In general, the film depicts the workplace culture at Google and is set there. The movie was shot at the company’s Mountain View campus for three days only, while most of the filming was done at Georgia Tech. Google’s spirit can be smelled both in the film and around it—for instance, the promotional materials feature the company’s highly recognizable search box, font and multicolored lettering, too (this can be seen in the poster). With this, Google (which has not contributed to the project financially) is not afraid of looking somewhat comic—“The Internship” pokes fun at the company’s famous nap pods and other things, which are associated with the tech giant’s corporate culture.
“We’re excited that Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson chose the Google campus as a backdrop for their first film together since Wedding Crashers. We’re sure they’ll have a humorous take on life in Silicon Valley and look forward to seeing the result,” commented Google bosses in a statement.
Ad Age notes that Google previously used its Hangouts platform mostly to “promote its own products,” for “political advocacy” (when the company protested the anti-piracy SOPA bill before Congress) and host interviews with celebrities. The company also often employs this virtual space to launch “hangouts” with politicians (by the way, the announcement of “The Internship” Hangout was soon replaced with a political-themed one).