Film sponsors: Spoof me, please

“RATS!” is not something most national restaurant chains would choose to have shouted about their eateries in a movie. Yet after reviewing the characters and concept about 18 months ago for what would become “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” marketing executives with Applebee’s International Inc. greenlighted the idea.

During a scene at an Applebee’s, the title character’s alcoholic father is bounced for boorish behavior. In sour grapes fashion, the drunk retaliates by declaring that the restaurant that epitomizes Middle American casual dining has an active rodent population. The charge is obviously groundless, and in the context of the summer comedy, very funny.

“We couldn’t believe Applebee’s let us use that because we literally say ‘Applebee’s has rats!’ ” said Adam McKay, the film’s director, who also co-wrote the script with Will Ferrell.

Many an image-conscious corporation might have shied away from a similar joke at its expense, but Applebee’s executives quickly realized, as so many other companies did, the unique marketing opportunity presented by the sendup of NASCAR and its 75 million rabid fans.

“I think the audience is sophisticated enough to see this is a Will Ferrell parody and that it’s all over-the-top and in good fun,” said Shannon Scott, Applebee’s executive director of creative services, who consulted with the film’s producers. “We’re always looking for innovative ways to get in front of consumers, and, needless to say, we were thrilled to be included in the movie.”

Moviegoers will quickly discover how many other companies were equally thrilled to climb aboard the “Talladega Nights” turbo-charged bandwagon, which took full advantage of NASCAR’s rich tradition of sponsorship. The film whose stars are literally draped in advertisements and whose dialogue is peppered with product endorsements stands as a logo-pasted, decal-covered monument to cross-promotion and marketing that has few equals in Hollywood history.

The forces behind the blitz began gathering last summer at a Chicago racetrack where NASCAR officials along with the film’s producers pitched more than two dozen of its top sponsors about the possibility of riding shotgun with Ricky Bobby. The idea, long before the script was finalized, was to get sponsors to sign on and then identify places in the film that would maximize attention for their product.

“It was a marathon of meetings,” said Sarah Nettinga, NASCAR’s managing director of film, television and music and entertainment. “We pitched the movie, we pitched the content, and then they’d ask us questions. ‘What if you had the character doing X? Or what if they did Y?’ And if it made sense and it worked in the story, then it might get in.”

Sprint Nextel Corp. execs liked what they heard. Their company’s signs are plastered all over the film’s racetrack sequences, just as it would be at a real NASCAR event.

“It doesn’t jump out at you as obtrusive because that’s what you see at the track,” said Angie Read, a Sprint Nextel spokeswoman. “In almost any other movie, the brand placement would have seem forced, but in this case, no one can blame us for being in your face, because that’s what it’s really like.”

But Sprint didn’t put the brakes on there. The Reston, Va.-based company also enlisted Ferrell to appear -- in character as Ricky Bobby -- in nationwide commercials. A series of video shorts are available as mobile content on Sprint phones and to TiVo subscribers.

“Originally we had just one commercial scripted for Will,” Read said. “But with his creative genius, he ad-libbed that into three separate spots. We got so much more than we anticipated.”

While the presence of NASCAR sponsors like Sprint and Old Spice lend an air of authenticity to the film, other companies were courted primarily to rattle the audience laugh meter. In the film, Ricky Bobby’s archrival is a Frenchman who is sponsored by the bottled water company Perrier. In another scene, which mocks the absurd level of NASCAR sponsorship, Bobby’s windshield is pasted with a Fig Newton logo -- one that not surprisingly obscures his vision and leads to a crash.

“It’s was already in the script, and our Fig Newton brand team signed off on it,” said Laurie Guzzinati, a spokeswoman for Kraft Foods Inc. “When we look at product placement overall, we want something that illustrates the iconic status of our products.”

Interstate Bakeries Corp., makers of Wonder Bread, were highly sought after by the filmmakers for its comic value. In a gentle swipe at the sport’s largely white-bread fan base, the product becomes Ricky Bobby’s main sponsor and because of that enjoys a very high profile. But the filmmakers weren’t sure that the bread-making company, which isn’t involved in NASCAR and is rarely portrayed in movies, would agree.

“It was just like, ‘Please let us use this because it makes us laugh so hard,’ ” McKay said.

Perhaps the film’s biggest marketing coup belongs to Applebee’s. After the restaurant chain consented to the earlier scene, the filmmakers asked another favor -- if they could use a commercial to break up a rather lengthy car crash scene.

“They said they needed some levity,” said Applebee’s Scott. The commercial, which ran last Christmas and advertises a “steak and shrimp” special, may be the most in-your-face ad ever in a movie.

“This really is unprecedented,” Scott said. “I’ve never seen someone go to full screen in a big film like this. You can’t put a price on that.”

Though each agreement with the various featured products varied, none involved a money exchange between advertiser and filmmakers, say those close to the project. However, NASCAR’s Nettinga did earn an executive producer credit for her role in coordinating sponsorships.

So far, it looks like not only will Ricky Bobby be a winner at the box office -- the film is on track to gross in the $30-million range its opening weekend -- but also in NASCAR merchandising. Fueled by the massive marketing campaign, Bobby already has beaten out a host of real-life NASCAR drivers to place in the Top 10 of sales for items such as T-shirts, key chains, shot glasses and the like. And, after the movie opens, it wouldn’t surprise NASCAR executives if Bobby zooms to the head of the pack.

Times staff writer Rachel Abramowitz contributed to this report.