Not a bad idea, from a marketing standpoint. Get some of that sweet, God, ducks and pick-up trucks money.
![gods not dead 2 songs gods not dead 2 songs](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7UKKUb6wIxY/maxresdefault.jpg)
My first thought was, maybe Toyota is trying to change the kinds of associations people have with Priuses, to reach beyond their typical audience.
#GODS NOT DEAD 2 SONGS MOVIE#
But… the Prius? The vehicle of choice for upper middle class moms with “Coexist” bumper stickers wanted to sponsor a movie based on right-wing email forwards, the Reefer Madness for paranoid fundamentalists? I too assumed this was product placement, and pretty blatant at that. (The movie is also weirdly preoccupied with men’s black leather dress shoes.) Product placement isn’t dead, either Priuses make repeated, strangely emphatic and name-droppy appearances for reasons I cannot divine but that may have something to do with film-production tax breaks.
In her review for Flavorwire, Alissa Wilkinson writes: He mentions his Prius early on, and then later, at a meeting with some fellow pastors, they ask him, “Hey, Pastor Dave, still got that Prius?” And he’s like, “Yep, runs great!” and practically winks at the camera. Then there’s the pastor character, played by Pure Flix co-founder and God’s Not Dead 2 producer David AR White, a lumpy Dutchboy who looks like he moonlights in a Nickelback cover band. These assumptions proved incorrect, one of the movie’s few surprises. At which point maybe she’d trade her Prius in for a Dodge and join. I assumed this character would become an antagonist, some smug, big-city librul who’d show up to get taught a lesson, or find Jesus and learn one. In one of the first scenes, a cancer-surviving blogger played by Trisha LaFache (I wouldn’t even know where to start trying to explain this character) drives around in her Prius, dictating blog posts into her phone (which is definitely a realistic thing for a person to do).
#GODS NOT DEAD 2 SONGS FULL#
In a movie that’s otherwise full of the kind of predictable pandering we’re used to (Christian rock rules! The ACLU guy hates Marines!), there are at least three scenes that felt like Prius product placement. But in a surprising twist, the Toyota Prius gets even more screen time.
![gods not dead 2 songs gods not dead 2 songs](https://outreach.com/media/print/product/product_images/HB1759809_m.jpg)
In some ways, the sequel still does, and God’s Not Dead 2 includes a Duck Dynasty shout-out during the jury selection scene, as I noted in my review. They had a promotional partnership with the Duck Dynasty guys, your prototypical, pick-up-drivin’ good ol’ boys. The God’s Not Dead films used to fit easily into this tradition. (He also broke a shin trying to leg out a triple in softball, but that’s neither here nor there.) There’s a long tradition of “faith-based” filmmakers pandering to the American South, to “the heartland,” to “flyover states,” to anyone Republican politicians like to refer to as “the real America.” Heaven is for Real is a typical example, featuring many ( many) shots of the protagonist driving his beat-up pick-up truck through sun-drenched fields of amber wheat.
#GODS NOT DEAD 2 SONGS UPDATE#
UPDATE Thursday PM: Turns out, initial comment from Toyota was mistaken, and there was indeed a product placement deal with God’s Not Dead 2.