007 First Light’s Land Rover ads cross the line from product placement to late-night infomercials

James Bond is a man of luxury. He wears the finest suits, drives the fastest cars, and his skin is Egyptian cotton. He smells like sandalwood and his pockets jingle with exotic foreign money. Every morning he wakes up next to a new porcelain starlet and washes down designer drugs with Nolet’s Reserve. The National Health Service disconnects 400 grandparents from life support every year so that the British government can afford to maintain him.

In Bond films, the outward sign of this inner luxury is products. Brands, my boy: The Rolex Submariner in Dr No, Brosnan’s BMWs, an undammable tide of Astons. It makes sense: the 20th century’s most iconic cold warrior wore capital’s symbols like his enemies might wear their Orders of Lenin—they symbolised all that he fought for. In Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s Bond fought for Sony Vaio laptops, symbolising western post-Cold War degradation better than any academic text.