was James bond movies advertising for walther firearms?

Question

Me and a buddy of mine were talking about the old james bond movies here recently....and had the Idea that maybe they were a sort of advertising campaign for Walthers handguns at the time. Isnt it strange how even non gun enthusiast know what a walther ppk is every time. just like everybody knows what a ak 47 is when they see it. just a thought...whats your take?

Answer 1

So, as others have said, it came from Ian Fleming who wrote the original Bond stories and had him in a Walther PPK. Oddly enough that was not his first weapon. In the books he ran a suppressed Beretta .25, and when needed for more power a Smith and Wesson Centennial Airweight in .38 special.



The way the Walther even came into the picture was that at the end of the book "From Russia With Love" his Beretta suppressor gets stuck on the draw from the shoulder holster leading him to get kicked by Rosa Kleb with a poisoned tip shoe.



It's in the next book that M forces him to go to the PPK where the .32 ACP caliber is called a "man stopper".



Now, in the newer movies I am sure that Walther has something in the mix to keep Bond in a Walther firearm. The newer books written by authors OTHER than Ian Fleming have gone hog wild with what he carries. A Browning Hi Power, an H&K VP70, whatever. In the new movies he's, so far, run a P99 and the PPK/S - I think he mentions something about the .380 cartridge. Evidently in the new movie he will be running the PPK, so he seems to be regressing back to the original books with regard to armament.



Thinkingblade

Answer 2

The PPK found its way into Bond’s hands based on a bit of fan correspondence. Geoffrey Boothroyd first wrote to Ian Fleming in 1956, shortly before the publication of From Russia With Love.



He told Fleming that he loved the novels, but hated Bond’s choice of weapons and the Beretta .25 in particular, an easily concealed pocket pistol with the drawback of shooting a very light round – a “lady’s gun”, Boothroyd informed Fleming.



Fleming had initially assigned Bond the .25 pistol on the basis of his own espionage work during the Second World War, but Boothroyd suggested that the PPK would be a better choice. It was only slightly larger, packed more of a wallop, and the ammunition for it was in widespread use.



This was one of several firearms criticisms that resulted in Boothroyd becoming the basis for the armourer, the character who developed into the much loved Q of the movies.

Answer 3

No.



Ian Fleming wrote the books with James Bond carrying a Walther. That's the only reason he always carries Walthers in the movies. Just like many real individuals, James Bond had a personal preference.



Oh, and for the most part, the books are significantly better than the movies. Put down the marijuana and go read a book, instead of using it for rolling paper. Your paranoid delusions are getting worse.

Answer 4

The movies cost many millions of dollars more than Walther makes in profit, so they for sure were not made purely as advertising. I would think if they paid for product placement they would show the gun better too.



While it is quite likely they get some money from various brands in the more recent movies, I don't think it was in the intent of Ian Flemming to push certain products. I think he researched what he thought was cool and wrote it in. At the time he wrote the first books, German engineering was pretty highly sought after and the British to this day are still big on generalizing things like "The Germans make the best guns", and "The French make the best food". Due to their sense of superiority, choosing an American made gun would be a big no-no.



So for my money, I would bet Flemming picked the gun that he thought best suited his character, rather than a brand that paid him. To explain it from our perspective, what else could John Wayne carry than a Colt? Certainly not some foriegn brand.

Answer 5

The books came first and in the first 4-5 books he used a Beretta 418. In later books he used the Walthers. I doubt the author got any money for it.

Answer 6

The older movies were based on his original books.

At that time, the Walther ppk was considered a very good weapon for CONCEALMENT, ease of operation, and stopping ability IF you were proficient with it. In short, it was dependable.

Since most of the settings were in Europe, ammunition availability was another reason for the choice, as it was a popular weapon.

Answer 7

The term is "Product placement." Companies pay films to place items or cars in the film for Ad publistity. Since you mentioned Bond, The Beer company Heineken Actually paid several million to the next James Bond film to replace his tradmark Martini with a beer.

http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7mhvUjlQX1wA3h9XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1YjNuOGxzBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA01TWTAwNV8xMjY-/SIG=1393ndcii/EXP=1345962735/**http%3a//www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/heineken-prepares-james-bond-push/4003241.article



http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7mhvUjlQX1wA2x9XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1b3E2Zm8zBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA01TWTAwNV8xMjY-/SIG=13jka88fg/EXP=1345962735/**http%3a//www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/james-bond-heineken-deal-george-lazenby_n_1538935.html

Answer 8

it seems it wasn't intentional advertising... not knowing much about James Bond (i saw some of the older stuff and it just wasn't cool or better than modern action-packed movies) I honestly thought it was just a regional handgun type of deal, like if you go to east Asia everyone packs a tokarev, go to Russia it's a mix of makarovs, in the Middle east (and other impoverished/unstable areas of the world) everyone's got AK's & Mosins, in the US/north america it's M16's and Glock, 1911.



Europe got this thing for small caliber, reminiscent of soviet-era little handguns, smgs- like the P-64 and the vz-61 scorpion. so Bond, being an Englishman, well I thought that's just a in readily available regional type handgun. it would look odd if he had a very american 1911.

Answer 9

I always thought somebody with a warped sense of humor made his popgun PPK the weapon of choice as you would have to throw the pistol at somebody to make a dent in them. Now Dirty Harry packed a real macho stopper; a big honking 44 mag with a long barrel that shook the ground when it went off. Could you imagine any of Harry's opponents even being slightly intimidated by a PPK?