• Los Angeles Times, Friday, June 1, 2007 12 PM

Advertisers have begun to invest directly in independent movie productions in the hopes of striking deep connections with film audiences. The companies view the investments as a way to promote a lifestyle, rather than a brand. Gatorade quietly put up $3 million for the production of "Gracie," a story about a girls soccer team that is coming out this weekend, for example.

Unilever brand Dove has agreed to invest $3 million--about one-fifth of the budget--into "The Women," the first theatrical movie by Diane English, the creative force behind the hit television series "Murphy Brown." It plans to launch a marketing campaign for "The Women" that plays off of its "Campaign for Real Beauty."

Some Hollywood executives, however, are skeptical that corporate financing will grow into a broader movement. They point to the experience of PepsiCo Inc.'s Mountain Dew, which invested nearly $4 million in the snowboarding documentary "First Descent." The film grossed only $988,368 in worldwide ticket sales, although Mountain Dew was less interested in making a box-office profit than reaching a specific demographic: snowboarders.

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