I was channel surfing the other night and caught a minute or two of a
> movie allegedly set in Chicago. In front of Wrigley Field, on the
> Addison Street side, with the famous red marquee in the background, one
> of the main characters was making a call from a Verizon pay phone! Who
> knew? Not subtle either. Big logo with the checkmark and the red Z.
> C'mon guys, if you're going to do product placement at least place it > where it lives.
Unless the film was supposed to be 20 years ago the possibility that it could be something other than Illinois Bell or Ameritech is very real. I was in MSP (Minneapolis/St. Paul airport) and all throughout the airport the pay phones were Ameritech when the local provider in the twin cities is Qwest. So it is possible that Verizon could be a "COCOT" contracted by Wrigley Field or the property owner.
That said many film companies aren't really very good about telephone "authenticity" when you'll see someone depositing money into a single slot "fortress" pay phone and you'll hear "ding-ding" when they insert coins (ding-ding went out when three slot payphones went out.) Or when you see an older film showing a 'candlestick' or old WECO 302 have the ringing sound of a WECO 500 or showing a British series and they use American telephones. The assumption is that people do not notice these inaccuracies (except us telecom nerds of course!)