Product placement
Encyclopedia
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where brand
ed goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the good or service is featured. Product placement became common in the 1990s, until the ramifications of product placement were clearly understood.
In April 2006, Broadcasting & Cable
reported, "Two thirds of advertisers employ 'branded entertainment'—product placement—with the vast majority of that (80%) in commercial TV programming." The story, based on a survey by the Association of National Advertisers
, said "Reasons for using in-show plugs varied from 'stronger emotional connection' to better dovetailing with relevant content, to targeting a specific group."
published the adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), he was a world-renowned literary giant to the extent transport and shipping companies lobbied to be mentioned in the story as it was published in serial form. If he was actually paid to do so, however, remains unknown. Product placement is still used in books to some extent, particularly in novels.
With the arrival of photo-rich periodicals in print business in the late 19th century publishers found ways of lifting their paper's reputation by placing an actual copy of the magazine in photographs of prominent people. For example the German magazine Die Woche in 1902 printed an article about a countess in her castle where she in one of the photographs actually holds a copy of Die Woche in her hands.
Recent scholarship in film and media studies has drawn attention to the fact that product placement was a common feature of many of the earliest actualities
and cinematic attractions that characterized the first ten years of cinema history
Harrison's Reports
published its first denunciation of that practice with respect to Red Crown gasoline appearing in the comedy film
The Garage
(1919), directed by and co-starring Fatty Arbuckle
.
During the next four decades, Harrison's Reports frequently cited cases of on-screen brand-name products, always condemning the practice as harmful to movie theaters. Publisher P. S. Harrison
’s editorials strongly reflected his feelings against product placement in films. An editorial in Harrison’s Reports criticized the collaboration between the Corona Typewriter company and First National Pictures when a Corona typewriter appeared in the film The Lost World
(1925). Harrison's Reports published several incidents about Corona typewriters appearing in films of the mid-1920s.
, and there are strong reasons for investors to expect that film product placement will increase consumer awareness of a particular brand. A big-budget feature film that has expectations of grossing millions may attract many commercial interests; however, the film studio must also analyze if a product fits with the image of the film. A high-profile star may draw more attention to a product, and therefore, in many cases, this becomes a separate point of negotiation within his or her contract. Firms paid $722 million in fees, free product placement, and promotional support for film placement in 2005, and by 2010, spending on film placement is predicted to surge to 1.8 billion. In 2002, Volkswagen spent a estimated $200 million in fees to be integrated into NBC Universal films.
Among the famous silent film
s to feature product placement was Wings
(1927), the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture
. It contained a plug for Hershey's
chocolate.
In Fritz Lang's film "M
" released in (1931) there is a prominent banner display on a stair case in one scene for Wrigley's PK Chewing Gum which is right in the viewers eye for around 20-30 seconds.
Another early example in film occurs in Horse Feathers
(1932) where Thelma Todd
's character falls out of a canoe and into a river. She calls for a life saver and Groucho Marx
's character tosses her a Life Savers
candy.
The film It's a Wonderful Life
(1946), directed by Frank Capra
, depicts a young boy with aspirations to be an explorer, displaying a prominent copy of National Geographic.
In the film Love Happy
(1949), Harpo Marx
's character cavorts on a rooftop among various billboards and at one point escapes from the villains on the old Mobil
logo, the "Flying Red Horse". Harrison's Reports severely criticized this scene in its film review and in a front-page editorial of the same issue.
In the film noir
Gun Crazy
(1949), the climactic crime is the payroll robbery of the Armour
meat-packing plant, where a Bulova
clock is prominently seen.
In other early media, e.g., radio
in the 1930s and 1940s and early television
in the 1950s, television program
s were often underwritten
by companies. "Soap opera
s" are called such because they were initially underwritten by consumer, packaged-goods companies such as Procter & Gamble
or Unilever
. When television began to displace radio, DuMont's
Cavalcade of Stars television show was, in its era, notable for not relying on a sole Sponsor (commercial) in the tradition of NBC
's Texaco Star Theater
and similar productions. Sponsorship exists today with programs being sponsored by major vendors such as Hallmark Cards
.
The conspicuous display of Studebaker
motor vehicles in the television series Mr. Ed (1961–1966), which was sponsored by the Studebaker Corporation from 1961 to 1963, is another example of product placement.
Incorporation of products into the actual plot of a film or television show is generally called "brand integration".
An early example of such "brand integration" was by Abercrombie & Fitch
when one of its stores provided the notional venue for part of the romantic comedy
film Man's Favourite Sport? (1964) starring Rock Hudson
and Paula Prentiss
.
The 1995 film GoldenEye
was the focus of a highly successful BMW
campaign, devised by product placement specialist Karen Sortito
, which promoted the automaker's new Z3
model. Sales of the Z3 surged as film claimed the top spot at the box office. For the next film in the James Bond franchise
, Tomorrow Never Dies
, Sortito created a $100 million promotional campaign that included tie-ins with BMW, Visa, L'Oréal
, Ericsson
, Heineken
, Avis
, and Omega SA. The film brought in more than $300 million dollars.
A recent example is HBO's Sex and the City
(1998–2004), where the plot revolved around, among other things, Absolut Vodka
, a campaign upon which one of the protagonists was working, and a billboard in Times Square
, where a bottle prevented an image of the model from being pornographic
. Knight Rider (1982–1986), a television series featuring a talking Pontiac Trans Am, is another example of brand integration.
An early example of product placement in a video game is in 1982's Pole Position which has billboards along the track for other Atari Games. In Pole Position II the in-game billboards were paid adverts for Dentine gum and some other items. A later example occurs in Action Biker
(1984) for Skips
crisps
, a product by KP Snacks
. More recently, Crazy Taxi
(1999), featured real retail stores as game destinations. However, sometimes the economics are reversed and video-game makers pay for the rights to use real sports teams and players. Today, product placement in online video is also becoming common. Online agencies are specializing in connecting online video producers, which are usually individuals, with brands and advertisers.
, has promoted its parent company's own Sky News
channel through including it as a plot device when characters are viewing news broadcasts of breaking events. The newscaster or reporter in the scene will usually state that the audience is viewing Sky News, and reports from other channels are not shown. One notable example is the film Independence Day
(1996)
Columbia Pictures
uses or mention Sony
products like VAIO
computers or BRAVIA
televisions in their movies.
s as well, from professional sports
to college sports, and even on the local level with high school sports. This can be attributed to sports being prevalent on television
, which increases exposure to these products.
The Green Monster
at Fenway Park
in Boston
, Massachusetts
, was originally built to have such advertisements, but since 1947 has largely been devoid of such advertisements. The Citgo sign overlooking Fenway Park can also be considered a form of product placement, despite the Boston Red Sox
having a sponsorship deal with Gulf Oil
.
Outside of baseball
(which had long had sponsors), product placement in sports began to rise in the 1970s, when NASCAR
began to allow sponsors to cover the cars they were sponsoring with their logos. (For instance, STP
was a longtime sponsor for Richard Petty
.) This has subsequently followed with the uniforms the drivers themselves wear having sponsor logos. The Arena Football League
, NFL Europe
, and several association football leagues eventually allowed sponsors of the uniforms.
The National Hockey League
began allowing sponsors to line along the interior walls of the ice rinks in the early 1980s. This, combined with new rules mandating players to wear helmets (though some were grandfathered
), arguably gave the NHL a different look in the 1980s than compared with the 1970s.
(NFL) has long been more stringent. For instance, the league prohibits logos of sponsors painted onto the fields, although Gillette Stadium
in Foxborough
, Massachusetts, does have a disposable razor painted onto the field in honor of naming-rights
sponsor Gillette. In 2008, the league allowed sponsors on the practice jerseys of the uniforms, but not the game-worn uniforms.
The NFL's strict policy contradicts several other policies on the uniforms. In 1991, the league allowed the individual uniform suppliers to display their logo on the products they made in conjunction with the rest of the sports world, and since 2002, Reebok
has been the official uniform supplier for the entire league.
In addition, two of the league's flagship teams—the Green Bay Packers
and the Pittsburgh Steelers
—adopted some form of their identity from corporate sponsors. The Packers adopted the nickname "Packers" because they were sponsored by the Indian Packing Company
, and later had "ACME PACKERS" written on their uniforms in the early 1920s after the Acme Packing Company bought Indian Packing. The Steelers adopted their current logo in 1962 as a product-placement deal with the American Iron and Steel Institute
, which owned the rights to the Steelmark
logo. The Steelers later were allowed to add "-ers" to the Steelmark logo the following year so that they could own a trademark
on the logo.
Going the other way, the league has been shown to place itself as the product. NFL Japan was a sponsor of the football themed anime
series Eyeshield 21
, which ran for 145 TV episodes and a handful of specials.
Sometimes, product usage is negotiated rather than paid for. Some placements provide productions with below-the-line savings, with products such as props, clothes and cars being loaned for the production's use, thereby saving them purchase or rental fees. Barter systems (the director/actor/producer wants one for himself) and service deals (cellular phones provided for crew use, for instance) are also common practices. Producers may also seek out companies for product placements as another savings or revenue stream for the movie, with, for example, products used in exchange for help funding advertisements tied-in with a film's release, a show's new season or other event.
A variant of product placement is advertisement placement. In this case an advertisement for the product (rather than the product itself) is seen in the movie or television series. Examples include a Lucky Strike
cigarette advertisement on a billboard
or a truck with a milk advertisement on its trailer.
Another variant is the widespread use of promotional consideration in which a television game show
would award an advertiser's product as a prize or consolation prize in return for a subsidy from the product's manufacturer.
and more demonstrative qualitative
systems used to determine the cost and effective media value of a placement. Rating systems measure the type of placement and on-screen exposure is gauged by audience recall rates. Products might be featured but hardly identifiable, clearly identifiable, long or recurrent in exposure, associated with a main character, verbally mentioned and/or they may play a key role in the storyline. Media values are also weighed over time, depending on a specific product's degree of presence in the market.
because advertisers continue to use product placement as a marketing strategy. However, some consumer groups such as Commercial Alert
object to the practice as "an affront to basic honesty" that they claim is too common in today's society. Commercial Alert asks for full disclosure of all product-placement arrangements, arguing that most product placements are deceptive and not clearly disclosed. It advocates notification before and during television programs with embedded advertisements. One justification for this is to allow greater parental control for children, whom it claims are easily influenced by product placement.
The Writers Guild of America
, a trade union representing authors of television scripts, had raised objections in 2005 that its members are forced to write ad copy disguised as storyline on the grounds that "the result is that tens of millions of viewers are sometimes being sold products without their knowledge, sold in opaque, subliminal ways and sold in violation of government regulations."
According to PQ Media
, a consulting firm that tracks alternative media spending, 2006 product placement was estimated at $3.1 billion rising to $5.6 billion in 2010. However, these figures are somewhat misleading in PQ Media's view in that today, many product-placement and brand-integration deals are a combination of advertising and product placement. In these deals, the product placement is often contingent upon the purchase of advertising revenues. When the product placement that is bundled with advertising is allocated to part of the spending, PQ Media estimates that product placement is closer to $7 billion in value, rising to $10 billion by 2010.
In a June 2010 research report, "PQ Media Global Branded Entertainment Marketing Forecast," the research firm reported that paid product placement spending – in television, films, internet, video games and other media – declined in 2009 for the first time in tracked history, as spending decreased 2.8% to $3.61 billion due to severe reductions in brand marketers' budgets. However, paid product placement is also one of the sectors poised for the most growth, with PQ Media predicting the 2009 figures to more than double by 2014, when product placement is projected to be a $6.1 billion market.
A major driver of growth for the use of product placement is the increasing use of digital video recorder
s (DVR) such as TiVO
, which enable viewers to skip advertisements. This ad-skipping behavior increases in frequency the longer a household has owned a DVR.
s to be promoted in this way are automobiles. Frequently, all the important vehicles in a film or television series will be supplied by one manufacturer. For example, the television series The X-Files
(1993–2002) uses Ford
s, as do leading characters on the television series 24
(2001–2010).
The James Bond film series
pioneered such placement. The Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun
(1974) features extensive use of AMC cars, even in scenes in Thailand
, where AMC cars were not sold, and had the steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle for the country's roads. The two prior Bond films use vehicles from Ford or its subsidiaries.
Almost every car was made by General Motors
in the films Bad Boys II
(2003), The Matrix Reloaded
(2003) and Transformers (2007).
In the film XXY
(2007) all vehicles depicted are Toyotas, even though the film takes place in South America
; the film's credits acknowledge the automaker as having funded portions of the film's production.
Other times, vehicles or other products take on such key roles in the film it is as if they are another character. Nissan cars feature prominently in the television series Heroes
(2006–2010) where the logos often zoom in/out of or whole cars are shown for a few seconds at the beginning of a new scene. In the film The Matrix Reloaded, a key chase scene is conducted between a brand new Cadillac CTS
and a Cadillac Escalade EXT. The chase scene also features a Ducati motorcycle
in the getaway.
Three of the Bond films that star Pierce Brosnan
feature a BMW
car. After pressure from fans, the producers returned to using the traditional Aston Martin
, which was owned by Ford Motor Company
at the time and thus brought in more product placement.
A Ford Shelby GT500
is used extensively at the beginning of the film I Am Legend (2007) along with a Ford Expedition EL
.
In the film Taken
(2008), Liam Neeson's character drives Audi
cars, first an A3
and then an S8
in the final high-speed scene on the streets of Paris
, France
.
All the cars in the video game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
(2008) are manufactured by Dodge
.
(2006) features many Sony
product placements throughout: A BD-R disc is prominently portrayed at one time, all characters use VAIO
laptops, Sony Ericsson
cell phones and global-positioning systems
, BRAVIA
televisions, and Bond uses a Cyber-shot
camera to take photographs. (It was the first Bond film to be produced after Sony acquired the Bond franchise). In Quantum of Solace (2008), Bond, M, and Tanner are seen using a Microsoft Surface
to display information on rogue agents.
Apple frequently pays for product placement. This occurs because Apple "barters" the exchange for placement. Payment for placement is not in cash, but exchanged for product and services. (Notably, recognizable Apple products have appeared in newspaper comic strips, including Opus
, Baby Blues, Non Sequitur
, and FoxTrot, even though paid placement in comics is all but unknown.) In a twist on traditional product placement, Hewlett-Packard
computers now appear exclusively as part of photo layouts in the IKEA
catalog in addition to placing plastic models of its computers in IKEA stores, having taken over Apple's position in the Swedish furniture retailer's promotional materials several years ago. Hewlett-Packard also put their computers in the U.S. production of The Office
. Throughout the television series Smallville
(since 2001), only computers produced by Dell are used, including Alienware branded equipment and in later series the XPS range. Similarly in the series Stargate Atlantis
in first sessions all the laptops used were Dell Latitude and XPS laptops. Stargate SG1 in its last seasons switched from traditional CRT monitors in the gate-rooms to Dell-branded LCDs.
In WarGames
(1983), the use of an IMSAI 8080 desktop computer was originally proposed by Cliff McMullen of Unique Products, the same Los Angeles
product placement company that placed Reese's Pieces
in Steven Spielberg
's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
(1982). Other WarGames product placements include the main character's mother being portrayed as a real estate broker
at the behest of marketers at Century 21
.
In the film Splash
(1984), a television set blares advertisements for (now-defunct) electronics retailer Crazy Eddie
and for Bloomingdale's
department store.
In the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still
(2008) various Microsoft devices—including mobile phones, laptops, and Microsoft Surface—were used.
In video games, products that most often appear are placements for processors or graphics cards. For example in EA's Battlefield 2142
, ads for Intel Core 2
processors appear on map billboards. EA's The Sims
contains in-game advertising for Intel and for McDonald's
.Rare
's Perfect Dark: zerofeatures many adds for samsung in their menu's.
In the video game F.E.A.R, all of the laptops have a Dell screensaver on them and the other computers in the game also feature this screensaver. Similarly, Metal Gear Solid 4 features various Apple products such as laptop and desktop computers, as well as featuring an in-game iPod
. Most characters in this game have Sony cellular phones.
In the television series Sex and The City
, the character Carrie is shown using an Apple PowerBook G3
laptop.
In the video game Burnout Paradise
advertisements in the virtual Paradise City are placed as they may be in the real world, including travelling vans with advertisements for Gillette Fusion razors and DIESEL clothing, and on various billboards.
(1988), Minute Maid
juice is displayed; in the Back to the Future
trilogy, Pizza Hut
's products in 2015 include an instant pizza that can be hydrated for immediate consumption.
In Godzilla
(1998) Pepsi
, Hershey's
, and most prominently Taco Bell
, are featured in various scenes.
The film "One, Two, Three" (1961) Stars James Cagney
as a Coca Cola executive in West Berlin. The twist at the end is he removes a bottle of Pepsi
from a vending machine at the end of the film.
In American Idol
Coca-Cola cups are always seen on the judges' table.
In Eminem
's music video
Love the Way you Lie (2010), Stolichnaya
vodka was included in several scenes. The product placement begins with actor Dominic Monaghan
stealing
a bottle of the vodka, after which he and actress Megan Fox
drink from it on the roof of the liquor store
.
In the game Need for Speed: Most Wanted
there are several ads for Burger King
, such as bilboards and restaurants.
In addition to placing brand specific elements within the context of a given program, entire formats of media have been created to feature individual brands within the context of a genre. An example of this is The Corkscrew Diary (2006), in which this travelogue about wine and food features emerging destination estates and the wines they produce.
While the award of "an all expense-paid trip" to some destination as a game show
prize or an acknowledgement in a show's closing credits that transportation for participants was provided by a specific airline
had long been commonplace in commercial television, a more refined approach to promoting a travel destination is to assist and subsidise film production companies willing to set their story in or shoot footage on-location at the destination being promoted.
A movie set in an individual travel destination can be a valuable advertisement. According to State of Florida
film commissioner Paul Sirmons, "the movies create huge, larger-than-life ads for where they are shot. CSI: Miami
draws people from overseas to Miami. Seaside
, was put on the map by 'The Truman Show
[(1998)] Movies just keep playing year after year getting the images out there."
The television series The Love Boat
(1977–1986) was set aboard the Pacific Princess, a ship of the Princess Cruise Lines. As an advertisement, this product placement was valuable enough that printed advertisements for the line would employ the trademarked slogan
"It's more than a cruise, it's the Love Boat" until 2002.
A fictional Pan Am "Space Clipper," a commercial spaceplane called the Orion III, had a prominent role in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey
, featured in the movie's poster. The film's sequel, 2010, also featured Pan Am in a background television commercial in the home of David Bowman's widow. In the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica
, one of the ships in the fleet is a "Pan Galactic" or "Pan Gal" starliner. The ship bears Pan Am colors and the Pan Gal logo is nearly identical to Pan American's old logo
.
The airline's 707 appeared in several James Bond films including Dr. No
, From Russia with Love
, and Casino Royale
, while a Pan Am 747 and the Worldport appeared in Live and Let Die
. The airline's logo was featured in Licence to Kill
, where James Bond
checks in for a Pan Am flight that he ultimately does not board.
to "use Brown and Williamson tobacco products in no less than five feature films" is accessible online as part of the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
.
The James Bond film Licence to Kill
(1989) featured use of the Lark
brand of cigarette
and the producers accepted payment for that product placement. The studio's executives apparently believed that the placement triggered the American warning notice requirement for cigarette advertisements and thus the movie carried the Surgeon General's Warning
at the end credits of the film. This brought forth calls for banning such cigarette advertisements in future films. Later releases of License to Kill, especially for video and television releases, had the Lark pack replaced with a similar-looking, generic pack. Most movies, such as the youth-targeted Ramen Girl, which has a product placement for Marlboro cigarettes, omit the Surgeon General's Warning.
Reviewing previously secret tobacco advertising documents, the British Medical Journal
concluded:
shows. For example the well-known Russian television show дом-2 (phoneticly Dom-2
) (similar to Big Brother
) often features one of the participants stating something along the lines of: "Oh, did you check out the new product X by company Y yet?" after which the camera zooms in onto the named product. It has been claimed that the participants get paid for it. Recently in the United States series The Real World/Road Rules Challenge participants often state a similar line, usually pertaining to the mobile device and carrier a text message has been received.
"Extreme Makeover has several sponsors with prominent placement deals: Sears, Ford and Pella Windows to name three. Seeing the designers go off to Sears every episode and deck out the house with Kenmore appliances, is not just a sponsorship, it’s integral to the subject family getting their lives back.".
operates under a funding model in which local stations receive donations from "Viewers Like You" but do not interrupt programming directly with spot advertising. While the use of underwriting as a form of indirect advertisement ("Production [or local acquisition] of this programme is made possible by X, makers of Y") is permissible and common on non-commercial educational
stations, price comparisons or calls to action ("Buy X now, ten cents off, this week only!") of the form used by commercial television
are expressly prohibited as a condition of the station's license.
It may therefore make good business sense for an underwriter of an educational programme to obtain greater visibility through a form of promotional consideration in which (for instance) a manufacturer of woodworking tools could, instead of merely donating money to fund production of a popular home-improvement show, go one step further by also providing the tools used on-air to build the individual projects.
This approach is suitable both for commercial and non-commercial television, but requires very careful targeting to match a product to a show that naturally would already use that product. A program-like commercial The Learning Channel
's Trading Spaces
is an ideal fit for a vendor such as Home Depot. Non-commercial broadcasts such as PBS's The New Yankee Workshop
would represent an ideal fit for power tool makers Porter-Cable, Delta Machinery
and Vermont-American while a program like The Red Green Show
could represent an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a manufacturer of duct tape
.
One unusual placement is American Public Television
's Classical Stretch, a long-running series of physical fitness lessons hosted by Montréal
's Miranda Esmonde-White with the first three seasons distributed by New York Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS) primary member station WPBS-TV
. As the market for physical-fitness
advice is largely saturated, Classical Stretch endeavours to differentiate itself from the many existing programmes in its genre by having everything take place outdoors, on a tropical beach
, with unobtrusive classical music
in the background. In theory, this could prohibitively increase a non-commercial program's production costs; in reality, the costs of relocating production and constructing necessary facilities are readily borne by the show's underwriters, a travel company and a luxury resort
in Riviera Maya
, Mexico
.
)
teamed with Procter & Gamble
to produce Secrets of the Mountain
and The Jensen Project
, both family-oriented
, television films which feature the characters using Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble- branded products. The Jensen Project also features a preview of a not-then-released Kinect, the new motion controller
for microsoft
's Xbox 360
.
n football comic Supa Strikas
uses product placement within its pages to promote a variety of brands, and allow for the comic's free distribution to its readers around the world. Product placement occurs throughout the publication; on the players' shirts, through placed billboards and signage, and through the branding of locations or scenarios.
Globally, Supa Strikas receives the majority of its support from Chevron
, which sponsors the comic series through its Caltex
and Texaco
brands. These brands are displayed as the shirt sponsors for the Supa Strikas team across Southern Africa
, Central America
, Egypt
and Malaysia.
In other markets—where Chevron lacks a presence—other headline brands sponsor the team's kit, including Visa in Kenya
, Uganda
and Tanzania
; GTBank
in Nigeria
; and Henkel
's Loctite
brand in Brazil
. In addition, other brands also receive advertising in the comics and animation, with their logos included as both billboard and background advertising, and through the branding of locations and scenarios. These companies include Metropolitan Life, Nike
, Spur Steak Ranches and the South African National Roads Agency
, among others.
This innovative approach to comic publication has seen the brand grow dramatically over the last few years, with Supa Strikas now reaching an estimated ten million readers a week worldwide. Today, the comic is available across Africa
(Botswana
, Cameroon
, Egypt
, Ghana
, Kenya, Mauritius
, Namibia
, Nigeria, Réunion
, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia
); in Latin America (Brazil, Colombia
, El Salvador
, Guatemala
, Honduras
and Panama
); in Europe (Finland
, Norway
and Sweden
); and Asia (Malaysia).
The Supa Strikas model has shown considerable successes, leading to the creation of a number of other titles which use the same system. These include cricket comic Supa Tigers, which is distributed in India
and Pakistan
, and Strike Zone, a baseball comic based in Panama
.
A recent popularity of product placement in music videos and actual song lyrics can be accredited to The Kluger Agency
. Due to the repetitive nature of a popular song and its effects on pop culture as a whole, Product Placement or what the music industry calls "Brand Partnerships" are becoming a more effective way to create a trend practically overnight.
In January 2009, an album Migra Corridos with five songs including accordion ballad "El Mas Grande Enemigo" had received airplay on twenty-five Mexican radio stations. The tune purports to be the lament of a would-be immigrant left to die in the Arizona
desert by coyotes (people smugglers)
. No disclosure was made to the radio stations that the U.S. Border Patrol
had commissioned the compact disc
with content devised by Elevación, a Hispanic advertising agency
based in Washington, D.C.
and New York City
.
pertaining to the obligation of licensed broadcasters to disclose to audiences when they (or their staff) receive money or valuables in return for on-air promotion of a product dates to the payola
scandals of 1950s broadcast radio.
An investigation launched in November 1959 into allegations that some radio disc jockeys had accepted bribes in return for radio airplay led to the indictment of disc jockey Alan Freed
(of WABC
and WINS
) on May 9, 1960; he would be fined for accepting $2,500 to play certain songs, a violation of commercial bribery laws, and would ultimately lose his employment in commercial radio. On September 13, 1960, the U.S. government acted to ban payola in broadcasting. Under current U.S. law, Section 317 of the Communications Act states that "All matter broadcast by any radio station for which money, service, or other valuable consideration is directly or indirectly paid, or promised to or charged or accepted by, the station so broadcasting, from any person, shall, at the time the same is so broadcast, be announced as paid for or furnished, as the case may be, by such person. . ." with similar and related provisions reflected in Federal Communications Commission
regulations as CFR 47, Section 73.1212.
While these provisions have been taken into legal consideration in subsequent payola investigations, including one 2005 investigation by New York State Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer
into Sony BMG and other major record companies, it is probable that a regulation requiring advertisements and advertisers to be clearly identified has far broader implications in many areas, including that of the use of product placement by advertisers in broadcast programming.
Often, a broadcaster will claim to have complied with the regulation by placing some form of acknowledgement of promotional consideration in an inconspicuous place in a broadcast - such as embedded within a portion of a programme's closing credits. The question of whether adequate disclosure is being provided, however, remains open; the issue was raised in 2005 by FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, on the grounds that "some will tell you that if broadcasters and cable TV companies insist on further commercializing new and other shows alike, that is their business. But if they do so without disclosing it to the viewing public, that is payola, and that is the FCC’s business." In 2008, the Federal Communications Commission gave notice of proposed rulemaking, in which it proposed to require more disclosure of product placement. According to Adelstein, "You shouldn't need a magnifying glass to know who's pitching you... A crawl at the end of the show shrunk down so small the human eye can't read it isn't really in the spirit of the law."
Within the United Kingdom, new legislation governing product placement fell into line with EU rulings in March of 2011. For UK Producers this has opened the door to creating new funding solutions for programming.
, though set in the future, makes heavy use of product placements for Converse trainers, Ovaltine
, Audi
, FedEx
, Dos Equis, and JVC
among others, all of them introduced within the first ten minutes of the film. One particularly infamous scene borders into an actual advertisement in which a character compliments Will Smith
's character's shoes to which he replies "Converse All-Stars, vintage 2004." (the year of the film's release). Audi
invested the most on the film, going so far as to create a special car for the film, the Audi RSQ
. It was expected that the placement would increase brand awareness and raise the emotional appeal of the Audi brand, objectives that were considered achieved when surveys conducted in the United States
showed that the Audi RSQ gave a substantial boost to the image ratings of the brand. The Audi RSQ is seen during nine minutes of the film, although other Audis like the Audi A6
, the Audi TT
and the Audi A2
can be seen sprinkled throughout the film. I, Robot was ranked "the worst film for product placement" on a British site.
The film 17 Again
makes heavy use of product placement featuring cereals, sandwich fillers, chips, stereo systems, and auto mobiles.
The film Demolition Man
makes heavy mention of Taco Bell, which in the film's setting is the only restaurant chain left in society. The film uses this to comic effect but never disparagingly.
The film The Island
, directed by Michael Bay
, features at least 35 individual products or brands, including cars, bottled water
, shoes, credit cards, beer, ice cream, and even a search engine
. The film was highly criticized for this. In the movie's DVD Commentary track, Michael Bay claims he added the advertisements for realism purposes.
The comedy film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
also contained a high amount of product placement, as a parody of the large amount of sponsorship in the sport itself. Characters repeatedly mention brands under the disguise of NASCAR
sponsorship. The movie contains possibly the first instance of an actual television commercial in a movie. It was intended to mock the controversy with NASCAR fans under the Unified Television Contract 2001-06 where they criticised the excessive number of commercial breaks during races.
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
, a massive cinematic flop from 1987 prominently featured Pepsi
in a scene where the titular characters steal a Pepsi delivery truck.
Bill Cosby's film Leonard Part 6
was widely criticized for its Coca Cola product placements, as was The Wizard
for Nintendo
products.
The film Catch Me If You Can
makes heavy handed use of a Sara Lee placement by mentioning it six times throughout the movie.
The 2001 film Evolution
features product placement integral to the entire film. When mutated lifeforms attack earth, the characters use a large amount of Head & Shoulders
dandruff shampoo as a source of selenium disulfide, which is poisonous to the creatures.
The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats featured a large amount of blatant product placement for brands such as Puma
, Target
, McDonalds and TJ Maxx. This appears to be done ironically, as the plot of the film revolves around subliminal messages in advertising. The film's general message can also be construed as an anti-consumerist one. The producers neither sought nor received compensation for featuring the brands in the film.
The Japanese animated series Code Geass is sponsored by the Japanese branch of Pizza Hut
. Despite the fact that the series is set in an alternate reality, at least one main character is depicted ordering and receiving a Pizza Hut pizza on several occasions. The company's logo also appears throughout the series.
The 1994 comedy North
features Bruce Willis
as a Federal Express truck driver in one of his numerous cameos in the film, dubbing FedEx "guardians of your most important packages and priority communiques". In his highly negative review of the film, film critic Roger Ebert
made special light of this scene.
The 2009 film Star Trek
, in a scene where young James Kirk drives and crashes an old corvette, he operates a Nokia
touch-screen smartphone. Before the car crashes, audiences will hear the Nokia trademark ring tone. The Finnish phone maker is even offering Star Trek applications.
The film The Cat in the Hat
(2003) contained product placement where all residents of the town drive a Ford Focus.
Mac and Me
blatantly promotes McDonalds, Coca-Cola
and Skittles
.
of the NBC
sitcom 30 Rock
featured the General Electric
(at the time an 80% owner of NBC) Trivection oven
, which was viewed as product placement by some but said to be a joke by the show's creator. The show has gone on to parody product placement.
The 1988 film Return of the Killer Tomatoes
utilised the concept in a parodic manner—at one point, the film stops, as money to produce it ran out. The film's producer (portrayed by George Clooney
) steps in, suggesting product placement as a way to recoup the losses. This was followed by several scenes with blatant product placement, including a Pepsi billboard installed in front of the villain's mansion.
The film Minority Report
, makes heavy use of product placement, including Pepsi
, Gap
, and Lexus
. Director Steven Spielberg
also uses one scene to demonstrate the potential intrusion of one-to-one electronic advertising: the main character (Tom Cruise
) is harassed by personalized advertisements calling out his own name.
The film Fight Club
, directed by David Fincher
, bit the hand that fed it by depicting acts of violence against most of the products that paid to be placed in the film. Examples include the scene where the Apple Store
is broken into, the scene in which Brad Pitt
and Edward Norton
smash the headlights of a new Volkswagen Beetle
, and trying to blow up a 'popular coffee franchise', a thinly veiled dig at Starbucks
.
The film Superstar
, starring Will Ferrell
and Molly Shannon
, shows every resident in town driving VW New Beetles. However, it is possible that this was done for comic effect. Similarly, the film Mr. Deeds
shows the main character Adam Sandler
purchasing a Chevrolet Corvette
for every resident of his town.
The comedy film Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
also attempted to spoof its product placements, clearly pointing out the anachronistic inclusion of a Taco Bell
in the film. In a similar vein, in Looney Tunes: Back In Action
the main characters stumble across a Wal-Mart
while stranded in the middle of Death Valley
and get all necessary supplies for their endorsement of the company. The television show Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens poked fun at its sponsor Sony
in one episode, by having one character give another a Blu-Ray disc with the tagline "It's a Sony", only for them to complain that they do not have a Blu-ray player, to which the character responds by producing a copy in Betamax
, again with the line "It's a Sony".
The 1992 film Wayne's World
included a parody in which both Wayne and Garth decry product placement while at the same time blatantly promoting many products by looking directly at the camera, holding up the product, smiling widely, and sometimes giving a thumbs-up.
The TV series X-Files (1993–2002) frequently featured the fictional Morley brand of cigarettes, the choice of the Cigarette Smoking Man
. The company producing Morleys was also involved in a cover-up conspiracy in episode 18 of season seven, Brand X
(Original Air Date—16 April 2000).
The 1984 film "Ghostbusters" had a Faux product in the climax of the film when the team faces the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
The 1998 film The Truman Show
utilized the concept, although in a manner different than other films. The film's premise, a 24-hour television broadcast called "The Truman Show" that focuses on the life of Truman Burbank, uses faux product placement. His wife places products in front of the hidden cameras, even naming certain products in dialogue with her husband, all of which increases Truman's suspicion as he comes to realize his surroundings are intentionally fabricated.
Some filmmakers have responded to product placement by creating fictional products that frequently appear in the movies they make. Examples include:
This practice is also fairly common in certain comics
, such as Svetlana Chmakova
's Dramacon
, which makes several product-placement-esque usages of "Pawky", (a modification of the name of the Japanese snack "Pocky
", popular among the anime
and manga
fan community in which the story is set) or Naoko Takeuchi
's Sailor Moon
, which includes numerous references to the series Codename: Sailor V, which Sailor Moon was spun off of; the anime makes further use of this meta-referential
gag, going so far as having an animator on a Codename: Sailor V feature film be a victim in one episode.
This practice is also common in certain "reality-based" video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series
, which feature fictitious stores such as Ammu-Nation, Vinyl Countdown, Gash (spoofing Gap
. Another spoof was made in GTA: San Andreas with Zip), Pizza Boy, etc.
rebranded 11 of its American stores and one Canadian store as "Kwik-E-Mart
s", selling some real-life versions of products seen in episodes of the Simpsons
such as Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's cereal. In 1997, Acme Communications
was created as a chain of real television stations; the firm is named for the fictional Acme Corporation
of Warner Brothers fame.
In 1949, Crazy Eddie
was created as a fictional car dealer in the film A Letter to Three Wives
. That name, bestowed in 1971 upon a real-life electronics chain in New York City
, appeared in 1984 as advertising placement in Splash
; a 1989 parody, UHF
, completed the circle by depicting a Crazy Ernie using a hard sell
of "buy this car or I'll club a seal" as a TV ad campaign
.
In the 1984 cult film
Repo Man, a reverse form of product placement is used, with an exaggerated form of 1980s era generic
packaging used on products prominently shown on-screen (these include "Beer", "Drink", "Dry Gin" and "Food - Meat Flavored").
As of 2007, a new trend is emerging in product placement, the development of capabilities that permit dynamic or switchable product placement. Previously post production tools have permitted one time insertion of new product placement images and billboard advertising, notable in televised at baseball and hockey games. As of 2007, startup
s are offering or developing the ability to switch product placement. First generation virtual product placement has tended to be based upon sports arenas where the geometrical relationships of camera and the surface of the flat area onto which the billboard is projected, can be easily calculated. Second generation product placement or dynamic product placement is more focused upon commercial products. Third generation virtual or dynamic product placement allows targeting of customers with different products that can be dynamically switched based upon such factors as demographics, psychographics or behavioral information about the consumer.
Where game software has access to a user's Internet
connection, marketers gain the ability change displayed in-game advertisements on the fly. More controversially, in-game advertising vendors such as Microsoft
-owned Massive Incorporated
may use software to transmit user information to their servers, such as individual player IDs and data about what was on the screen and for how long.
Also of interest are hypervideo
techniques that can insert interactive elements into online video.
took advantage of product placement in the series by the restaurant chain Subway
as part of a grassroots
effort to save the show from cancellation. The movement gained support from several cast and crew members, with series star Zachary Levi
leading hundreds of fans to a Subway restaurant in Birmingham
, United Kingdom
, and garnered significant attention in online media.
, director of film Slumdog Millionaire
(2008), the makers had to resort to something he calls "product displacement
" when companies such as Mercedes-Benz
refused to allow their products to be used in non-flattering settings. While they did not mind having a gangster driving their cars, they objected to their products been shown in a slum
setting. This forced the makers in post-production to remove logo
s digitally, costing "tens of thousands of pounds".
Similarly, in the film The Blues Brothers
(1980), portions of the defunct Dixie Square Mall
in Harvey
, Illinois
, were reconstructed in façade and used as the scene of an indoor car chase. Signage belonging to tenants of the mall when it was operational (1966–1978) was in some cases removed and replaced with that of other vendors; for instance, a Walgreens
would become a Toys "Я" Us.
In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and several other TV movies involving ill-fated long-distance train rides, all Amtrak
logos were removed from the train.
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
ed goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the good or service is featured. Product placement became common in the 1990s, until the ramifications of product placement were clearly understood.
In April 2006, Broadcasting & Cable
Broadcasting & Cable
Broadcasting & Cable magazine is a television industry trade magazine published by NewBay Media. Previous names included Broadcasting/Telecasting, Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising, and Broadcasting...
reported, "Two thirds of advertisers employ 'branded entertainment'—product placement—with the vast majority of that (80%) in commercial TV programming." The story, based on a survey by the Association of National Advertisers
Association of National Advertisers
The Association of National Advertisers is a representative body for the marketing community in the United States of America. ANA’s membership includes over 400 companies with 9,000 brands that collectively spend over one hundred billion dollars in marketing communications and advertising....
, said "Reasons for using in-show plugs varied from 'stronger emotional connection' to better dovetailing with relevant content, to targeting a specific group."
Early examples
Product placement dates back to the nineteenth century in publishing. By the time Jules VerneJules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
published the adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), he was a world-renowned literary giant to the extent transport and shipping companies lobbied to be mentioned in the story as it was published in serial form. If he was actually paid to do so, however, remains unknown. Product placement is still used in books to some extent, particularly in novels.
With the arrival of photo-rich periodicals in print business in the late 19th century publishers found ways of lifting their paper's reputation by placing an actual copy of the magazine in photographs of prominent people. For example the German magazine Die Woche in 1902 printed an article about a countess in her castle where she in one of the photographs actually holds a copy of Die Woche in her hands.
Recent scholarship in film and media studies has drawn attention to the fact that product placement was a common feature of many of the earliest actualities
Actuality film
The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that like the documentary film uses footage of real events, places, and things, yet unlike the documentary is not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coherent whole. In practice, actuality films preceded the emergence of the...
and cinematic attractions that characterized the first ten years of cinema history
Placement in movies
Recognizable brand names appeared in movies from cinema's earliest history. Before films were even narrative forms in the sense that they are recognised today, industrial concerns funded the making of what film scholar Tom Gunning has described as "cinematic attractions" these were short films of no longer than one or two minutes. In the first decade or so of film history (1895–1907) audiences did not go to see films as narrative art forms but as fairground attractions interesting for the amazing visual effects they appeared to be. This format was much better suited to product placement than the narrative form of cinema that came later when film making became a more organised industry. Taking this as a starting point, Leon Gurevitch has argued that early cinematic attractions share more in common with the adverts that emerged from the television industry in the 1950s than they do with traditional films. Gurevitch suggests that as a result, the relationship between cinema and advertising is more intertwined than previous historians have credited, suggesting that the birth of cinema was in part the result of advertising and the economic kickstart that it provided early film makers. Kerry Segrave details the industries that advertised in these early films and goes on to give a thorough account of the history of product placement over the following century. In the 1920s, the weekly trade periodicalTrade journal
A trade magazine, also called a professional magazine, is a magazine published with the intention of target marketing to a specific industry or type of trade. The collective term for this area of publishing is the trade press....
Harrison's Reports
Harrison's Reports
Harrison’s Reports was a New York City-based motion picture trade journal published weekly from 1919 to 1962. The typical issue was four letter-size pages sent to subscribers under a second-class mail permit. Its founder, editor and publisher was P. S...
published its first denunciation of that practice with respect to Red Crown gasoline appearing in the comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
The Garage
The Garage (film)
The Garage is a 1920 American short comedy film starring Buster Keaton and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. It was directed by Arbuckle himself. The film was also known as Fire Chief. This was the fourteenth film starring the duo...
(1919), directed by and co-starring Fatty Arbuckle
Fatty Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd...
.
During the next four decades, Harrison's Reports frequently cited cases of on-screen brand-name products, always condemning the practice as harmful to movie theaters. Publisher P. S. Harrison
P. S. Harrison
P.S. Harrison , known popularly as Pete Harrison, founded the motion picture trade journal, Harrison's Reports, which was published weekly from 5 July 1919 until 11 August 1962. Until 1959, he was the publisher and chief reviewer.-Journal founder:In 1919, he founded Harrison's Reports...
’s editorials strongly reflected his feelings against product placement in films. An editorial in Harrison’s Reports criticized the collaboration between the Corona Typewriter company and First National Pictures when a Corona typewriter appeared in the film The Lost World
The Lost World (1925 film)
The Lost World is a 1925 silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by First National Pictures, a large Hollywood studio at the time, and stars Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O...
(1925). Harrison's Reports published several incidents about Corona typewriters appearing in films of the mid-1920s.
Product placement in movies
Product placement is an investment for brands trying to reach a niche audienceAudience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
, and there are strong reasons for investors to expect that film product placement will increase consumer awareness of a particular brand. A big-budget feature film that has expectations of grossing millions may attract many commercial interests; however, the film studio must also analyze if a product fits with the image of the film. A high-profile star may draw more attention to a product, and therefore, in many cases, this becomes a separate point of negotiation within his or her contract. Firms paid $722 million in fees, free product placement, and promotional support for film placement in 2005, and by 2010, spending on film placement is predicted to surge to 1.8 billion. In 2002, Volkswagen spent a estimated $200 million in fees to be integrated into NBC Universal films.
Among the famous silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s to feature product placement was Wings
Wings (film)
Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...
(1927), the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. It contained a plug for Hershey's
The Hershey Company
The Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey's, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S...
chocolate.
In Fritz Lang's film "M
M
M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water...
" released in (1931) there is a prominent banner display on a stair case in one scene for Wrigley's PK Chewing Gum which is right in the viewers eye for around 20-30 seconds.
Another early example in film occurs in Horse Feathers
Horse Feathers
Horse Feathers is a Marx Brothers film comedy. It stars the four Marx Brothers and Thelma Todd. It was written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, S. J. Perelman, and Will B. Johnstone. Kalmar and Ruby also wrote some of the original music for the film...
(1932) where Thelma Todd
Thelma Todd
Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy...
's character falls out of a canoe and into a river. She calls for a life saver and Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
's character tosses her a Life Savers
Life Savers
Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped mints and artificially fruit-flavored hard candy. The candy is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in aluminum foil rolls....
candy.
The film It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
(1946), directed by Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
, depicts a young boy with aspirations to be an explorer, displaying a prominent copy of National Geographic.
In the film Love Happy
Love Happy
Love Happy was the 14th and last starring feature for the Marx Brothers. The film stars Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, and, in a smaller role than usual, Groucho Marx, plus Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen, Paul Valentine, Marion Hutton, Raymond Burr, Bruce Gordon , and Eric Blore, with a walk-on by Marilyn Monroe...
(1949), Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
's character cavorts on a rooftop among various billboards and at one point escapes from the villains on the old Mobil
Mobil
Mobil, previously known as the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, was a major American oil company which merged with Exxon in 1999 to form ExxonMobil. Today Mobil continues as a major brand name within the combined company, as well as still being a gas station sometimes paired with their own store or On...
logo, the "Flying Red Horse". Harrison's Reports severely criticized this scene in its film review and in a front-page editorial of the same issue.
In the film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
Gun Crazy
Gun Crazy
Gun Crazy is a 1950 film noir feature film starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. The film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced by Frank King and Maurice King...
(1949), the climactic crime is the payroll robbery of the Armour
Armour and Company
Armour & Company was an American slaughterhouse and meatpacking company founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1867 by the Armour brothers, led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company was Chicago's most important business and helped make the city and its Union Stock Yards the center of the...
meat-packing plant, where a Bulova
Bulova
Bulova is a corporation making luxury watches and clocks. It has its headquarters in Woodside, Queens, New York City.Bulova was founded and incorporated as the J. Bulova Company in 1875 by Joseph Bulova , an immigrant from Bohemia...
clock is prominently seen.
In other early media, e.g., radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
in the 1930s and 1940s and early television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
in the 1950s, television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s were often underwritten
Underwriting
Underwriting refers to the process that a large financial service provider uses to assess the eligibility of a customer to receive their products . The name derives from the Lloyd's of London insurance market...
by companies. "Soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s" are called such because they were initially underwritten by consumer, packaged-goods companies such as Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
or Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
. When television began to displace radio, DuMont's
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
Cavalcade of Stars television show was, in its era, notable for not relying on a sole Sponsor (commercial) in the tradition of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater
Texaco Star Theater is an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Milton Berle the nickname "Mr...
and similar productions. Sponsorship exists today with programs being sponsored by major vendors such as Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
.
The conspicuous display of Studebaker
Studebaker
Studebaker Corporation was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the company was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the...
motor vehicles in the television series Mr. Ed (1961–1966), which was sponsored by the Studebaker Corporation from 1961 to 1963, is another example of product placement.
Incorporation of products into the actual plot of a film or television show is generally called "brand integration".
An early example of such "brand integration" was by Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch is an American retailer that focuses on casual wear for consumers aged 18 to 22. It has over 300 locations in the United States, and is expanding internationally....
when one of its stores provided the notional venue for part of the romantic comedy
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
film Man's Favourite Sport? (1964) starring Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
and Paula Prentiss
Paula Prentiss
Paula Ragusa , better known by her stage name Paula Prentiss, is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View and her co-starring role in the television situation...
.
The 1995 film GoldenEye
GoldenEye
GoldenEye is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Martin Campbell and is the first film in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming...
was the focus of a highly successful BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
campaign, devised by product placement specialist Karen Sortito
Karen Sortito
Karen Christine Sortito was a specialist in brand enhancement and product placement. Sortito was a pioneer in product tie-ins in movies. An example of one of the first product tie-ins was in the movie E.T. In the story, the stranded alien character, E.T...
, which promoted the automaker's new Z3
BMW Z3
The BMW Z3 was the first modern mass-market roadster produced by BMW, as well as the first new BMW model assembled in the United States. The Z3 was introduced as a 1996 model year vehicle, shortly after being featured in the James Bond movie,...
model. Sales of the Z3 surged as film claimed the top spot at the box office. For the next film in the James Bond franchise
Outline of James Bond
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to James Bond:James Bond 007 – fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections...
, Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering...
, Sortito created a $100 million promotional campaign that included tie-ins with BMW, Visa, L'Oréal
L'Oréal
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics...
, Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
, Heineken
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
, Avis
Avis
-Businesses:*Avis Budget Group, founded in 2006 as the successor company to Cendant Corporation**Avis Rent a Car System, a car rental company**Avis Worldwide Foreign Education Services, a worldwide foreign education company formed and owned by Sandeep S Pillai....
, and Omega SA. The film brought in more than $300 million dollars.
A recent example is HBO's Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
(1998–2004), where the plot revolved around, among other things, Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, Skåne, in southern Sweden. Since July 2008 the company has been owned by the French firm Pernod Ricard who bought V&S Group from the Swedish government....
, a campaign upon which one of the protagonists was working, and a billboard in Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, where a bottle prevented an image of the model from being pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
. Knight Rider (1982–1986), a television series featuring a talking Pontiac Trans Am, is another example of brand integration.
An early example of product placement in a video game is in 1982's Pole Position which has billboards along the track for other Atari Games. In Pole Position II the in-game billboards were paid adverts for Dentine gum and some other items. A later example occurs in Action Biker
Action Biker
Action Biker is a 1985 game for 8-bit home computers released by Mastertronic...
(1984) for Skips
Skips (Snack)
Skips are a tapioca snack from the United Kingdom; which were first launched in 1974 as prawn cocktail. The snacks are made by United Biscuits and sold under the KP brand made under license from Meiji Seika Japan. Today they are available with bacon and cheese flavours in addition to the...
crisps
Potato chip
Potato chips are thin slices of potato that are deep fried...
, a product by KP Snacks
KP Snacks
KP Snacks is a British producer of branded and own-label maize and potato based snacks, "Choc Dips" and nuts. The KP originally stood for Kenyon Produce. The company is based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England....
. More recently, Crazy Taxi
Crazy Taxi
Crazy Taxi is a sandbox racing video game developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega. It is the first game in the Crazy Taxi series. The game was first released in arcades in 1999 and was ported to the Dreamcast in 2000. Subsequently, it was ported to the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube by...
(1999), featured real retail stores as game destinations. However, sometimes the economics are reversed and video-game makers pay for the rights to use real sports teams and players. Today, product placement in online video is also becoming common. Online agencies are specializing in connecting online video producers, which are usually individuals, with brands and advertisers.
Self promotion
Twentieth Century Fox, a subsidiary of News CorporationNews Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, has promoted its parent company's own Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
channel through including it as a plot device when characters are viewing news broadcasts of breaking events. The newscaster or reporter in the scene will usually state that the audience is viewing Sky News, and reports from other channels are not shown. One notable example is the film Independence Day
Independence Day (film)
Independence Day is a 1996 science fiction film about an alien invasion of Earth, focusing on a disparate group of individuals and families as they converge in the Nevada desert and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4 – the same...
(1996)
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
uses or mention Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
products like VAIO
VAIO
VAIO is a sub-brand used for many of Sony's computer products. Originally an acronym of Video Audio Integrated Operation, this was amended to Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer in 2008 to celebrate the brand's 10th anniversary...
computers or BRAVIA
BRAVIA
BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors and for the PlayStation 3 , along with its home cinema range under the sub-brand BRAVIA Theatre. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture"...
televisions in their movies.
Sports
Product placement has long been prevalent in sportSport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
s as well, from professional sports
Professional sports
Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are sports in which athletes receive payment for their performance. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations...
to college sports, and even on the local level with high school sports. This can be attributed to sports being prevalent on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, which increases exposure to these products.
The Green Monster
Green Monster
The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the thirty-seven foot , two-inch high left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team...
at Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, was originally built to have such advertisements, but since 1947 has largely been devoid of such advertisements. The Citgo sign overlooking Fenway Park can also be considered a form of product placement, despite the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
having a sponsorship deal with Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
.
Outside of baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
(which had long had sponsors), product placement in sports began to rise in the 1970s, when NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
began to allow sponsors to cover the cars they were sponsoring with their logos. (For instance, STP
STP (motor oil company)
STP is an American brand and trade name for the automotive additives, lubricants and performance division of Armored AutoGroup.Founded in 1953 in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the company’s name, STP, was derived from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”...
was a longtime sponsor for Richard Petty
Richard Petty
Richard Lee Petty is a former NASCAR driver who raced in the Strictly Stock/Grand National Era and the NASCAR Winston Cup Series...
.) This has subsequently followed with the uniforms the drivers themselves wear having sponsor logos. The Arena Football League
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...
, NFL Europe
NFL Europe
NFL Europe was an American football league which operated in Europe from 1991 until 2007. Backed by the National Football League , the largest professional American football league in the United States, it was founded as the World League of American Football to serve as a type of spring league...
, and several association football leagues eventually allowed sponsors of the uniforms.
The National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
began allowing sponsors to line along the interior walls of the ice rinks in the early 1980s. This, combined with new rules mandating players to wear helmets (though some were grandfathered
Grandfather clause
Grandfather clause is a legal term used to describe a situation in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations, while a new rule will apply to all future situations. It is often used as a verb: to grandfather means to grant such an exemption...
), arguably gave the NHL a different look in the 1980s than compared with the 1970s.
NFL
While the now-defunct NFL Europe allowed liberal use of sponsors with the team's uniforms, the main National Football LeagueNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) has long been more stringent. For instance, the league prohibits logos of sponsors painted onto the fields, although Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Foxborough, Massachusetts, 21 miles southwest of downtown Boston and from downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for the New England Patriots football team and the New England Revolution...
in Foxborough
Foxborough, Massachusetts
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,246 people, 6,141 households, and 4,396 families residing in the town. The population density was 809.1 people per square mile . There were 6,299 housing units at an average density of 313.7 per square mile...
, Massachusetts, does have a disposable razor painted onto the field in honor of naming-rights
Naming rights
In the private sector, naming rights are a financial transaction whereby a corporation or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, typically for a defined period of time. For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three...
sponsor Gillette. In 2008, the league allowed sponsors on the practice jerseys of the uniforms, but not the game-worn uniforms.
The NFL's strict policy contradicts several other policies on the uniforms. In 1991, the league allowed the individual uniform suppliers to display their logo on the products they made in conjunction with the rest of the sports world, and since 2002, Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
has been the official uniform supplier for the entire league.
In addition, two of the league's flagship teams—the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
and the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
—adopted some form of their identity from corporate sponsors. The Packers adopted the nickname "Packers" because they were sponsored by the Indian Packing Company
Indian Packing Company
The Indian Packing Company was a company that was involved in the canned meat industry and that was organized in Delaware on July 22, 1919. Its canned meat sold as "Council Meats." When the company was absorbed by the Illinois-based Acme Packing Company in 1921, it had facilities in Green Bay,...
, and later had "ACME PACKERS" written on their uniforms in the early 1920s after the Acme Packing Company bought Indian Packing. The Steelers adopted their current logo in 1962 as a product-placement deal with the American Iron and Steel Institute
American Iron and Steel Institute
The American Iron and Steel Institute is an association of North American steel producers. Its predecessor organizations date back to 1855 making it one of the oldest trade associations in the United States. AISI assumed its present form in 1908, with Elbert H...
, which owned the rights to the Steelmark
Steelmark
The Steelmark is a logo representing steel and the steel industry owned by the American Iron and Steel Institute, and used by it to promote the product and its manufacturers....
logo. The Steelers later were allowed to add "-ers" to the Steelmark logo the following year so that they could own a trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
on the logo.
Going the other way, the league has been shown to place itself as the product. NFL Japan was a sponsor of the football themed anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Eyeshield 21
Eyeshield 21
is a manga about American football written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. It has been adapted into an anime movie in 2004 , an anime television series in 2005, several video games and a trading card game from Konami. The manga is serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump...
, which ran for 145 TV episodes and a handful of specials.
Categories and variations
Actual product placement falls into two categories: products or locations that are obtained from manufacturers or owners to reduce the cost of production, and products deliberately placed into productions in exchange for fees.Sometimes, product usage is negotiated rather than paid for. Some placements provide productions with below-the-line savings, with products such as props, clothes and cars being loaned for the production's use, thereby saving them purchase or rental fees. Barter systems (the director/actor/producer wants one for himself) and service deals (cellular phones provided for crew use, for instance) are also common practices. Producers may also seek out companies for product placements as another savings or revenue stream for the movie, with, for example, products used in exchange for help funding advertisements tied-in with a film's release, a show's new season or other event.
A variant of product placement is advertisement placement. In this case an advertisement for the product (rather than the product itself) is seen in the movie or television series. Examples include a Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarette advertisement on a billboard
Billboard (advertising)
A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
or a truck with a milk advertisement on its trailer.
Another variant is the widespread use of promotional consideration in which a television game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
would award an advertiser's product as a prize or consolation prize in return for a subsidy from the product's manufacturer.
Measuring effectiveness
Quantification methods track brand integrations, with both basic quantitativeQuantitative research
In the social sciences, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to...
and more demonstrative qualitative
Qualitative research
Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such...
systems used to determine the cost and effective media value of a placement. Rating systems measure the type of placement and on-screen exposure is gauged by audience recall rates. Products might be featured but hardly identifiable, clearly identifiable, long or recurrent in exposure, associated with a main character, verbally mentioned and/or they may play a key role in the storyline. Media values are also weighed over time, depending on a specific product's degree of presence in the market.
Consumer response and economic impact
As with any advertising, its effectiveness tends to be assumedAffirming the consequent
Affirming the consequent, sometimes called converse error, is a formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:#If P, then Q.#Q.#Therefore, P....
because advertisers continue to use product placement as a marketing strategy. However, some consumer groups such as Commercial Alert
Commercial Alert
Commercial Alert is a non-profit civic organization that opposes advertising to children and the commercialization of culture, education, and government. It works on issues such as commercialism, consumerism, product placement, ad-creep, and privacy. It works to reduce the negative impacts of...
object to the practice as "an affront to basic honesty" that they claim is too common in today's society. Commercial Alert asks for full disclosure of all product-placement arrangements, arguing that most product placements are deceptive and not clearly disclosed. It advocates notification before and during television programs with embedded advertisements. One justification for this is to allow greater parental control for children, whom it claims are easily influenced by product placement.
The Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
, a trade union representing authors of television scripts, had raised objections in 2005 that its members are forced to write ad copy disguised as storyline on the grounds that "the result is that tens of millions of viewers are sometimes being sold products without their knowledge, sold in opaque, subliminal ways and sold in violation of government regulations."
According to PQ Media
PQ Media
PQ Media is a research consultancy specializing in global media econometrics, providing data and analytics on the rapidly diverging global media industry. The Stamford, Connecticut-based firm’s clients include some of the world's leading media and entertainment companies and financial institutions...
, a consulting firm that tracks alternative media spending, 2006 product placement was estimated at $3.1 billion rising to $5.6 billion in 2010. However, these figures are somewhat misleading in PQ Media's view in that today, many product-placement and brand-integration deals are a combination of advertising and product placement. In these deals, the product placement is often contingent upon the purchase of advertising revenues. When the product placement that is bundled with advertising is allocated to part of the spending, PQ Media estimates that product placement is closer to $7 billion in value, rising to $10 billion by 2010.
In a June 2010 research report, "PQ Media Global Branded Entertainment Marketing Forecast," the research firm reported that paid product placement spending – in television, films, internet, video games and other media – declined in 2009 for the first time in tracked history, as spending decreased 2.8% to $3.61 billion due to severe reductions in brand marketers' budgets. However, paid product placement is also one of the sectors poised for the most growth, with PQ Media predicting the 2009 figures to more than double by 2014, when product placement is projected to be a $6.1 billion market.
A major driver of growth for the use of product placement is the increasing use of digital video recorder
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
s (DVR) such as TiVO
TiVo
TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...
, which enable viewers to skip advertisements. This ad-skipping behavior increases in frequency the longer a household has owned a DVR.
Products
Certain products are featured more than others. Commonly seen are automobiles, consumer electronics and computers, and tobacco products.Automobiles
The most common productProduct (business)
In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
s to be promoted in this way are automobiles. Frequently, all the important vehicles in a film or television series will be supplied by one manufacturer. For example, the television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
(1993–2002) uses Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
s, as do leading characters on the television series 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
(2001–2010).
The James Bond film series
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
pioneered such placement. The Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun (film)
The Man with the Golden Gun is the ninth spy film in the James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
(1974) features extensive use of AMC cars, even in scenes in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, where AMC cars were not sold, and had the steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle for the country's roads. The two prior Bond films use vehicles from Ford or its subsidiaries.
Almost every car was made by General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
in the films Bad Boys II
Bad Boys II
Bad Boys II is a 2003 action/comedy film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. It is a sequel to the 1995 film Bad Boys. The film is about two police detectives investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami...
(2003), The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowskis. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15,...
(2003) and Transformers (2007).
In the film XXY
XXY (film)
XXY is a 2007 Argentine film written and directed by Lucía Puenzo. The film stars Ricardo Darín, Valeria Bertuccelli, Inés Efron and Martín Piroyansky...
(2007) all vehicles depicted are Toyotas, even though the film takes place in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
; the film's credits acknowledge the automaker as having funded portions of the film's production.
Other times, vehicles or other products take on such key roles in the film it is as if they are another character. Nissan cars feature prominently in the television series Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
(2006–2010) where the logos often zoom in/out of or whole cars are shown for a few seconds at the beginning of a new scene. In the film The Matrix Reloaded, a key chase scene is conducted between a brand new Cadillac CTS
Cadillac CTS
The Cadillac CTS is a mid-size car manufactured by the Cadillac marque of General Motors currently available in three body styles: Sedan, Coupe, and Sport Wagon. It was introduced in 2002 as a sports sedan, replacing the Cadillac Catera. The CTS and the supercharged CTS-V variant have been named...
and a Cadillac Escalade EXT. The chase scene also features a Ducati motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
in the getaway.
Three of the Bond films that star Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
feature a BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
car. After pressure from fans, the producers returned to using the traditional Aston Martin
Aston Martin
Aston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The company name is derived from the name of one of the company's founders, Lionel Martin, and from the Aston Hill speed hillclimb near Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire...
, which was owned by Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
at the time and thus brought in more product placement.
A Ford Shelby GT500
Shelby Mustang
The Shelby Mustang is a high performance variant of the Ford Mustang which was built by Shelby American from 1965 through 1970. Following the introduction of the fifth generation Ford Mustang, the Shelby nameplate was revived in 2007 for new high performance versions of the Mustang.- 1965–1966 :The...
is used extensively at the beginning of the film I Am Legend (2007) along with a Ford Expedition EL
Ford Expedition
The Ford Expedition is a full-size SUV built by the Ford Motor Company. Introduced in 1997 as a replacement to the Ford Bronco, it was previously slotted between the smaller Ford Explorer and the larger Ford Excursion, but as of the 2005 model year, it is Ford's largest and last truck-based,...
.
In the film Taken
Taken (film)
Taken is a 2008 action thriller film produced by Luc Besson, starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, and Famke Janssen. The screenplay is written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, and was directed by Pierre Morel...
(2008), Liam Neeson's character drives Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
cars, first an A3
Audi A3
The Audi A3 is a small family car produced by the German automaker Audi since 1996. Two generations of A3 exist, both based on the Volkswagen Group A platform, which they share with several other models such as the Audi TT, Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Caddy and Volkswagen Touran as well as SEAT...
and then an S8
Audi S8
The Audi S8 quattro is a high-performance version of the German luxury automaker Audi's flagship car, the full-size Audi A8. The S8 is produced at Audi's Neckarsulm 'aluminium plant', and it was introduced in September 1994...
in the final high-speed scene on the streets of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
All the cars in the video game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is the sixth installment in the Rainbow Six series. It is a first person shooter video game and the sequel to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas. It was announced by Ubisoft on November 20, 2007...
(2008) are manufactured by Dodge
Dodge
Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
.
Consumer electronics and computers
The film Casino RoyaleCasino Royale (2006 film)
Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
(2006) features many Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
product placements throughout: A BD-R disc is prominently portrayed at one time, all characters use VAIO
VAIO
VAIO is a sub-brand used for many of Sony's computer products. Originally an acronym of Video Audio Integrated Operation, this was amended to Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer in 2008 to celebrate the brand's 10th anniversary...
laptops, Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
cell phones and global-positioning systems
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
, BRAVIA
BRAVIA
BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors and for the PlayStation 3 , along with its home cinema range under the sub-brand BRAVIA Theatre. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture"...
televisions, and Bond uses a Cyber-shot
Cyber-shot
Cyber-shot is a line of digital cameras made by Sony. The first cyber-shot was made by Sony in 1996. The Cyber-shot range is well known for its proprietary InfoLithium battery pack, the trademark Carl Zeiss lenses, and overall design. Also, all Cyber-shot cameras accept Sony's proprietary Memory...
camera to take photographs. (It was the first Bond film to be produced after Sony acquired the Bond franchise). In Quantum of Solace (2008), Bond, M, and Tanner are seen using a Microsoft Surface
Microsoft Surface
Microsoft Surface is a multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition. This could involve the motion of hands or physical objects. It was...
to display information on rogue agents.
Apple frequently pays for product placement. This occurs because Apple "barters" the exchange for placement. Payment for placement is not in cash, but exchanged for product and services. (Notably, recognizable Apple products have appeared in newspaper comic strips, including Opus
Opus (comic strip)
Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland....
, Baby Blues, Non Sequitur
Non Sequitur (comic strip)
Non Sequitur is a comic strip created by Wiley Miller in 1992 and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate to over 700 newspapers...
, and FoxTrot, even though paid placement in comics is all but unknown.) In a twist on traditional product placement, Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
computers now appear exclusively as part of photo layouts in the IKEA
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
catalog in addition to placing plastic models of its computers in IKEA stores, having taken over Apple's position in the Swedish furniture retailer's promotional materials several years ago. Hewlett-Packard also put their computers in the U.S. production of The Office
The Office (US TV series)
The Office is an American comedy television series broadcast by NBC. An adaptation of the original BBC series of the same name, it depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company...
. Throughout the television series Smallville
Smallville
Smallville is the hometown of Superman in comic books published by DC Comics. While growing up in Smallville, the young Clark Kent attended Smallville High with best friends Lana Lang, Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross...
(since 2001), only computers produced by Dell are used, including Alienware branded equipment and in later series the XPS range. Similarly in the series Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...
in first sessions all the laptops used were Dell Latitude and XPS laptops. Stargate SG1 in its last seasons switched from traditional CRT monitors in the gate-rooms to Dell-branded LCDs.
In WarGames
WarGames
WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War suspense/science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy....
(1983), the use of an IMSAI 8080 desktop computer was originally proposed by Cliff McMullen of Unique Products, the same Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
product placement company that placed Reese's Pieces
Reese's Pieces
Reese's Pieces are a peanut butter flavored candy manufactured by The Hershey Company for the North American market; they are also available in Ireland & The United Kingdom. They are circular in shape and covered in candy shells that are colored either yellow, orange, or brown. They can be...
in Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
(1982). Other WarGames product placements include the main character's mother being portrayed as a real estate broker
Real estate broker
A real estate broker, real estate agent or realtor is a party who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate/real property and attempts to find sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy...
at the behest of marketers at Century 21
Century 21 Real Estate
Century 21 Real Estate LLC is a real estate agent franchise company founded in 1971. The Century 21 System consists of over 8,000 independently owned and operated offices. Other examples of such a system are Coldwell Banker, Engel & Völkers, ERA Real Estate, ...Century 21 has offices in more than...
.
In the film Splash
Splash (film)
Splash is a 1984 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge...
(1984), a television set blares advertisements for (now-defunct) electronics retailer Crazy Eddie
Crazy Eddie
Crazy Eddie is the name of a consumer electronics retailer conducting business through the internet and by telephone. The venture is the most recent to be doing business under the Crazy Eddie name, with the most well known being a chain of retail stores that operated throughout New York, New...
and for Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's is an American department store owned by Macy's, Inc. .Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side...
department store.
In the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film)
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 science fiction film, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. The screenplay is based on the 1940 classic science fiction short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates, and the 1951 screenplay adaptation by Edmund H...
(2008) various Microsoft devices—including mobile phones, laptops, and Microsoft Surface—were used.
In video games, products that most often appear are placements for processors or graphics cards. For example in EA's Battlefield 2142
Battlefield 2142
Battlefield 2142 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Digital Illusions CE and produced by Electronic Arts . It is the fourth game in the Battlefield series...
, ads for Intel Core 2
Intel Core 2
Core 2 is a brand encompassing a range of Intel's consumer 64-bit x86-64 single-, dual-, and quad-core microprocessors based on the Core microarchitecture. The single- and dual-core models are single-die, whereas the quad-core models comprise two dies, each containing two cores, packaged in a...
processors appear on map billboards. EA's The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
contains in-game advertising for Intel and for McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
.Rare
Rare
-In music:* Rare , a band from Northern Ireland* Rare , a Serbian alternative rock band from Belgrade* Rare , an album by the progressive rock band Asia* Rare , a compilation album by David Bowie...
's Perfect Dark: zerofeatures many adds for samsung in their menu's.
In the video game F.E.A.R, all of the laptops have a Dell screensaver on them and the other computers in the game also feature this screensaver. Similarly, Metal Gear Solid 4 features various Apple products such as laptop and desktop computers, as well as featuring an in-game iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
. Most characters in this game have Sony cellular phones.
In the television series Sex and The City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
, the character Carrie is shown using an Apple PowerBook G3
PowerBook G3
The PowerBook G3 is a line of laptop Macintosh computers made by Apple Computer between 1997 and 2000. It was the first laptop to use the PowerPC G3 series of microprocessors...
laptop.
In the video game Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise is the seventh game in the Burnout racing video game series. It was developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in January 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and on February 5, 2009 for Microsoft Windows...
advertisements in the virtual Paradise City are placed as they may be in the real world, including travelling vans with advertisements for Gillette Fusion razors and DIESEL clothing, and on various billboards.
Food and drink
In BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice
Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
(1988), Minute Maid
Minute Maid
Minute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but now extends to soft drinks of many kinds, including Hi-C...
juice is displayed; in the Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
trilogy, Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
's products in 2015 include an instant pizza that can be hydrated for immediate consumption.
In Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
(1998) Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
, Hershey's
The Hershey Company
The Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey's, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S...
, and most prominently Taco Bell
Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
, are featured in various scenes.
The film "One, Two, Three" (1961) Stars James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
as a Coca Cola executive in West Berlin. The twist at the end is he removes a bottle of Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
from a vending machine at the end of the film.
In American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
Coca-Cola cups are always seen on the judges' table.
In Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
's music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
Love the Way you Lie (2010), Stolichnaya
Stolichnaya
-Description:Fermentation of Stolichnaya starts with wheat and rye grains and artesial water from the Russian city of Samara and the Kaliningrad region. The fermentation takes about 60 hours. Once fermentation is complete the resulting liquid is distilled four times to a strength of 96.4% ABV....
vodka was included in several scenes. The product placement begins with actor Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is an English actor. He has received international attention from playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and for his role as Charlie Pace on the television show Lost....
stealing
Shoplifting
Shoplifting is theft of goods from a retail establishment. It is one of the most common property crimes dealt with by police and courts....
a bottle of the vodka, after which he and actress Megan Fox
Megan Fox
Megan Denise Fox is an American actress and model. She began her acting career in 2001 with several minor television and film roles, and played a regular role on Hope & Faith. In 2004, she launched her film career with a role in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen...
drink from it on the roof of the liquor store
Liquor store
In the United States, Australia and Canada, a liquor store is a type of store that specializes in the sale of alcoholic beverages. In South Africa and Namibia these stores are generally called bottle stores....
.
In the game Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a racing video game developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth installment in the Need for Speed series. The game features street racing-oriented game play, with certain customization options from the Need for Speed: Underground series...
there are several ads for Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
, such as bilboards and restaurants.
In addition to placing brand specific elements within the context of a given program, entire formats of media have been created to feature individual brands within the context of a genre. An example of this is The Corkscrew Diary (2006), in which this travelogue about wine and food features emerging destination estates and the wines they produce.
Travel
The promotion of individual travel destinations and services ranges from subtle to overt.While the award of "an all expense-paid trip" to some destination as a game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
prize or an acknowledgement in a show's closing credits that transportation for participants was provided by a specific airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
had long been commonplace in commercial television, a more refined approach to promoting a travel destination is to assist and subsidise film production companies willing to set their story in or shoot footage on-location at the destination being promoted.
A movie set in an individual travel destination can be a valuable advertisement. According to State of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
film commissioner Paul Sirmons, "the movies create huge, larger-than-life ads for where they are shot. CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
draws people from overseas to Miami. Seaside
Seaside, Florida
Seaside is an unincorporated master-planned community on the Florida panhandle in Walton County, between Panama City Beach and Destin. The town has become the topic of slide lectures in architectural schools and in housing-industry magazines, and is visited by design professionals from all over the...
, was put on the map by 'The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
[(1998)] Movies just keep playing year after year getting the images out there."
The television series The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
(1977–1986) was set aboard the Pacific Princess, a ship of the Princess Cruise Lines. As an advertisement, this product placement was valuable enough that printed advertisements for the line would employ the trademarked slogan
Advertising slogan
Advertising slogans are short, often memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. A strapline is a British term used as a secondary sentence attached to a brand name...
"It's more than a cruise, it's the Love Boat" until 2002.
A fictional Pan Am "Space Clipper," a commercial spaceplane called the Orion III, had a prominent role in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
, featured in the movie's poster. The film's sequel, 2010, also featured Pan Am in a background television commercial in the home of David Bowman's widow. In the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games...
, one of the ships in the fleet is a "Pan Galactic" or "Pan Gal" starliner. The ship bears Pan Am colors and the Pan Gal logo is nearly identical to Pan American's old logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
.
The airline's 707 appeared in several James Bond films including Dr. No
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
, From Russia with Love
From Russia with Love (film)
From Russia with Love is the second in the James Bond spy film series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1963, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel of the...
, and Casino Royale
Casino Royale (1967 film)
Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
, while a Pan Am 747 and the Worldport appeared in Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die (film)
Live and Let Die is the eighth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman...
. The airline's logo was featured in Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
, where James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
checks in for a Pan Am flight that he ultimately does not board.
Tobacco
Tobacco companies have made direct payment to stars for using their cigarettes in films. Documentation of $500,000 in payments to Sylvester StalloneSylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
to "use Brown and Williamson tobacco products in no less than five feature films" is accessible online as part of the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library is a digital archive of tobacco industry documents, funded by the American Legacy Foundation and created and maintained by the University of California, San Francisco...
.
The James Bond film Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
(1989) featured use of the Lark
Lark (cigarette)
Lark is a brand of cigarettes introduced in 1963 by Liggett & Myers and notable for its charcoal filter and past advertising campaigns, among which was one featuring people on the street being asked to "Show us your Lark pack".-Brand history and ownership:...
brand of cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
and the producers accepted payment for that product placement. The studio's executives apparently believed that the placement triggered the American warning notice requirement for cigarette advertisements and thus the movie carried the Surgeon General's Warning
Tobacco packaging warning signs
Tobacco packaging warning messages are health warning messages that appear on the packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products. They have been implemented in an effort to enhance the public's awareness of the harmful effects of smoking. In general, warnings used in different countries try to...
at the end credits of the film. This brought forth calls for banning such cigarette advertisements in future films. Later releases of License to Kill, especially for video and television releases, had the Lark pack replaced with a similar-looking, generic pack. Most movies, such as the youth-targeted Ramen Girl, which has a product placement for Marlboro cigarettes, omit the Surgeon General's Warning.
Reviewing previously secret tobacco advertising documents, the British Medical Journal
British Medical Journal
BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...
concluded:
The tobacco industry recruits new smokers by associating its products with fun, excitement, sex, wealth, and power and as a means of expressing rebellion and independence. One of the ways it has found to promote these associations has been to encourage smoking in entertainment productions.1 Exposure to smoking in entertainment media is associated with increased smoking and favourable attitudes towards tobacco use among adolescents.
While the tobacco industry has routinely denied active involvement in entertainment programming, previously secret tobacco industry documents made available in the USA show that the industry has had a long and deep relationship with Hollywood. Placing tobacco products in movies and on television (fig 1Go), encouraging celebrity use and endorsement, advertising in entertainment oriented magazines, designing advertising campaigns to reflect Hollywood glamour, and sponsoring entertainment oriented events have all been part of the industry's relationship with the entertainment industry.
-- How the tobacco industry built its relationship with Hollywood, BMJ 2002
Reality television
Product-placement advertisements can be common in reality televisionReality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
shows. For example the well-known Russian television show дом-2 (phoneticly Dom-2
Dom-2
Dom-2 is a Russian reality television show created by TNT channel. In the show, contestants are building a house and trying to find someone to love in the process. Couples then compete for the house itself....
) (similar to Big Brother
Big Brother (TV series)
Big Brother is a television show in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are usually fewer than 15 participants. The housemates try to win a cash...
) often features one of the participants stating something along the lines of: "Oh, did you check out the new product X by company Y yet?" after which the camera zooms in onto the named product. It has been claimed that the participants get paid for it. Recently in the United States series The Real World/Road Rules Challenge participants often state a similar line, usually pertaining to the mobile device and carrier a text message has been received.
"Extreme Makeover has several sponsors with prominent placement deals: Sears, Ford and Pella Windows to name three. Seeing the designers go off to Sears every episode and deck out the house with Kenmore appliances, is not just a sponsorship, it’s integral to the subject family getting their lives back.".
Public and educational television
In the United States, most educational televisionEducational television
Educational television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable television in the United States as Public, educational, and government access ...
operates under a funding model in which local stations receive donations from "Viewers Like You" but do not interrupt programming directly with spot advertising. While the use of underwriting as a form of indirect advertisement ("Production [or local acquisition] of this programme is made possible by X, makers of Y") is permissible and common on non-commercial educational
Non-commercial educational
The term non-commercial educational applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements , as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission . NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum...
stations, price comparisons or calls to action ("Buy X now, ten cents off, this week only!") of the form used by commercial television
Commercial Television
Commercial Television was the third free-to-air broadcast television station in Hong Kong. It first went on air in 1975, and ceased transmissions in 1978.-History:...
are expressly prohibited as a condition of the station's license.
It may therefore make good business sense for an underwriter of an educational programme to obtain greater visibility through a form of promotional consideration in which (for instance) a manufacturer of woodworking tools could, instead of merely donating money to fund production of a popular home-improvement show, go one step further by also providing the tools used on-air to build the individual projects.
This approach is suitable both for commercial and non-commercial television, but requires very careful targeting to match a product to a show that naturally would already use that product. A program-like commercial The Learning Channel
TLC (TV channel)
TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...
's Trading Spaces
Trading Spaces
Trading Spaces is an hour-long American television reality program that aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series Changing Rooms. The show ran for eight seasons....
is an ideal fit for a vendor such as Home Depot. Non-commercial broadcasts such as PBS's The New Yankee Workshop
The New Yankee Workshop
The New Yankee Workshop was a woodworking program produced by WGBH Boston, which aired on PBS. Created in 1989 by Russell Morash, the program was hosted by Norm Abram, a regular fixture on Morash's This Old House...
would represent an ideal fit for power tool makers Porter-Cable, Delta Machinery
Delta Machinery
Delta Power Equipment Corp. designs, manufactures and distributes power woodworking tools under the Delta Machinery brand.-History:Delta traces its roots to the Delta Specialty Company founded by Herbert Tautz in 1919 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
and Vermont-American while a program like The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show is a Canadian television comedy that aired on various channels in Canada, with its ultimate home at CBC Television, and on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States, from 1991 until the series finale April 7, 2006 on CBC...
could represent an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a manufacturer of duct tape
Duct tape
Duct tape, or duck tape, is cloth- or scrim-backed pressure sensitive tape often sealed with polyethylene. It is very similar to gaffer tape but differs in that gaffer tape was designed to be cleanly removed, while duct tape was not. It has a standard width of and is generally silver or black...
.
One unusual placement is American Public Television
American Public Television
American Public Television is the largest syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States.-History:...
's Classical Stretch, a long-running series of physical fitness lessons hosted by Montréal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
's Miranda Esmonde-White with the first three seasons distributed by New York Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(PBS) primary member station WPBS-TV
WPBS-TV
WPBS-DT and WNPI-DT are a Public Broadcasting Service member Public television station serving northern New York. Originating in the Watertown/Potsdam region, its primary audience includes Kingston, Ottawa and most of eastern Ontario....
. As the market for physical-fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
advice is largely saturated, Classical Stretch endeavours to differentiate itself from the many existing programmes in its genre by having everything take place outdoors, on a tropical beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
, with unobtrusive classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
in the background. In theory, this could prohibitively increase a non-commercial program's production costs; in reality, the costs of relocating production and constructing necessary facilities are readily borne by the show's underwriters, a travel company and a luxury resort
Resort
A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....
in Riviera Maya
Riviera Maya
Riviera Maya, also known as the Mayan Riviera, is a tourism district following the coastal Highway 307 which parallels the Caribbean coastline of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, located on the eastern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Television programs
List of television shows with the most instances of product placement (11/07–11/08; Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
)
- The Biggest Loser – 6,248
- American IdolAmerican IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
– 4,636 - Extreme Makeover: Home EditionExtreme Makeover: Home EditionExtreme Makeover: Home Edition is a reality television series providing home renovations for less fortunate families and community schools etc...
– 3,371 - America's Toughest JobsAmerica's Toughest JobsAmerica's Toughest Jobs is a reality television show that lasted one season and aired on the American television network NBC. It pitted contestants against each other as they attempted a series of difficult and dangerous jobs...
– 2,807 - One Tree HillOne Tree Hill (TV series)One Tree Hill is an American television drama created by Mark Schwahn, which premiered on September 23, 2003, on The WB Television Network. After its third season, The WB merged with UPN to form The CW Television Network, and, since September 27, 2006, the network has been the official broadcaster...
– 2,575
- Deal or No DealDeal or No DealDeal or No Deal is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which was the Dutch Miljoenenjacht produced by Dutch producer Endemol. It is played with up to 26 cases with certain sums of money...
– 2,292 - America's Next Top ModelAmerica's Next Top ModelAmerica's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
– 2,241 - Last Comic StandingLast Comic StandingLast Comic Standing is an American reality television talent show that has aired from 2003 through 2010.The goal of the program is to select a comedian from a group, who will receive a development contract with the NBC network, and a television special first to air on the cable-TV network Comedy...
– 1,993 - Kitchen NightmaresKitchen NightmaresKitchen Nightmares is an American reality television series broadcast on the Fox network, in which Chef Gordon Ramsay spends a week with a failing restaurant in an attempt to revive the business. It is based on the British show Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The show is produced by ITV Studios...
– 1,853 - Hell's KitchenHell's Kitchen (U.S.)Hell's Kitchen is an American reality-television cooking competition broadcast on Fox...
– 1,807
Advertiser-produced programming
In 2010 Wal-MartWal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
teamed with Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
to produce Secrets of the Mountain
Secrets of the Mountain
Secrets of the Mountain is the first in a series of a made for TV movie produced by Procter & Gamble and Walmart aimed at families.The movie and other in the series feature embedded marketing of Procter & Gamble and Walmart products....
and The Jensen Project
The Jensen Project
The Jensen Project is the second in a series of a TV movies produced by Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart aimed at families. The movie featured embedded marketing for the Kinect, a motion sensor add-on to the Xbox 360, several months before the product's launch. Ratings for the July 16, 2010 airing on...
, both family-oriented
Family film
A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...
, television films which feature the characters using Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble- branded products. The Jensen Project also features a preview of a not-then-released Kinect, the new motion controller
Motion Controller
A motion controller controls the motion of some object. Frequently motion controllers are implemented using digital computers, but motion controllers can also be implemented with only analog components as well.-Implementation:...
for microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
Comic publishing
South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n football comic Supa Strikas
Supa Strikas
Supa Strikas is a pan-African football -themed comic and animated television series about the world’s greatest football team. Despite their enormous talent, the players must adapt in a game where being the best is only the beginning, and where the opposition is always full of surprises. The Supa...
uses product placement within its pages to promote a variety of brands, and allow for the comic's free distribution to its readers around the world. Product placement occurs throughout the publication; on the players' shirts, through placed billboards and signage, and through the branding of locations or scenarios.
Globally, Supa Strikas receives the majority of its support from Chevron
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...
, which sponsors the comic series through its Caltex
Caltex
Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in more than 60 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and southern Africa.-History:...
and Texaco
Texaco
Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....
brands. These brands are displayed as the shirt sponsors for the Supa Strikas team across Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
, Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Malaysia.
In other markets—where Chevron lacks a presence—other headline brands sponsor the team's kit, including Visa in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
and Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
; GTBank
Guaranty Trust Bank
Guaranty Trust Bank plc also known as GTB or GT Bank is the third biggest, but most profitable bank in Nigeria based in Victoria Island, Lagos.- History :Registered on January 17, 1990 by Central Bank of Nigeria....
in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
; and Henkel
Henkel
Henkel AG & Co. KGaA is an multinational company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.The company operates in three business areas: Home Care , Personal Care ,...
's Loctite
Loctite
Loctite is a brand of adhesives, sealants and surface treatments that include acrylic, anaerobic, cyanoacrylate, epoxy, hot melt, silicone, urethane and UV/light curing technologies...
brand in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. In addition, other brands also receive advertising in the comics and animation, with their logos included as both billboard and background advertising, and through the branding of locations and scenarios. These companies include Metropolitan Life, Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
, Spur Steak Ranches and the South African National Roads Agency
South African National Roads Agency
The South African National Roads Agency Limited or SANRAL is a South African parastatal responsible for the management, maintenance and development of South Africa's national road network.- History :...
, among others.
This innovative approach to comic publication has seen the brand grow dramatically over the last few years, with Supa Strikas now reaching an estimated ten million readers a week worldwide. Today, the comic is available across Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
(Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Kenya, Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
, Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, Nigeria, Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
); in Latin America (Brazil, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
); in Europe (Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
); and Asia (Malaysia).
The Supa Strikas model has shown considerable successes, leading to the creation of a number of other titles which use the same system. These include cricket comic Supa Tigers, which is distributed in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, and Strike Zone, a baseball comic based in Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
.
Music and recording industries
While radio and television stations are at least in theory strictly regulated by national governments, producers of printed or recorded works are not, leading marketers in some cases to attempt to get advertisers' brands mentioned in lyrics of popular songs.A recent popularity of product placement in music videos and actual song lyrics can be accredited to The Kluger Agency
The Kluger Agency
The Kluger Agency is a full service non-traditional Advertising Agency with a focus on strategic partnerships and product placement within the music industry...
. Due to the repetitive nature of a popular song and its effects on pop culture as a whole, Product Placement or what the music industry calls "Brand Partnerships" are becoming a more effective way to create a trend practically overnight.
In January 2009, an album Migra Corridos with five songs including accordion ballad "El Mas Grande Enemigo" had received airplay on twenty-five Mexican radio stations. The tune purports to be the lament of a would-be immigrant left to die in the Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
desert by coyotes (people smugglers)
People smuggling
People smuggling is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents"...
. No disclosure was made to the radio stations that the U.S. Border Patrol
United States Border Patrol
The United States Border Patrol is a federal law enforcement agency within U.S. Customs and Border Protection , a component of the Department of Homeland Security . It is an agency in the Department of Homeland Security that enforces laws and regulations for the admission of foreign-born persons to...
had commissioned the compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
with content devised by Elevación, a Hispanic advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
based in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Payola and legal considerations
Much of the current body of broadcast lawBroadcast law
Broadcast law is the field of law which pertains to broadcasting. These laws and regulations pertain to radio stations and TV stations, and are also considered to include closely related services like cable TV and cable radio, as well as satellite TV and satellite radio...
pertaining to the obligation of licensed broadcasters to disclose to audiences when they (or their staff) receive money or valuables in return for on-air promotion of a product dates to the payola
Payola
Payola, in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Under U.S...
scandals of 1950s broadcast radio.
An investigation launched in November 1959 into allegations that some radio disc jockeys had accepted bribes in return for radio airplay led to the indictment of disc jockey Alan Freed
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
(of WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
and WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
) on May 9, 1960; he would be fined for accepting $2,500 to play certain songs, a violation of commercial bribery laws, and would ultimately lose his employment in commercial radio. On September 13, 1960, the U.S. government acted to ban payola in broadcasting. Under current U.S. law, Section 317 of the Communications Act states that "All matter broadcast by any radio station for which money, service, or other valuable consideration is directly or indirectly paid, or promised to or charged or accepted by, the station so broadcasting, from any person, shall, at the time the same is so broadcast, be announced as paid for or furnished, as the case may be, by such person. . ." with similar and related provisions reflected in Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
regulations as CFR 47, Section 73.1212.
While these provisions have been taken into legal consideration in subsequent payola investigations, including one 2005 investigation by New York State Attorney General
New York State Attorney General
The New York State Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of New York. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government of New York.The current Attorney General is Eric Schneiderman...
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, former Democratic Party politician, and political commentator. He was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN until CNN cancelled his show in July of 2011...
into Sony BMG and other major record companies, it is probable that a regulation requiring advertisements and advertisers to be clearly identified has far broader implications in many areas, including that of the use of product placement by advertisers in broadcast programming.
Often, a broadcaster will claim to have complied with the regulation by placing some form of acknowledgement of promotional consideration in an inconspicuous place in a broadcast - such as embedded within a portion of a programme's closing credits. The question of whether adequate disclosure is being provided, however, remains open; the issue was raised in 2005 by FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, on the grounds that "some will tell you that if broadcasters and cable TV companies insist on further commercializing new and other shows alike, that is their business. But if they do so without disclosing it to the viewing public, that is payola, and that is the FCC’s business." In 2008, the Federal Communications Commission gave notice of proposed rulemaking, in which it proposed to require more disclosure of product placement. According to Adelstein, "You shouldn't need a magnifying glass to know who's pitching you... A crawl at the end of the show shrunk down so small the human eye can't read it isn't really in the spirit of the law."
Within the United Kingdom, new legislation governing product placement fell into line with EU rulings in March of 2011. For UK Producers this has opened the door to creating new funding solutions for programming.
Extreme and unusual examples
The film I, RobotI, Robot (film)
I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del...
, though set in the future, makes heavy use of product placements for Converse trainers, Ovaltine
Ovaltine
Ovaltine is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract , sugar , cocoa, and whey...
, Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
, FedEx
FedEx
FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...
, Dos Equis, and JVC
JVC
, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
among others, all of them introduced within the first ten minutes of the film. One particularly infamous scene borders into an actual advertisement in which a character compliments Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
's character's shoes to which he replies "Converse All-Stars, vintage 2004." (the year of the film's release). Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
invested the most on the film, going so far as to create a special car for the film, the Audi RSQ
Audi RSQ
The Audi RSQ is a mid-engined concept car developed by Audi AG for use as a product placement in the 2004 sci-fi film I, Robot. It is meant to depict a technologically advanced automobile in the Chicago cityscape from the year 2035....
. It was expected that the placement would increase brand awareness and raise the emotional appeal of the Audi brand, objectives that were considered achieved when surveys conducted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
showed that the Audi RSQ gave a substantial boost to the image ratings of the brand. The Audi RSQ is seen during nine minutes of the film, although other Audis like the Audi A6
Audi A6
The Audi A6 is an executive car marketed by the German automaker Audi AG, now in its fourth generation. As the successor to the Audi 100, the A6 is manufactured in Neckarsulm, Germany – and is available in saloon, and wagon configurations, the latter marketed by Audi as the Avant.All generations...
, the Audi TT
Audi TT
The Audi TT is a two-door sports car manufactured by the German automaker and Volkswagen Group subsidiary Audi since 1998.The Audi TT has been produced in two generations. Both generations have been available in two car body styles; as a 2+2 Coupé, or two-seater Roadster...
and the Audi A2
Audi A2
The Audi A2 is a Compact MPV styled five-door four- or five-seat hatchback designed supermini, produced by the German automaker Audi AG from November 1999 to 2005...
can be seen sprinkled throughout the film. I, Robot was ranked "the worst film for product placement" on a British site.
The film 17 Again
17 Again (film)
17 Again: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on April 21, 2009 by New Line Records.-Track listing:# "On My Own" by Vincent and The Villains# "Can't Say No" by The Helio Sequence# "L.E.S...
makes heavy use of product placement featuring cereals, sandwich fillers, chips, stereo systems, and auto mobiles.
The film Demolition Man
Demolition Man (film)
Demolition Man is a 1993 American, science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla, and starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, and Denis Leary co-star....
makes heavy mention of Taco Bell, which in the film's setting is the only restaurant chain left in society. The film uses this to comic effect but never disparagingly.
The film The Island
The Island (2005 film)
The Island is a 2005 American science fiction/thriller film directed by Michael Bay and starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It was released on July 22, 2005 in the United States, and was nominated for three awards including the Teen Choice Award....
, directed by Michael Bay
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
, features at least 35 individual products or brands, including cars, bottled water
Bottled water
Bottled water is drinking water packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not...
, shoes, credit cards, beer, ice cream, and even a search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
. The film was highly criticized for this. In the movie's DVD Commentary track, Michael Bay claims he added the advertisements for realism purposes.
The comedy film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a 2006 American comedy film, directed by Adam McKay and starring Will Ferrell. The film also features John C. Reilly, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Amy Adams, Gary Cole, Jane Lynch, and Sacha Baron Cohen. Various Saturday Night Live alumni also...
also contained a high amount of product placement, as a parody of the large amount of sponsorship in the sport itself. Characters repeatedly mention brands under the disguise of NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
sponsorship. The movie contains possibly the first instance of an actual television commercial in a movie. It was intended to mock the controversy with NASCAR fans under the Unified Television Contract 2001-06 where they criticised the excessive number of commercial breaks during races.
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie is a 1987 live action musical film adaptation of the popular series of children's trading cards directed by Rod Amateau. The cards were a parody of the popular Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and each card featured a character that typically had a gross habit or abnormality...
, a massive cinematic flop from 1987 prominently featured Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
in a scene where the titular characters steal a Pepsi delivery truck.
Bill Cosby's film Leonard Part 6
Leonard Part 6
Leonard Part 6 is a 1987 comedy film that parodies spy movies. It was directed by Paul Weiland and starred Bill Cosby, who also produced the film and wrote its story. The movie also starred Joe Don Baker and Gloria Foster, the latter of whom played the villain. The movie was filmed in the San...
was widely criticized for its Coca Cola product placements, as was The Wizard
The Wizard (film)
The Wizard is a 1989 adventure dramedy film starring Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, and Jenny Lewis...
for Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
products.
The film Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical comedy-drama film based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor...
makes heavy handed use of a Sara Lee placement by mentioning it six times throughout the movie.
The 2001 film Evolution
Evolution (film)
Evolution is a 2001 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Julianne Moore and Ted Levine...
features product placement integral to the entire film. When mutated lifeforms attack earth, the characters use a large amount of Head & Shoulders
Head & Shoulders
Head & Shoulders is a brand of anti-dandruff shampoo produced by Procter & Gamble. Head & Shoulders Classic Clean Shampoo is the top-selling shampoo in the United States by dollar sales.- History :...
dandruff shampoo as a source of selenium disulfide, which is poisonous to the creatures.
The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats featured a large amount of blatant product placement for brands such as Puma
PUMA AG
Puma SE, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two...
, Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
, McDonalds and TJ Maxx. This appears to be done ironically, as the plot of the film revolves around subliminal messages in advertising. The film's general message can also be construed as an anti-consumerist one. The producers neither sought nor received compensation for featuring the brands in the film.
The Japanese animated series Code Geass is sponsored by the Japanese branch of Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
. Despite the fact that the series is set in an alternate reality, at least one main character is depicted ordering and receiving a Pizza Hut pizza on several occasions. The company's logo also appears throughout the series.
The 1994 comedy North
North
North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.North is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the top side of a map is north....
features Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
as a Federal Express truck driver in one of his numerous cameos in the film, dubbing FedEx "guardians of your most important packages and priority communiques". In his highly negative review of the film, film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
made special light of this scene.
The 2009 film Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, in a scene where young James Kirk drives and crashes an old corvette, he operates a Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
touch-screen smartphone. Before the car crashes, audiences will hear the Nokia trademark ring tone. The Finnish phone maker is even offering Star Trek applications.
The film The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella...
(2003) contained product placement where all residents of the town drive a Ford Focus.
Mac and Me
Mac and Me
Mac and Me is a 1988 sci-fi fantasy film co-written and directed by Stewart Raffill about a "Mysterious Alien Creature" escapes from nefarious NASA agents and is befriended by a young boy who uses a wheelchair. Together, they try to find MAC's family, from whom he has been separated...
blatantly promotes McDonalds, Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
and Skittles
Skittles
Skittles may refer to:*Skittles , a small candy made in many flavors*Skittles , the game from which bowling originated*Skittles , a casual chess game in chess jargon...
.
Self-criticism
The pilot episodePilot (30 Rock)
The pilot episode of the American situation comedy series 30 Rock premiered on October 10, 2006 on the CTV Television Network in Canada, and October 11, 2006 on NBC in the United States...
of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcom 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
featured the General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
(at the time an 80% owner of NBC) Trivection oven
Trivection oven
The Trivection oven is a convection microwave created by General Electric, which combines radiant heat, convection and microwaves for customized cooking...
, which was viewed as product placement by some but said to be a joke by the show's creator. The show has gone on to parody product placement.
The 1988 film Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Return of the Killer Tomatoes! was the first sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.-Synopsis:Set twenty five years after the events of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes , the basic plotline is that after the events of the first film...
utilised the concept in a parodic manner—at one point, the film stops, as money to produce it ran out. The film's producer (portrayed by George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
) steps in, suggesting product placement as a way to recoup the losses. This was followed by several scenes with blatant product placement, including a Pepsi billboard installed in front of the villain's mansion.
The film Minority Report
Minority Report (film)
Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...
, makes heavy use of product placement, including Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
, Gap
Gap (clothing retailer)
The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...
, and Lexus
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, Lexus is now sold globally and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. The Lexus marque is marketed in over 70 countries and territories worldwide, and has...
. Director Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
also uses one scene to demonstrate the potential intrusion of one-to-one electronic advertising: the main character (Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
) is harassed by personalized advertisements calling out his own name.
The film Fight Club
Fight Club (film)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
, directed by David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
, bit the hand that fed it by depicting acts of violence against most of the products that paid to be placed in the film. Examples include the scene where the Apple Store
Apple Store (retail)
The Apple Retail Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc., dealing in computers and consumer electronics. The stores sell Macintosh personal computers, software, iPods, iPads, iPhones, third-party accessories, and other consumer electronics such as Apple TV...
is broken into, the scene in which Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
and Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
smash the headlights of a new Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen New Beetle
-Specifications:*Dimension:**Length: **Width: **Height: **Wheelbase: **Curb weight: *Max speed: 177–210 km/h *Acceleration : 6.5-13.2 sec-Body styles:-Engine choices:-Safety:...
, and trying to blow up a 'popular coffee franchise', a thinly veiled dig at Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
.
The film Superstar
Superstar (film)
Superstar is a 1999 comedy film and Saturday Night Live spin-off about a quirky, socially inept girl named Mary Katherine Gallagher. The character was created by SNL star Molly Shannon and appeared as a recurring character on SNL in numerous skits. The story follows Mary Katherine trying to find...
, starring Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
and Molly Shannon
Molly Shannon
Molly Helen Shannon is an American comic actress best known for her work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995–2001 and for starring in the films Superstar and Year of the Dog. More recently, she starred in NBC's Kath & Kim from 2008–2009 and on the TBS animated series Neighbors from...
, shows every resident in town driving VW New Beetles. However, it is possible that this was done for comic effect. Similarly, the film Mr. Deeds
Mr. Deeds
Mr. Deeds is a 2002 American comedy film, directed by Steven Brill and starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder. The movie, which is loosely a remake of the 1936 film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, also stars Peter Gallagher, John Turturro, Allen Covert and Steve Buscemi...
shows the main character Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
purchasing a Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors that has been produced in six generations. The first model, a convertible, was designed by Harley Earl and introduced at the GM Motorama in 1953 as a concept show car. Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after...
for every resident of his town.
The comedy film Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
Kung Pow! Enter the Fist is a 2002 American comedy film that parodies Hong Kong action cinema. Starring Steve Oedekerk, it uses and manipulates footage from the 1976 Hong Kong martial arts movie Tiger and Crane Fist Kung Pow! Enter the Fist is a 2002 American comedy film that parodies Hong Kong...
also attempted to spoof its product placements, clearly pointing out the anachronistic inclusion of a Taco Bell
Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
in the film. In a similar vein, in Looney Tunes: Back In Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 American live action/animated adventure comedy film directed by Joe Dante and starring Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Timothy Dalton, and Steve Martin. The film is essentially a feature-length Looney Tunes cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical...
the main characters stumble across a Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
while stranded in the middle of Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
and get all necessary supplies for their endorsement of the company. The television show Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens poked fun at its sponsor Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
in one episode, by having one character give another a Blu-Ray disc with the tagline "It's a Sony", only for them to complain that they do not have a Blu-ray player, to which the character responds by producing a copy in Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
, again with the line "It's a Sony".
Faux product placement and parodies
- For further information, see Fictional brandsFictional brandsA fictional brand is a non-existing brand used in artistic or entertainment productions – paintings, books, comics, movies, TV serials, etc. The fictional brand may be designed to imitate a real corporate brand, satirize a real corporate brand, or differentiate itself from real corporate brands...
.
The 1992 film Wayne's World
Wayne's World (film)
Wayne's World is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Mike Myers in his film debut as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, hosts of the Aurora, Illinois-based Public-access television cable TV show Wayne's World...
included a parody in which both Wayne and Garth decry product placement while at the same time blatantly promoting many products by looking directly at the camera, holding up the product, smiling widely, and sometimes giving a thumbs-up.
The TV series X-Files (1993–2002) frequently featured the fictional Morley brand of cigarettes, the choice of the Cigarette Smoking Man
Cigarette Smoking Man
The Smoking Man is a fictional character and the antagonist on the American science fiction television series The X-Files. He serves as the arch-nemesis of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder. Although his name is revealed to purportedly be C.G.B...
. The company producing Morleys was also involved in a cover-up conspiracy in episode 18 of season seven, Brand X
Brand X
Brand X was a jazz fusion band active between 1975–1980 and 1992-1999. Noted members included Phil Collins , Percy Jones , John Goodsall and Robin Lumley ....
(Original Air Date—16 April 2000).
The 1984 film "Ghostbusters" had a Faux product in the climax of the film when the team faces the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
The 1998 film The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
utilized the concept, although in a manner different than other films. The film's premise, a 24-hour television broadcast called "The Truman Show" that focuses on the life of Truman Burbank, uses faux product placement. His wife places products in front of the hidden cameras, even naming certain products in dialogue with her husband, all of which increases Truman's suspicion as he comes to realize his surroundings are intentionally fabricated.
Some filmmakers have responded to product placement by creating fictional products that frequently appear in the movies they make. Examples include:
- Kevin SmithKevin SmithKevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
– Nails Cigarettes, Mooby Corporation, Chewlees Gum, Discreeto Burritos - Quentin TarantinoQuentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
– Red Apple Cigarettes, Jack Rabbit Slim's Restaurants, Big Kahuna Burger - Robert RodriguezRobert RodriguezRobert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
– Chango Beer - Pixar Animation Studios – Pizza Planet, Dinoco
- Warner Brothers – Acme CorporationAcme CorporationThe Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail catastrophically at the worst possible times...
- Coen BrothersCoen BrothersJoel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
– Dapper Dan Hair Wax - JJ Abrams – Slusho Drinks
- Spike LeeSpike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
– Da Bomb malt liquor; Sal's Pizza
This practice is also fairly common in certain comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
, such as Svetlana Chmakova
Svetlana Chmakova
Svetlana Chmakova is a comic creator. She is best known for Dramacon, an original English-language manga spanning three volumes and published in North America by Tokyopop. Her other work includes the 2-page The Adventures of CG for CosmoGIRL! magazine and the webcomic Chasing Rainbows for...
's Dramacon
Dramacon
Dramacon is an original English-language manga written and illustrated by Svetlana Chmakova. It was published in three volumes by Tokyopop from October 11, 2005 to December 11, 2007...
, which makes several product-placement-esque usages of "Pawky", (a modification of the name of the Japanese snack "Pocky
Pocky
is a Japanese snack food produced by the Ezaki Glico Company of Japan.-History:Pocky was first sold in 1966, and consists of a biscuit stick coated with chocolate. It was named after the Japanese onomatopoetic word for the sound Pocky makes when bitten, pokkin . The original was followed by...
", popular among the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
fan community in which the story is set) or Naoko Takeuchi
Naoko Takeuchi
is a Japanese manga artist who lives in Tokyo, Japan. Takeuchi's works have a wide following among anime and manga fans worldwide. Her most popular work, Sailor Moon, rose to become one of the most recognized manga and anime products to date.-Early life:...
's Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...
, which includes numerous references to the series Codename: Sailor V, which Sailor Moon was spun off of; the anime makes further use of this meta-referential
Meta-reference
Metareference, a metafiction technique, is a situation in a work of fiction whereby characters display an awareness that they are in such a work, such as a film, television show or book. Sometimes it may even just be a form of editing or film-making technique that comments on the...
gag, going so far as having an animator on a Codename: Sailor V feature film be a victim in one episode.
This practice is also common in certain "reality-based" video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
, which feature fictitious stores such as Ammu-Nation, Vinyl Countdown, Gash (spoofing Gap
Gap (clothing retailer)
The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...
. Another spoof was made in GTA: San Andreas with Zip), Pizza Boy, etc.
Reverse placement
So-called "reverse product placement" takes "faux product placement" a step further, by creating products in real life to match those seen in a fictional setting. For example, in 2007, 7-Eleven7-Eleven
7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...
rebranded 11 of its American stores and one Canadian store as "Kwik-E-Mart
Kwik-E-Mart
The Kwik-E-Mart is a fictional chain of convenience stores in the animated television series The Simpsons. It is a parody of American convenience store chains, such as 7-Eleven and Circle K, and represents many myths and stereotypes of them. It is notorious for its high prices and the poor quality...
s", selling some real-life versions of products seen in episodes of the Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
such as Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's cereal. In 1997, Acme Communications
ACME Communications
ACME Communications is a United States-based television broadcasting company. The company was co-founded by current Chairman and former CEO Jamie Kellner, who previously served as a Fox Television Network executive and was founding CEO of The WB Television Network. Kellner used the name Acme as a...
was created as a chain of real television stations; the firm is named for the fictional Acme Corporation
Acme Corporation
The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail catastrophically at the worst possible times...
of Warner Brothers fame.
In 1949, Crazy Eddie
Crazy Eddie
Crazy Eddie is the name of a consumer electronics retailer conducting business through the internet and by telephone. The venture is the most recent to be doing business under the Crazy Eddie name, with the most well known being a chain of retail stores that operated throughout New York, New...
was created as a fictional car dealer in the film A Letter to Three Wives
A Letter to Three Wives
A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 film which tells the story of a woman who mails a letter to three women, telling them she has left town with the husband of one of them. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas in his film debut, Jeffrey Lynn, and Thelma Ritter...
. That name, bestowed in 1971 upon a real-life electronics chain in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, appeared in 1984 as advertising placement in Splash
Splash (film)
Splash is a 1984 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge...
; a 1989 parody, UHF
UHF (film)
UHF is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva, in whose memory the film is dedicated.The title refers to Ultra High Frequency...
, completed the circle by depicting a Crazy Ernie using a hard sell
Hard sell
In advertising, a hard sell is an advertisement or campaign that uses a more direct, forceful, and overt sales message. This approach works in opposition to a soft sell....
of "buy this car or I'll club a seal" as a TV ad campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
.
In the 1984 cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
Repo Man, a reverse form of product placement is used, with an exaggerated form of 1980s era generic
Generic brand
Generic brands of consumer products are distinguished by the absence of a brand name. It is often inaccurate to describe these products as "lacking a brand name", as they usually are branded, albeit with either the brand of the store in which they are sold or a lesser-known brand name which may...
packaging used on products prominently shown on-screen (these include "Beer", "Drink", "Dry Gin" and "Food - Meat Flavored").
Virtual placement
Virtual product placement uses computer graphics to insert the product into the program after the program is complete.As of 2007, a new trend is emerging in product placement, the development of capabilities that permit dynamic or switchable product placement. Previously post production tools have permitted one time insertion of new product placement images and billboard advertising, notable in televised at baseball and hockey games. As of 2007, startup
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
s are offering or developing the ability to switch product placement. First generation virtual product placement has tended to be based upon sports arenas where the geometrical relationships of camera and the surface of the flat area onto which the billboard is projected, can be easily calculated. Second generation product placement or dynamic product placement is more focused upon commercial products. Third generation virtual or dynamic product placement allows targeting of customers with different products that can be dynamically switched based upon such factors as demographics, psychographics or behavioral information about the consumer.
Where game software has access to a user's Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
connection, marketers gain the ability change displayed in-game advertisements on the fly. More controversially, in-game advertising vendors such as Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
-owned Massive Incorporated
Massive Incorporated
Massive Incorporated is an advertising company that provides software and services to dynamically host advertisements within video games. Massive Incorporated was purchased by Microsoft in May 2006 for approximately $200 million to $400 million....
may use software to transmit user information to their servers, such as individual player IDs and data about what was on the screen and for how long.
Also of interest are hypervideo
Hypervideo
Hypervideo, or hyperlinked video, is a displayed video stream that contains embedded, user-clickable anchors, allowing navigation between video and other hypermedia elements. Hypervideo is thus analogous to hypertext, which allows a reader to click on a word in one document and retrieve...
techniques that can insert interactive elements into online video.
Viewer Response
This means of advertisement triggered an unusual viewer response in April 2009, when fans of the television series ChuckChuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
took advantage of product placement in the series by the restaurant chain Subway
Subway (restaurant)
Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...
as part of a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
effort to save the show from cancellation. The movement gained support from several cast and crew members, with series star Zachary Levi
Zachary Levi
Zachary Levi Pugh , better known by his stage name Zachary Levi , is an American television actor, director, and singer known for the roles of Kipp Steadman in Less than Perfect, Chuck Bartowski in Chuck, and Flynn Rider in Tangled.- Early life :Zachary Levi Pugh was born in Lake Charles,...
leading hundreds of fans to a Subway restaurant in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and garnered significant attention in online media.
Product displacement
According to Danny BoyleDanny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
, director of film Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
(2008), the makers had to resort to something he calls "product displacement
Product displacement
Product displacement is the removing of trademarked products from primarily visual media in order to avoid the payment of licensing fees, if the trademark owner objects, or if the broadcaster would prefer not to publicise a product for free, if the owners have not paid for it to be included in a...
" when companies such as Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
refused to allow their products to be used in non-flattering settings. While they did not mind having a gangster driving their cars, they objected to their products been shown in a slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
setting. This forced the makers in post-production to remove logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
s digitally, costing "tens of thousands of pounds".
Similarly, in the film The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers (film)
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...
(1980), portions of the defunct Dixie Square Mall
Dixie Square Mall
Dixie Square Mall is an abandoned enclosed shopping mall located in Harvey, Illinois, United States, located at the junction of 151st Street and the Dixie Highway. It has been vacant for over 30 years, more than twice as long as it was in business. It is famous for having been used, both inside and...
in Harvey
Harvey, Illinois
Harvey is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, near Chicago. The population was 30,000 at the 2000 census.Harvey is bordered by Dixmoor, Riverdale and Blue Island to the north, Posen and Markham to the west, South Holland, Phoenix, and Dolton to the east, and East Hazel Crest to the...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, were reconstructed in façade and used as the scene of an indoor car chase. Signage belonging to tenants of the mall when it was operational (1966–1978) was in some cases removed and replaced with that of other vendors; for instance, a Walgreens
Walgreens
Walgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...
would become a Toys "Я" Us.
In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and several other TV movies involving ill-fated long-distance train rides, all Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
logos were removed from the train.
See also
- Subliminal advertising
- The Greatest Movie Ever SoldThe Greatest Movie Ever SoldThe Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a 2011 documentary film about product placement, marketing and advertising in movies and TV shows, directed by Morgan Spurlock...
- Apple Inc.
Further reading
- Balasubramanian, Siva K. (1994). "Beyond Advertising and Publicity: Hybrid Messages and Public Policy Issues". Journal of AdvertisingJournal of AdvertisingThe Journal of Advertising is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering significant intellectual development pertaining to advertising theories and their relationship with practice. The Journal of Advertising is owned by the American Academy of Advertising and published by M. E...
. 23 (4), 29–46. - Siva K. Balasubramanian, James Karrh and Hemant Patwardhan (2006). "Audience Response to Product Placements: An Integrative Framework and Future Research Agenda".Journal of AdvertisingJournal of AdvertisingThe Journal of Advertising is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering significant intellectual development pertaining to advertising theories and their relationship with practice. The Journal of Advertising is owned by the American Academy of Advertising and published by M. E...
. 35 (3), 115–141. - Gurevitch, Leon. (2010). "The Cinemas of Transactions: The Exchangable Currency of Digital Attractions Across Audiovisual Economies", Journal of Television and New Media, Sage Publications, New York, 11 (5), 367-385.
- Gurevitch, Leon. (2010). The Cinemas of Interactions: Cinematics and the ‘Game Effect’ in the Age of Digital Attractions, Forthcoming (December) in Senses of Cinema Journal, Online Journal AFI/RMIT, Melbourne, Issue 57.
- Gurevitch, Leon. (2009). "Problematic Dichotomies: Narrative and Spectacle in Film and Advertising Scholarship", Journal of Popular Narrative Media, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, Vol. 2 (2), 143-158.
- Pascal SchumacherPascal SchumacherPascal Schumacher is a Luxembourg jazz musician, composer and percussionist who has founded a number of groups including the Pascal Schumacher Quartet. He also plays and composes classical chamber music.-Education:...
: Effektivität von Ausgestaltungsformen des Product Placement, FribourgFribourgFribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
2007 - Russell, Cristel A. and Barbara Stern (2006). "Consumers, Characters, and Products: A Balance Model of Sitcom Product Placement Effects". Journal of AdvertisingJournal of AdvertisingThe Journal of Advertising is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering significant intellectual development pertaining to advertising theories and their relationship with practice. The Journal of Advertising is owned by the American Academy of Advertising and published by M. E...
, 35 (1), 7–18. - Russell, Cristel A. and Michael Belch (2005) "A Managerial Investigation into the Product Placement Industry". Journal of Advertising Research., 45 (1), 73–92.
- Russell, Cristel A. (2002) "Investigating the Effectiveness of Product Placements in Television Shows: The Role of Modality and Plot Connection Congruence on Brand Memory and Attitude". Journal of Consumer ResearchJournal of Consumer ResearchThe Journal of Consumer Research publishes scholarly research that covers empirical, theoretical, and methodological aspects of research on consumer behavior, spanning a broad range of fields including psychology, marketing, sociology, economics, anthropology, and communications. It is published by...
. 29 (3), 306–318. - Product Placement mit Startschwierigkeiten (Matthias Alefeld) http://www.productplacement.de/#presse