Dating back to the 1890’s when the Lumiere brothers, pioneers in the film industry, were
placing Lever Sunlight Soap in their films (Hence the “Soap” Opera), product placement as we
know it was born (Anderson). Over 100 years later, it is something that we can literally see every
single day at the movies and even more so in our own homes. In 1982, Steven Spielberg’s E.T.
was released, and featured the candy Reese’s Pieces. No money was exchanged, but in return for
featuring their product, Reese’s promised to spend $1,000,000 promoting the film (Anderson).
Considered the birth of modern day product placement, the film was simply a foreshadowing of
what was really to come. While the movie industry has seen a huge growth in product placement,
over $1 billion a year, the silver screen is where the trend has seen even more growth, over $2
billion dollars each year (Anderson). Product placement is a growing trend that advertisers and
corporations are using as a way to stay relevant and combat consumer control in a continually
changing media landscape.
Quite simply put, product placement is “the sales promotion technique of getting a
marketer’s product featured in movies and television shows” (O’Guinn). As today’s media
landscape continues to change, product placement continues to grow. After much assessment,
advertisers realized that they were simply throwing money away. As overall media consumption
continues to rise, the consumption of television is on the decline (Anderson). This is money
wasted, as less and less people actually see these ads. Even worse, the audience that is actually
watching now has the power to skip ads, cause for even more concern. Tivo and other Digital
Video Recorders (DVRs) have given customers the capability to skip commercials, and 88% of
all DVR users do (O’Guinn). Product placement gives advertisers the opportunity to fight this.
Viewers can skip commercials, but they can’t skip the commercial running within the show. The
current television advertising trend is the continued use of the 30 second spot, as well as
integrated product placements to reinforce the message, or to catch to DVR’ers who skipped out
on the actual commercial (Neer). The best example of this is American Idol. Between January
and September of 2005, AI featured a mind blowing 7, 514 product placements (Anderson). The
shows main three advertisers, AT&T wireless, Coca Cola, and Ford, paid $ 26 million each to
have their commercials and products integrated into the show (Neer). Anyone who has watched
the show knows that each judge has a red Coca Cola cup, the “green room” is red and white and
features a Coca Cola couch, and every time a phone number is mentioned for voting, so is
AT&T. The contestants film a weekly commercial for a Ford vehicle and the winner gets a
Mustang. These images repeat all season and are there to get the viewer to remember the brands
the next time they go shopping. Each season, more and more shows follow Idol’s lead. The
2004-2005 T.V. season saw 100,000 product placements and that number has continued to grow
at 2% a year ever since (Anderson).
Tivo and other DVR services are the ones to thank for the continued rise of product
placements. The television industry is obviously no fan of these services. Jamie Kellner, CEO of
Turner Broadcasting, had this to say about sipping ads, “ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with
the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn’t
get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button
you're actually stealing the programming” (Anderson). With continued growth, one can assume
that we are only going to see a rise in placements as we see a rise in the use of DVR services.
People have always used commercial breaks as the opportune moment to get up while watching
T.V., it just wasn’t until Tivo came along that advertisers really realized just how many people
are missing their messages (Anderson). To respond to this, more products are being integrated to
help cover costs and get them out there to be seen.
Agencies with the sole purpose of bringing together products and programs have been
created to meet growing demand. ERMA, or the Entertainment Resources and Marketing
Association, is an example of this. Their website states that, “ERMA’s membership is comprised
of entertainment marketing agencies, studio executives, and corporations who engage in the
business of branded entertainment, product placement, and product integration” (ERMA). The
website provides the user with a list of products available for integration, as well as the agency
that represents them. Through the site one can discover that Idol’s sponsor AT& T is represented
by Davie Brown Entertainment. The site lets anyone wanting to integrate AT&T that Davie
Brown can provide them with billing envelopes, DSL, dish network, local and long distance
phone, phone booths, phone booth placards, signage, phone cards (ERMA). Davie Brown
represents other big name clients who actively participate in the product integration game. They
include Amex, AT&T of course, Frito Lay, Pepsi, Nokia, and HP. With hundreds of other
agencies with the same goal, it is no surprise that with every passing T.V. season we see more
and more branded products on our T.V. screens.
But could this rise in placements affect the content we watch? The answer seems to be
yes and no. In a 2005 speech, the commissioner of the FCC Jonathan Adelstein said that,
“listeners and viewers are entitled to know who seeks to persuade then with the programming
over broadcasting stations and cable systems” (Adelstein). He stated that the FCC requires that
all broadcast shows must disclose who they have received money from so that viewers know
who the message that they received is from. Deborah Wahl Meyer, VP of marketing at Lexus,
had this to say about advertising dollars effecting content, "ideas can cross between advertising
and editorial. It doesn't always need to have the 'advertorial' note on top" (Anderson). It seems
that the FCC must uphold these strict guidelines when people hold these kinds of views. In the
same speech, Adelstein furthers this point through a recent example. “One celebrity TV gourmet
recently waxed eloquently about his favorite shrimp: the frozen kind. Here is how he put it:
‘Fresh is not as fresh as frozen, I think’” (Adelstein). Here is where the problem arises; he was
paid $550,000 under the table by a frozen shrimp company to make that statement (Anderson).
We all know that the media is run by money, but that is the fastest way to kill its credibility. For
that reason, the FCC has vowed to take offenses like this seriously. They are even calling
average viewers to help them by hitting their record buttons at home when they see an
undisclosed product placement (Adelstein).
Even though some people continually complain about product placements and ads, there
doesn’t seem to be any changes in the distant future—Except for more product integrations.
There are several websites that allow you to find a product you have seen integrated into your
favorite show. eVisure is an example of this. The mission statement on their website reads,
“Welcome to the new eVisure site where you can search for hundreds of cool products featured
in some of your favorite television shows (like NBC's The Apprentice and HBO's Entourage)
and major films (such as Ocean's 13, Hitch, and Legally Blonde 2)” (“Products”). If people are
searching for the products online then they must be noticing and more importantly, actually
buying. Europe has even taken this a step further. A new concept is being tested overseas called
t-commerce “where digital cable and satellite subscribers can buy products they see on television
through a simple click of their remote control” (Adelstein).
With growth of product placements expected to reach an expansion of 9% a year by
2009, there really doesn’t seem to be an end in sight (Anderson). Also, as more and more people
make the switch to DVR services, there are more and more commercials being skipped. Now
advertisers will be forced to find more and more ways to make their products stick in the minds
of consumers, because when it comes down to it, it is all about the money. Even the
commissioner of the FCC admits that the American media is all about money, “from the outset,
American Broadcasting has been based on a commercial model” (Adelstein). Just how far they
will go in the future to make that money is yet to be seen.
Works Cited
Adelstein, Jonathan S. ""Fresh is Not as Fresh as Frozen:" a Response to the Commercialization
of American Media." FCC. The Media Institute, Washington D.C. 25 May 2005. 11 Nov.
2007 <http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-258962A1.pdf>.
Anderson, Nate. "Product Placement in the DVR Era." Ars Technica. 19 Mar. 2006. 11 Nov.
2007 <http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/productplacement.ars/3>.
"ERMA." ERMA. 11 Nov. 2007 <http://www.erma.org>.
Neer, Katherine F. "How Product Placement Works." How Stuff Works. 11 Nov. 2007
<http://money.howstuffworks.com/product-placement.htm>.
O'Guinn, Thomas C., Chris T. Allen, and Richard J. Semenik. Advertising and Integrated Brand
Promotion. 4th ed. Mason: Thomson South-Western, 2006.
"Products in Movies and Television." EVisure. 11 Nov. 2007 <http://www.evisure.com/>.