Product Placement

Product placement is a type of subliminal or hidden advertising where businesses strategically place their products in TV shows, movies, and video games so they appear as if they are a part of a story's natural environment. Chapter 6 mentions that as more and more people find ways to skip ads on the television, this forces advertisers to get creative with their advertisements. This creativity led to product placement and quite frankly, it is a brilliant idea. Media critic Jeff Smith explains why it is a smart move by stating, "Product placement is one of the ways to reach a captive audience. If you work your product into a TV show or film, it's impossible for the viewer to zap it out." This makes sense because if a captive audience is watching a film where a drink is being subliminally advertised, that audience is going to be much more likely to purchase that drink later on because the drink will be fresh in their minds.

Chapter 6 even mentions the use of digital technology to place products into old television shows. The amount of technology that is available for use today can make any kind of product placement possible. While this is a good thing for advertisers, it does bring about some controversy when answering the question, how much is too much? Product placement is the advertising of the future and is a great way for businesses to advertise their products in ways that really work, but it can get too invasive and become a distraction for the audience. Product placement has become so widespread that even the sitcom 30 Rock makes fun of it in a scene where they talk about Snapple and then show a Snapple advertisement right afterwards. Luckily, as chapter 6 mentions, there are concerned viewers out there who are willing to protest invasive and distracting product placement that they believe goes too far.

Although product placement has its controversies, in the end it is a marketing tool that works. If you really look, they are everywhere. Little did you know that by watching TV, you are being subliminally persuaded to purchase a product.

Product placement is everywhere! If a product name is shown, that means someone paid for it to be there.