In a capitalist society, consumerism is ingrained in every aspect of our lives, with brands constantly looking for new and innovative ways to push their products onto consumers.
While many enjoy watching TV as a form of escape from the world around us, it is in some ways not as much of an escape as we may believe. This is because brands have taken advantage of this form of media as an opportunity for advertising, inserting their products into shows and movies, using both obvious and subtle product placement. But is this a successful form of advertising, making viewers more compelled to purchase the products they see on their screens? Or does it just irritate, sparking a negative association with the brand?
The unsuccessful and downright embarrassing…
From personal experience, I can name many examples of when glaringly obvious examples of product placement did not encourage me to purchase an item, but came across merely as an annoyance or a source of amusement.
For one, there was AT&T’s partnership with The Vampire Diaries, which was downright laughable. Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine the big bad villain of the show, who is feared and revered by all, and has just declared his intentions to hunt down, and I quote ‘torture’ his enemies. But before he sets out on another evil mission, the scene cuts to a super zoomed clip of him getting out his stylus pen and scribbling an artsy little ‘I will’ text message on his AT&T phone. Does anyone actually text like that? Evil villains just don’t have the time to type out their texts, I guess. Yet another comical moment came when Bonnie and Jeremy were hiding out in a candle lit basement, haunted by dead witches. But don’t worry, Jeremy’s AT&T Mifi box is here to save the day!
While these embarrassingly shameless examples of product placement do undeniably get us talking about the brand, giving it exposure, they are, on the whole, unsuccessful. Moments of transparent product placement like this disrupt the viewing experience. We are drawn out of our immersion in the plot and our ‘suspension of disbelief’ is interrupted. This causes irritation, and leads to a negative association with the brand, as the cynics among us are led to take a minute and see film and television for what they truly are: money-making projects.
The success that lies in subtlety…
That is not to say that product placement in TV shows is never successful. It is simply more so when it is subtly integrated into the plot, in a seamless way. For example, if a product is introduced in a way that adds to the show, perhaps a clothing item that enhances a character’s personal sense of style and is part of who they are. As Elizabeth Cowley and Chris Barron said, success of the placement is based on its characteristics, such as the ‘size of the product or logo, centrality in the screen, integration into the plot…’ etc.
An example that appeals to me as a more successful example of product placement is the brand Eggo, which increased in sales by 14% thanks to its representation in Stranger Things. I’m sure there are many Stranger Things fans out there who can’t see Eggo and not be immediately reminded of Eleven and her obsession with the frozen waffles. While it was slightly overdone and did get to be a bit much, the sugary food obsession made sense alongside her character. After finally escaping the laboratory where she was raised as a test subject, Eleven was adapting to the outside world, and in search of human connection and stability. So, in some ways, the waffles are representative of that normality she seeks, and are, in her eyes, intrinsically connected with her new friend Mike, and the friendship and love that she has finally acquired.
Another good example of product placement is the way in which some cars are advertised in shows and movies. For example, James Bond driving an Aston Martin makes sense as part of his suave image, and is necessary for the amount of high-speed car chase scenes that define the Bond movies. This is a sharp contrast to the getaway scene in Barbie, which is basically just a transparent Chevrolet advert that takes you completely out of the scene, as well as Knight Rider, which features a Ford Mustang, and which The Hollywood Reporter scathingly reports as ‘an elaborate commercial around which bits of story are sprinkled’ and which was ‘an exercise in prolonged car sickness’. Not so subtle.
So, next time you are watching a show, keep your eyes peeled for the products that are being represented, looking out for whether it has been handled in a tactful and impressive way, or in a way that makes you need to pause the show and take a minute to process what you have just seen.
Featured image: Eduardo Flores via Unsplash