Of Product Placement and Fictional Brands
I used to spend weeknights watching crime shows on AXN — Dexter, CSI, Alias, 24 — you name it. I knew which day of the week had which show on and whenever the adverts came, I’d treat it as a bathroom break or I’d use the time to grab some snacks. Commercials — they were just part of watching TV.
Nowadays, with all the streaming and downloading options out there, we can just binge-watch and pause at our own volition. Nevertheless, brands still have to get our attention.
Enter product placement: an advertising technique in which a brand cleverly (or oftentimes, forcibly) presents itself within a narrative. It doesn’t always have to be a narrative — some talk and news shows get paid to feature a product. The idea is to subtly present the product without removing the audience from the entertainment.
There are instances where product placement is done so creatively it even adds depth to a character. When this happens, the advertisers succeed in their goal: to develop a stronger emotional connection between the brand and the consumer, so that consumer’s memory of the fictional character using the product turns into a purchase!
Video games are no exception:
Of course, there are also instances when the movie has to create its own brand:
That search engine in CSI, Dexter, and Breaking Bad:
Duff beer:
The plane that crashed in Lost:
Who can forget Acme Corp. from Looney Tunes?
Those cigarettes Mia Wallace was smoking in Pulp Fiction:
Regulations
So can you just pay a TV show to feature your brand? Nope — in the United Kingdom, it wasn’t always so. If you watch American Idol in the UK, those Coca-Cola cups the judges drink from will be blurred. It was only in 2011 that Ofcom, the UK communications governing body, lifted its ban on product placement in commercial television. There were still limitations, of course: tobacco products, alcoholic drinks, gambling products, food and drink that’s high in sugar or fat, baby milk, and prescription medicine are prohibited from being shown as product placement in British programs. News and children’s programs are not allowed to show sponsored products. So if you want ad-free news, tune in to BBC.
If a program does contain product placement, the TV channel has to show a special logo in the beginning, middle, and end of programs that have been paid to include products to let viewers know that the people behind the show were paid to include products in that program.
The Takeaway
Like ‘em or hate ‘em, the best product placements are the ones where the actors don’t appear obligated to feature the product: it just fits naturally into the plot. There are ways to include a sponsored product within the content — artfully and joyfully, without it looking totally out of place and turning off viewers.
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