Product Placement

Product placement is a system of non-obvious advertisements where a company's products are promoted within a work of entertainment, or similar venues. They can appear in books, video games, films, or television shows. The practice of product placement became common in the 1980's but it can be traced as early as 1949.

Early Examples

One of the more memorable examples of product placement is E.T.'s use of Reese's Pieces. Another memorable example is the Pontiac Trans Am that was used in the 1980's TV Series Knight Rider.

A humorous spoof of product placement was used in the movie Wayne's World in 1992. It was the contention of the movie makers and my own that product placement is in no way non-obvious. The boys take a break from filming their public access show and get some refreshments from the cast and crew catering table. The boys break the 4th wall in this scene in their over-the-top attempts at product promotion.

The "Soap" Opera

In the 1950's, epidsodic daytime dramas became very popular with the stay at home mom's. Certain soap companies like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and the Lever Brothers funded these television programs to promote their products to housewives. Soap Operas usually revolve around romantic plots.

David Lynch on Product Placement

At the AFI Dallas Film Festival in Dallas Texas (2007), David Lynch was interviewed on his view of product placement. Since we have talked about David Lynch's opinions on new media in this class, this seemed appropriate:

The Future or Product Placement

In Test Drive Unlimited, by Atari Games, users can actually go shopping in real brand name dealers like Lexus in the game.

Chrysler even has an advertisement part in this game, The Movies, by Activision