Product Placement in TV and Film

When you are watching a movie or your favorite TV show and you see a consumer product in the background or foreground, many people wouldn't think twice about it. Or how in the most recent episode of the USA network's hit series Burn Notice that aired on June 16, a character talked about using Facebook to make contact with a friend, many people wouldn't realize that there was a plug made. Arranged product placement and advertising plugs have been used since the early 1980's in TV, as well as film, but has become the most subliminal way to advertise to consumers in recent years.

Have you ever watched a TV show or a movie and felt like you were watching a really long commercial? Then consider yourself a victim of bad product placement. There's definitely a line that can be crossed when presenting brand-name items or services as props within the context of a movie or TV show. Clever marketing professionals never try to cross that line, because they want their products to be visible within a scene, but not the focus. As I said earlier, the product placed in the foreground or background needs to fit, almost seamlessly into the shot and context of the scene. You may ask yourself, how does product placement get worked into a movie or TV show.

Before a product can be used in a movie or TV show, the producers need permission from the brand to use their product and draw up a contract which states the guidelines of the deal. Arranged product placement deals are split into two categories:

1. Trade-off of integration or placement for a supply of product

For example: If I were a rep for Redbull, we sign a contract to send the CW network 100 cases of the energy drink to be used as fuel during production, in return for the product to be placed in three new pilot episodes airing in the fall.

2. Financial compensation for placement or integration

For example: The CW network would be compensated with a sum if the network agreed to place or integrate Redbull into three new pilot episodes set to air in the fall.

I have a very strong love for watching TV shows and movies, but I sometimes catch myself analyzing what I am viewing in a professional manner by noticing the product placement and hearing the plugs. I break down the scene in my head and can literally pick out over a half dozen products placed in many of the TV shows and movies I watch including Burn Notice, Gossip Girl, The Breakfast Club, Wayne's World, Iron Man, and Tropic Thunder.

Other well known product placement deals have included:

Risky Business - Ray-Ban sunglasses
Back to the Future - Pepsi products
Demolition Man - Taco Bell (In the future, everything is Taco Bell...)
You've Got Mail - America On-Line (AOL), Apple, IBM and Starbucks
Austin Powers - Pepsi and Starbucks
Cast Away - FedEx and Wilson

Men in Black II - Ray-Ban sunglasses, Mercedes Benz, Sprint, Burger King

I hope that after reading this blog post that you will have a different perspective on advertising and product placement and be able to see how it is now incorporated into almost all movies and TV shows. Next time you watch your favorite show keep an eye out for that product that looks to fit in the scene quite casually, but in reality the product was placed in that spot under contract.