So What Do We Get From This?

The media have always been surrounded by issues and concerns. As the media progress and more people are exposed to them, the more rapidly the concerns grow. It may seem that product placement is a new phenomenon because it is becoming increasingly occurring in movies and television and it gets more media attention and concerns than ever, however we can spot product placement in film since the very beginning of the industry.

The first known instance of product placement appeared in Lumiere Brothers' Washing Day in Switzerland (1896) where a Sunlight Soap was displayed (Dirks, 2010). Another example of an early occurrence of product placement is a Hershey's chocolate bar in the famous Academy Award winning 1927 film, Wings. Although product placement began in the earliest days of cinema, its peak was in the 1990s after an unpaid occurrence of Reese's Pieces in Spielberg's E.T. Extra Terrestrial (1982), when the sales increased dramatically almost instantaneously. Following this success companies began to pay to be placed in movies more than ever. Since the 90s  there have been instances of product placement in many major Hollywood films. Even though product placement is a very old and well established tool to target consumers, there seem to be many concerns raised today about the ethics of using entertainment media as a platform for selling products.

Trying to asses whether using popular media as a platform to sell products and promote brands is a serious issue that should be eliminated is a difficult task. There are positives and negatives within product placement and trying to figure out which is more prominent is not only impossible but also pointless.

In the age of technological advancement we live in it is challenging for companies and advertisers to overcome all the obstacles to get to the consumer. While in the past television was a great medium for advertisements, nowadays it may not be quite so. With TiVo and recorders and other types of technology people can just fast forward through the commercials or just skip them all together. Consequently companies had to figure out a new system of promoting and exposing their merchandise to the public.

Using films and television shows to show products is a natural logical concept. Movies and TV are supposed to resemble real life. they are supposed to be believable, people should be able to identify with them. Of course for a movie to resemble real life it has to contain the same elements. There is no life without any commercial products, everyone is surrounded by them and everyone uses or consumes them. Therefore, putting real products into hands of fictional characters makes sense.

Many people argue, however, that product placement negatively influences media content. Major concerns discussed in this blog include promotion of unhealthy lifestyle including cigarettes and alcohol, reduction of quality of the content of movies, shows etc. or issue of trust between the broadcasters and their audience. Ed Wasserman of Washington and Lee University thinks that with the increase in the commercial aspect of television show, people will increasingly question their overall mission and purpose (2006). While now it may still be believed that the major purpose of fictional media is to entertain or tell a story, in the future, with more product placement people may start to question that and come to think that the prominent goal of television show creates is to sell products.

Essentially there is no solution to this problem and evaluation of the consequences of product placement is pointless. It is important, however, to be aware that we are constantly being targeted as consumers of products, no longer only through advertising but also while watching our favorite TV shows and movies. We should be able to recognize product placement and critically evaluate its effects. We can only hope that product placement will not got as far as to compromise the quality of the media content we consume.

References

Dirks, T. (2010) Movie History - Product Placement Is Nothing New, Just Ask James Bond in FilmCritic.com retrieved from http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2010/05/product-placement-in-the-movies/

Wasserman, E. (2006) The Ethics of Product Placement. Retrieved from http://journalism.wlu.edu/knight/Lectures/08-03-2006.htm