Product Placement in television shows

There has been a bit of controversy recently surrounding blatant product placement, especially on NBC. Here is a boston.com blog post about it and below follows my thoughts on the topic.

At some point normal advertising techniques – like television commercials, print media ads, billboards, etcetera – aren’t enough to garner the attention of consumers, and advertising companies have to push the envelope further to sell their product. For the advertising process to work, members of the audience have to agree to be consumers. We have to see an advertisement and then buy the product. If the consumers ignore the ads being presented to them, then no one buys the product and the advertising process fails. Equally as important is that the assumption that ads will sell products has to follow through or else the ads are useless and no products are sold. This is why advertising is so important as a part of the mainstream media and an American consumer culture.

Product placement is a popular form of alternative advertising that garners attention from consumers. But one major problem with product placement is that it at times changes the storyline of shows and movies. There are two types of product placement: product placement that is subtle and product placement that is obvious and can even distract viewers. Some product placement is so understated within a plot – a box of cereal on a kitchen counter in the background of a scene or a character reading a magazine clearly showing the cover to the audience – that it does not interfere with what is happening on screen. But everything can be taken to extremes.

The real question is, should television shows and movies allow advertisers the opportunity to control the content of their media but paying for product placement? Does such product placement change the quality of the show? As consumers, there are most likely mixed opinions about this topic. It is probable that some consumers do not even notice such product placement, but there must also be consumers who are annoyed because they are being bashed over the head with the product while they are supposed to be relaxing and enjoying a television show.

How do you feel about product placement? Does it bother you or is it just another form of advertising?