Is There Any Place For Product Placement?

Product placement has become a huge part of our culture. Product placement is normally a strategic way for companies to advertise their products so that there is no way for the viewer to tune their campaign out. Although product placement has been around for a while, who can forget the massive amounts of product placement in Back to the Future, it has never been so prominent in story lines on television before. This may be due to several factors including; technology, specific audiences, and the variety of television programs available. The bottom line is it really successful in today's generation? Can companies and television programming really coincide to create well developed forms of product placement.

Technology has become a huge factor as to why companies have turned to product placement versus other types of advertising. Commercials can now be avoided with the DVR features that cable companies offer. Magazine and newspaper advertisements can easily be avoided through skipping over the advertisements in issues. Product placement is an easy solution to these issues that advertisement companies are facing. It allows them to incorporate their products into mainstream media, while not allowing viewers the option of changing the channel during an advertisement. In shows like The Amazing Race, Modern Family, and American Idol product placement is large part of building story lines and funding. The Amazing Race formats their product placement within their challenges and rewards. Modern Family has based their product placement with their plot line. American Idol uses product placement with the Coca-Cola cups that the judges use during each episode. All of these examples are what product placement revolves around, and what companies have resorted to now that technology allows viewers to pass over other kinds of advertisements.

In particular, as talked out in television criticism lecture, Modern Family interpreted their target audience and then went with those interpretations to build a storyline based around a product. This product was the Apple iPad. The writers understood that if they placed the product and incorporated it with a certain character, Phil, then it would be more acceptable to its specific target audience. The viewers took this product placement as a pre-sale advertisement on behalf of Apple, but it indeed was only the writers of Modern Family incorporating a product into the script's plot. The real question was how it effect Modern Family's audience. One writer Jon Bershad of Mediaite explains that, “Fans were furious at the shameless product placement.” Many viewers claimed to be turned off from the program because they are used to a thirty minute sitcom, and instead they felt they were just watching a thirty minute commercial. I think product placement can go consciously unnoticed if it is gradually introduced throughout episode. I think the main issue with how Modern Family went about it was that it was not a typical occurrence for their viewers, and they were not expecting the advertising aspect of products. This is where the fine line of product placement walks, and where shows and begin to lose their viewers if it becomes too frequent of an occurrence.

Technology and a wide variety of audiences has lead to a large range of channels available through cable companies. With this variety of programming, we see that particular products are able to pick and choose what television program best suits their brand. For example, in The Amazing Race, Travelocity and Ford are front runners for product placement within episodes. In most episodes there are either challenges or rewards that incorporate Travelocity. Product placement has developed to the point that companies are able to find the demographic audience of a show and decide whether or not it will be beneficial to their brand to pay to place their product in an episode. So, is this a successful tactic in advertising and creating a brand for companies? According the Nat Ives a writer for Ad Age, “The May 1 episode of 'Amazing Race' on CBS required contestants to make a Travelocity Gnome out of chocolate. It became the most-recalled brand integration in unscripted network prime-time last month, according to Nielsen.” So, maybe with the right audience that expects product placement from the program they are watching, it can be done successfully for all parties involved. Since The Amazing Race has always involved some product placement; I think it is safe to say that its viewers are somewhat “numb” to these placed advertisements, and it does not stick out as a sore thumb with how they involve the brands.

Product placement is a tricky balancing act that television networks and brands must juggle. It must take the right mix and combination of elements to make for a successful product placement in television programs. Although our generation is moving towards a more technological world; companies must be flexible and find new outlets to advertise their inventory. Audience expectations when they begin to watch their typical programming are very high; so product placement must be incorporated in the appropriate way. The type of product and the matching with the correct programming is also something that needs to be taken into consideration in order for the product placement to be successful on all accounts.