Classical Argument Paper

Anne Hepfer 0870 Academic Reading and Writing

Khaled Al-Shammari

March 12 2017

Advertisements have been changing throughout the years. With the increasing importance and the social role that the media plays in society, advertisements and product placement are progressing to a new level I call ‘Subliminal Marketing’. Product placement in media isn’t a new phenomenon; however, with the emergence of the Internet and easier access to TV, product placement has become one of the most important modern ways of marketing. Due to its high effectiveness, product placement is becoming a major influence on the society. Some people however, tend to dislike product placement and agree that advertisements are not always positive and sometimes promote poor behavior in an audience such as children.

In the past few decades’ companies have been attempting several marketing strategies to boost their sales and revenue. “Although product placement is more than half a century old it has never been as popular in the media or as a subject of academic research as now” (Charry 599). Product placement in mainstream movies and music is an excellent way to promote products, and has a powerful financial outcome. Many executives of different brands work with media producers to place their products in their media. This simple collaboration is profitable for both parties meaning massive reductions in filming costs for the producers and a boost in profits for the business owners. For instance, “After Busta Rhymes released the 2002 video for the song ‘Pass the Courvoisier Part Two’ sales of the cognac increased by 20%”(Schmidt 1).

The purpose of this concept is to promote products unlike the traditional way where a product is presented to the audience; instead, the product is shown being used in interactions with different characters in different scenarios and plots. “Advertisers want to place their brands in very attractive conditions (as in conventional advertising), whereas filmmakers want to place them in more realistic and/or narratively coherent situations.”(Redondo 625) For example, in Iron Man, a big blockbuster movie that has been viewed by millions, the main character who is perceived as the ‘cool guy’ every man aspires to be drives an Audi R8. To some, it is obvious that it is an endorsement deal but to others, it is just art that forms an image in ones’ brain. The effect of an advertisement is stronger when the audience is unaware of its presence, thus, people perceive information differently when they are unaware.

“It is possible to reshape perceptions through edutainment placement.” From this perspective, Hirschman and Thompson (1997) have suggested that product placement may enhance the real-life dimensions of a product. This could be taken advantage of by embracing positive habits to kids at a young age to re-balance and re-shape the future of the society. If children only learn to hate cigarettes from their favorite TV shows and watch new healthy eating habits more casually, society will be better than it is now.

Sometimes, products can be misinterpreted when put in the wrong scenario. For example, “Coca-Cola has also, as a result of filmmaker initiatives, been placed in other movies with an antibrand role in the script. In The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), for example, an African tribe that is completely isolated from the modern world comes across an empty Coca- Cola bottle just thrown from a plane high above without (amazingly) shattering on impact. The tribe’s members, utterly perplexed by the sudden appearance of such a strange object, conclude the gods must have sent it. But the arrival of the bottle, which represents the civilized world, then brings all kinds of unprecedented social problems for the tribe (e.g., greed, envy, and violence).“ (Redondo, 623)

Antibrand strategies can also have a positive impact on influencing the society. Sometimes antibrand strategies could be powerful triggers in combating vices. For example, a character that children look up to can be seen in a movie being looked down upon for smoking, or their favorite rapper could rap about how alcohol ruined their life.

In addition, there are several negative outcomes of product placement in media; although advertisements usually have an intended audience of a certain age group, children are considered vulnerable targets of their exposure to numerous advertising messages. “Advertising spending on children’s programming amounted to $2.1 billion in 2005 in the US alone, up 7% on the year before. The typical North American child takes in some 38 h of commercial media every week and sees between 20 and 30 ads per hour. Children’s beliefs are strongly influenced by advertising, particularly by advertising that uses celebrity endorsement”(Hudson) Yet, regulations for placements aimed at children do not exist, suggesting that it remains the responsibility of the parents to provide guidance for their children. This is a big ethical concern to parents since many placements are promoting negative behaviors such as smoking and alcohol.

As studies have shown, interaction boosts effectiveness. Therefore, a child would be more strongly influenced by watching his favorite character smoking a cigarette than watching a regular cigarette advertisement. Some people agree that viewers should be warned about product placements. According to Tina Tessitore from Ghent University, some European countries such as Belgium began warning viewers with signs prior to Product Placements. Should other countries start implementing this new policy?

(Table I, Hudson 296)

The previous chart shows a list of the most popular children’s movies and its placement deals. It is evident that movies such as Jurassic park III and The Fantastic Four have signed deals with Corona, which is a beer company. It also shows that many blockbuster movies have signed deals with fast food companies.

The promotion of junk food in movies could be one of the reasons of the rise of the child obesity epidemic. How would statistics of child obesity change if there were more promotion of healthy foods and healthy eating habits in the mass media? Future society will certainly be different if pre-adolescents were raised with the love of healthy food and good habits. Therefore, it seems reasonable to investigate the potential effec­tiveness of edutainment placement targeting pre-adolescents and its potential contribution to rebalancing and reshaping children’s perceptions about appropriate diets. (Charry 604)

To conclude, product placement in mainstream media is a controversial topic viewed by many conflicting perspectives; however, people are forgetful of its main purpose, which is to sell. It was created to promote products and boost sales based on the concept that mere exposure and realistic interactions in familiar situations and characters boost effectiveness. With the advancement of technology, marketers and directors realize the massive potential positive outcome of this phenomenon on the economy and society, despite its controversies.

Citations:

Charry, Karine. "Product Placement and Promoting Healthy Foods to Pre-adolecents." When Popular TV Series Make Carrots Look Cool (2014): (599-616). Print.

Hudson, Simon. "Meet the Parents: A Parents Perspective on Product Placement in Childrens Films." Journal of Business Ethics (2008): (290-304). Print.

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Jyote, Abul Khair. "How Using versus Showing Interaction between Characters and Products Boosts Product Placement Effectiveness." International Journal of Advertising (2013): 633–653. Print.

Redondo, Ignacio. "The Behavioral Effects of Negative Product Placements in Movies." Psychology and Marketing (2012): 622-35. Print.

Schmidt, Hans. "The Third Person Effect." The Florida Communication Journal (2011): 1-10. Print.