“In order to exist, a brand must be known; not necessarily by everyone, but in every event by those who are likely to buy its products. For this to occur, it must be placed in all the strategic locations that will enable it to connect with this potential audience.” (Lehu, 2007)
The 28th of February saw the lift of the ban on Product Placement in the UK.
Edouard Manet - Une bar un Folies-Bergere (1881) oil painting is one of the first examples of product
placement. Although it was never explicitly stated; the bottles on the bar are replicas of ‘Bass Beer’.
Product Placement as a marketing tool has come a long way since then and has been legal in many countries for some time.
Britain has stayed out of it but has recently made a u- turn; lifting the ban in order to “throw a lifeline to struggling ITV and other independent broadcasters who would be able to boost their advertising revenues” (Telegraph)
Ben Bradshaw (Culture Secretary) spoke when the plans were announced, stating; "To the critics of our regulatory structure I ask the simple question: if regulation were a problem in itself, how is it our media market is amongst the most successful in the world? It is because we have got the right balance between public and private. We have stayed ahead of the game and, as our Digital Britain plans show, we are determined to maximise the future potential of the broadcasting industry."
It seems the government believe Product Placement will bring a boost to our broadcasting industry that it clearly needs to enable it to fund better programmes.
I think when product placement is done properly it can work well in associating positive connotations to a product and subtly creating brand awareness. However when it’s overdone it can reflect negatively on the products and the programme it’s shown in.
Gossip Girl is an example of a US series which uses extensive product placement.
The most obvious deals I’ve noticed are with Vitamin Water, Microsoft, Blackberry, Bing and Samsung. In one episode recently a character actually said “just bing it”, which I think sounded very unnatural and
obviously paid for.
Music videos are another medium in which a huge amount of paid for placement is used. See how many products you can spot in the first minute of this one?!
I’m not sure whether I find these instances so obvious becuase I study Advertising; so on a subconscious level am looking for them. However I do feel that when Product Placement is overdone it does have a tendency to ruin the credibility of films/soaps,dramas/music videos when it feels so set up.
All we can do now is watch and wait to see how it works out for us in Britain....
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