Product Placement: How Oblivious Are You? Hmm…
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Remember the movie “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks? If you’ve seen the movie you may think the hero of the movie is Tom Hanks or even Helen Hunt. But oh no, what’s this…? The hero was… who?! Yup, that’s right. The hero was none other than Fed Ex. (and Wilson too <– major product placement)
A Fed Ex employee ends up stranded on an Island. The packages that were washed ashore with him save his life. In one package he even finds his best friend Wilson. And if you remember at the very end of the movie when he gets rescued and flown home, you have the Fed Ex headquarters throw him a welcome home party and there is confetti and you feel all happy and warm inside.
Fed Ex might as well have paid for the whole movie, because the whole movie was basically an advertisement for them.
For product placement to be really successful, it has to be seamless. If it’s not seamless, it’s no good. Or is it? We had a big discussion about this in one of my Mass Comm classes. We sat there watching clips trying to count how many times we could see product placement. We looked for everything from people picking up a Coke to drink in the middle of their conversation to basically whole plots of episodes revolving around one product.
CAN YOU FIND THE PRODUCT PLACEMENT? This is a clip from the movie “The Mummy.” Watch verrrrrrrrry closely:
ok.. but seriously, the next time you sit down to watch something (clean) see how much product placement you can find.
Why are most people now switching to product placement in shows and movies? One word: TiVo. Tivo is an advertiser’s worst nightmare. People can zap past commericials and the number of households that are switching to TiVo is growing at a rapid rate . Oh yeah, and advertisers HATE you. Why? Because you’re a channel switcher. When commercials come on, you switch the channels until they’re over. That’s why they have to put their product in the show itself.
The question posed to you is, “Do YOU mind when you see product placement?” What if it’s obvious? Do you get mad? Or is it so long as the plot is good(and halal), you don’t care? Part of the argument is the fact that we are subconsciously being bombarded with all this advertisement and we don’t even realize.
Watch this clip of Darren Brown (subliminal Advertising) and see the genius (and scariness) of advertisements and their impact on our subconscious minds:
Again, I don’t advocate or support watching TV or anything that might have haram content.What other Movies or Shows, (or examples) can you find with obvious (or seamless) product placement?
~Shirien
. But feel free to add me if you like!
