Product Placement, is when brands pay the production to place their products on TV or in films.
In class, we were given three topics of Product Placement (PP): PP in Music, PP in Film and PP in Children's Film/TV shows. Then we were assigned into groups of three to argue for and against whether PP is ethical in these key areas. Our professor wanted Opening (5min), Rebuttal (3min) and Closing (5min) Statements given by each member and we were all given 15 minutes to prepare.
My group was told to be For PP in Children's TV shows.
Since we knew that we were going to have this debate, we were some what prepared and although I am not quite for PP in children's TV shows, we had to stand our ground. I did the Closing Statement and ran out of time to say everything so I think it was fine.
In my personal opinion, as someone from my generation, PP doesn't bother me that much. I realize that it can be considered subliminal mind controlling or unethical, but as long as PP doesn't destroy the content, the story and the art behind the show/film/music, I think it is a pretty clever idea. Tivo and others such like has enabled us to skip ads and to be honest, I would rather have the characters of a TV show drink Fanta than watch a series of 30 second commercials every 10 minutes!
Yes, people will want to buy a Louis Vuitton bag because of a character that she is a fan of. But I don't see so much harm in it, because these people admire the person's personality and the bag is just a prop to help represent it.
Although I do feel that our generation is more used to the mass advertising and don't feel so threatened by it.
I enjoy the class a lot though and it's amazing how I hadn't noticed the products placed in the films that I had watched!
We've talked about a couple of films in class that has a lot to do with Product Placement etc. like the: Transformers (2007), The Joneses (2009) and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011).
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold seems interesting because it is "A documentary about branding, advertising and product placement that is financed and made possible by brands, advertising and product placement." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1743720/)
And it's done by the director of "Super Size Me"(2004), the film made about eating only McDonalds for a whole month.
I'm going to watch it tonight so I'll let you know if it's really as interesting as the trailer looks :)
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