Product Placement = Plentiful

Product placement is when a company pays for their product to be featured in movies, or television; it can be broken into three categories. First, visual placement, this is when a product can simply be seen within a scene. Secondly, hands-on placement occurs when an actor or actress handles or interacts with a product or service. Lastly verbal placement obviously involves an actor or actress mentions a product or service. Product placement is nothing new; it has been around almost as long as film itself. This somewhat came as a shock to me. In my research I found many different films of the 1920’s where Corona typewriters were appearing, these films were criticized for it, as I think they should be because they started a trend that would come to make me uneasy. Even it’s a Wonderful Life (1946), my favorite Christmas film depicts a boy blatantly reading a copy of National Geographic. The product placement epidemic has been on a steady incline and is at its peak. According to a report released by Nielsen, in 2011 reality TV shows were the top programs with product placement. The winner, FOX’s American idol had 39 episodes, within those 39 episodes there were 577 instances of product placement featuring America’s favorites Coca-Cola, Ford, and AT&T. These companies paid between $50 million and $60 million in 2011 compared to $25 to $35 million in Idol’s early years. The more popular a show is, or an actor or actress, the more a company is willing to pay to get their products out there. 

Why is product placement becoming a more widespread professionalized industry? It is simple; times are changing, and with change we need to adapt or be left for dead. Commercial-skipping technology is becoming easier and cheaper for consumers to get ahold of. DVR and on-demand programs are an option on most cable systems. A program that seems to be sweeping the market is Netflix. Netflix is cheap, flexible, and you can get almost any program you want. People are willing to pay the $8 for it; you can literally watch it anywhere you please. Some product placement is getting to the point of becoming overwhelming. Coca-Cola and Pepsi seem to be placed in the media almost as much as Apple. People have choices and parents should control what their children do, but it is hard when these soft drinks are everywhere you go, it is not helping the obesity rates of Americans, even a glimpse of product placement can stick with you. To me product placement is not much different than subliminal advertising. But as times change, and businesses keep paying the film and television industry to allow their products to be glorified, my question is.. how do we keep TV and films from becoming nothing more than an acclaimed advertisement? 

TV of the future..
 Program in the center, Advertisments surrounding.....  solution?