Does product placement really effect us?

[SteelDisciple]

Product placement is the placing of a product by a company who PAYS to have that product shown in the movie.

An example would be in the original Superman film where it shows young clark on the farm in the kitchen...on the table is a box of cherios facing the screen. In the next shot...the box mysteriously shows up on the window ledge with the box facing the screen. (the same box)
Another scene has Superman being thrown through a Coke billboard.

Does it effect us? I'd say it only effects a small portion of society. I mean...when I see a coke sign, or Sarah Lee box on a table or a close up of the Ford logo on a truck during a chase scene in Alias...It never makes me feel like "I really want that right now" Infact, I can't think of one instance where I was effected by it. It seems to be a pointless way of advertising. If there is a big action scene...the last thing i'm thinking about is "hey..Superman got thrown through that Coke sign..wow..I really want a coke" no. I'm concentrating on the action...


Does anyone here think it DOES effect us?

 

[revrobor]

Product placement is the placing of a product by a company who PAYS to have that product shown in the movie.

An example would be in the original Superman film where it shows young clark on the farm in the kitchen...on the table is a box of cherios facing the screen. In the next shot...the box mysteriously shows up on the window ledge with the box facing the screen. (the same box)
Another scene has Superman being thrown through a Coke billboard.

Does it effect us? I'd say it only effects a small portion of society. I mean...when I see a coke sign, or Sarah Lee box on a table or a close up of the Ford logo on a truck during a chase scene in Alias...It never makes me feel like "I really want that right now" Infact, I can't think of one instance where I was effected by it. It seems to be a pointless way of advertising. If there is a big action scene...the last thing i'm thinking about is "hey..Superman got thrown through that Coke sign..wow..I really want a coke" no. I'm concentrating on the action...


Does anyone here think it DOES effect us?

Of course it does. Why do you think those companies pay to have their products placed?

I started in the movie theatre in 1945 and at that time up until about the 70s no products were shown or the producers created a studio brand when a product was shown. Unfortunately some people, including some in the Christian community, are celebrity worshippers and assume whatever product is shown is used by whatever actor is in the film and will run out and buy it because one of their favorite celebrities was seen with it so "it must be good".

 

[MDRwp]

I think it effects in a way. It usually only effects us because we get a chance to see that product more than some of the other products in the same category. For instance, you may have two pairs of shoes, one is a name brand and the other is an off brand with no advertising. Both may be pleasing but the one that is known is more lucky going to be bought.

 

[ChristianWife]

I think it effects in a way. It usually only effects us because we get a chance to see that product more than some of the other products in the same category. For instance, you may have two pairs of shoes, one is a name brand and the other is an off brand with no advertising. Both may be pleasing but the one that is known is more lucky going to be bought.

I agree with this also.

 

[Restayvien]

I think it affects us on a sub-conscious level.

I saw a program once (bear with me here ) where they got a group of people in a room, and asked them to design a logo for a company (I can't remember what the company was) and draw it on a piece of card. Meanwhile, a man the other side of the room would draw what he thought they would come up with. He got it almost exactly right, with no collaboration with the contestants.
The drew lots of specific things in the poster that they thought were their original ideas, but this guy seemed to know what they would think up.
Now...these people had all been taken to the location by part of the production team, who took them a specific route. Along that route were posters, billboards and signs etc containing the things that they later remembered and put into the logo, despite not remembering actually seeing those things ever before. So basically, those things were lying in their subconscious while they were totally unaware of it...

 

[zoziw]

They wouldn't be paying big bucks to use these if they didn't work. You can expect to see more of them as things like TiVo and internet downloads chip away at traditional commercial effectivness.

 

[BigNorsk]

One of the famous product placements was Reese's Piece's in the movie ET. They had planned on using M & M's but those people weren't willing to pay anything, Reese's did. Well I suppose it could be coincidence but sales of Reese's Pieces absolutely exploded, company had trouble keeping up with demand.

Ask anyone that runs a pet store if they had people coming in wanting to by Nemo after the animated movie came out with the Nemo character. Most stores had several people a day for quite a long period. Product placement wasn't even intentional in that case.

I don't know if the Taco Bell dog sold tacos very well, but there were a lot of people wanting dogs just like him.

Do the majority of us run out in response to a single product placement? No, but remember companies will fight tooth and nail for even percentages of a percent in some markets. Even a very small reaction represents thousands and thousands of new users of your product. Wonder what a 1% shift between Coke and Pepsi is worth, must be millions.

One of the longest running product placements is professional car racing. Especially in some parts of the country, salesmen had a saying, "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday." Now what does a completely modified car have to do with whether you are going to like a family car from the same manufacturer, not much. Yet thousands if not millions of cars have been sold based on the winning of races.

Very similar to product placement is the celebrity endorsement. Some might have a little to do with the product, like Air Jordans, but most have absolutely nothing in common. So some celebrity endorses a breakfast cereal and boom sales go up. How about Brooke Shields and "Nothing comes between me and my Calvin Kleins", tenaged girls would have ripped them off other people if there was no other way to get them, absolutely desparate to pay whatever it cost to have a pair. Not everyone, only a few million were affected so strongly.

Fashion and self image is a very strange thing, I too have wondered why people are so fragile that they pick products just because of seeing it in a movie, but the question isn't if it works, it clearly does, the question seems to me to be more why than whether.

Marv

 

[HeyHomie]

I can't say for sure, but I sure was jonesing for McDonald's after I saw Chicken Little.

 

[Key]

Product placement is the placing of a product by a company who PAYS to have that product shown in the movie.

An example would be in the original Superman film where it shows young clark on the farm in the kitchen...on the table is a box of cherios facing the screen. In the next shot...the box mysteriously shows up on the window ledge with the box facing the screen. (the same box)
Another scene has Superman being thrown through a Coke billboard.

Does it effect us? I'd say it only effects a small portion of society. I mean...when I see a coke sign, or Sarah Lee box on a table or a close up of the Ford logo on a truck during a chase scene in Alias...It never makes me feel like "I really want that right now" Infact, I can't think of one instance where I was effected by it. It seems to be a pointless way of advertising. If there is a big action scene...the last thing i'm thinking about is "hey..Superman got thrown through that Coke sign..wow..I really want a coke" no. I'm concentrating on the action...


Does anyone here think it DOES effect us?

100% effects us.

There is no Question, no Doubt, at all that it does effect you.

This is a Tried and True form of Presenting your Product to the People to gain sales and influence.

The Placeing of a product into anything, Sports, Movies, Comedy, TV shows, Races, Family Events, Parks, Anywhere, Anything.

It Works, has been working, and will continue to work, as such, companies will continue to pay money for their products to be used.

I am waitng for Viedo Games to fall in line next, assuming they have not already.

God Bless
Key.