Overall, do product placements in media add or subtract from the experience?
Product placements promote the brands willing to pay for the screen time and also create a more “realistic” cinematic experience. We’re bombarded with messaging in our normal lives; it’s logical that movie and television characters would also be exposed to this constant stream of messaging as well.
Product placement truly becomes problematic when it’s blatantly obvious that the product is not adding anything to the narrative or story. Here are a few outrageous examples of product placements:
- Samsung Galaxy Phone during Shark Tank
- Anything on the Biggest Loser
- Oracle Servers throughout Iron Man 3
- FedEx throughout Cast Away
Do you feel product placements add or subtract from the experience? Is it worth it, overall, for brands to feature their products in narrative stories?
-Jordan Bainer is a senior account executive at d.trio marketing group