Product placement and promotion. What is the difference?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Product placement - this is the name of the technology of hidden advertising of various goods and brands by embedding them in the plot of the film. James Bond drinks Heineken beer and drives an Aston Martin car, Neo from The Matrix uses a Nokia phone, rapper Timati eats a Black Star burger in his video, and Yegor Creed advertises contraception means “In Time . There are countless such examples, and they all testify to one thing - hidden advertising not only works, but also has high efficiency. Just one shot is enough, in which the main character of a blockbuster or a popular youth performer appears with a cherished object in his hands, as the level of sales of this product rises sharply. That is why corporations are ready to pay substantial sums of money to creators for the appearance of their logo in their works.

In addition, such fees and financial flows are not officially registered anywhere and are classified as “gray income”. For example, a director can receive money from the state or some TV channel to shoot a film, and he will have to account for these funds. And the budget paid to him for inserting hidden advertising into the work is not fixed anywhere, and he can spend it at his own discretion

Thus, both the mercantile creator and the customer are both interested in “helping each other”. Who will remain the "extreme" in this whole story? Of course, the viewer! He is destined for the role of a victim of manipulation! When a visitor to the cinema is fascinated by the development of a fascinating story, or a teenager watches with interest a clip of his idol on YouTube, they have no time to evaluate every flashing frame. And they don't even know that this must be done in order to protect the psyche from external influences. As a result, after watching, most viewers will not even remember that somewhere in the 5th minute, the main character was drinking cool Coca-Cola with pleasure. But as the analysis of the statistics of sales of the drink will show, a huge part of all those "unnoticed" and confident that the technologies of the 25th frame or hidden advertising do not work, will certainly join the ranks of the brand's buyers. Believe me, someone who, and large corporations very carefully track costs, and will not be spent on ineffective advertising, especially since the budgets in the field of product placement are very solid

How is it that factors that we might not even have paid attention to when watching a movie or listening to a video further influence our behavior? In fact, everything is very simple. A person has not only consciousness, but also unconscious levels of the psyche. And all the information that falls into our field of vision is forever stored in memory, occupying a specific place in the worldview. You have not even thought about how the actor of your favorite movie "sweetly" took a drag on his cigarette, but this image of "pleasure" and "relaxation" was imprinted in your psyche. And in the future, it will pop up in your subconscious when you want to rest or be distracted. And the more such images - the higher the likelihood that over time you will smoke - perhaps the very same Marlboros, the pack of which flashed in the hands of a brutal cowboy, or maybe you will choose any other brand that just turns out to be more affordable

And here we come to one very curious conclusion. When, for example, a Marlborough company orders product placement for its product in a new Western, is it only promoting its brand? Or is she simultaneously promoting smoking?

If we evaluate by the result, and not by the assurances of financially interested creators or tobacco producers, then the answer is obvious - such a company is engaged in both brand advertising and smoking promotion in general. And the growth in sales of cigarettes of this particular brand (and of cigarettes in general) is a guarantee of that. Also Timati, who promotes burgers or the Fonbet bookmaker, at the same time promotes unhealthy food and gambling.

Also, Yegor Creed, who in his videos often sleeps with several girls at once, twisting a package of condoms in his hands, simultaneously promotes an open relationship. And advertising of a means to increase potency on television is at the same time a command “think about sex!” Broadcasted from the screen, because it refers the viewer to reactions of a sexual type, even if he is still a minor. Thus, advertising, including hidden advertising, and propaganda are essentially one and the same process of disseminating information in order to influence the audience. And in terms of content, there is no difference between them. The only difference is in the goals, methods and consequences of this influence. Of course, not every product placement simultaneously carries elements of destructive influence.

For example, an advertisement for the same watches or cars, at first glance, is quite harmless. Or what's wrong with the fact that the heroines of the series "Sex and the City"only use Apple-branded laptops? Although, on the other hand, what good is that Apple has sponsored the filming of a film about women of very free views for so many years, whose promiscuous behavior has become a role model for many spectators? This is also worth thinking about.