Product placement Essay

Product Placement
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Product Placement
Product placement entails the purposeful inclusion of a commercial content into a non-commercial setting. In other words, it is a practice in which various producers of goods or service providers advertise their products by paying, for them to be featured in television programs and films. Despite the fact that product placement is to some extent riskier than conventional advertising, it has become a common practice to place products into mainstream media including computer and video games, internet, radio, magazines, films, and blogs (MirriAd » history of product placement advertising, n.d.). This paper explores product placement from its beginning to date.
Product placement began in the early 1950s when Gordon's Gin paid to have Katherine Hepburn, a character in "The African Queen", feature their products. Since then, product placement has become a common practice to every producer. One of the commonly discussed placement is the Reese's Pieces Placement, which was featured in the movie "E.T.". A slightly recent placement is the placement of Red Stripe, one of the Jamaican-brewed beers, which was featured in the movie "The Firm". After the placement, Red Stripe sales increased by more than 50% (Neer, n.d.).
To date, except for television or movies, attitudes toward product placement in media have received little attention although product placement has increased in various games. Currently, many marketers are interested in having their placements in computer games because almost every household has a PC, and computer games have become too common. In addition, placements are also made through the internet in different websites, where customers can enquire for more information regarding the product. Initially, product placement targeted household consumers, but today, they have begun to expand into the business-to-business domain. Buying center participants claim the practice to be worth for various B2B products and services (Schoenherr, 2011).