Product Placement in Entertainment Industry

Product Placement is gradually becoming one of the most popular marketing strategies in the entertainment industry. Product Placement is a marketing strategy that allows companies to market their products within different types of entertainment, which can include television shows, films, and music videos.  Product Placement can be used as another avenue of marketing because it helps company’s market their products to a wide range of consumers worldwide.  According to a Business Week article, after the Reese’s Pieces candy was featured in the film, E.T., their sales increased by sixty-five percent and it also stated in the article that Red Stripe beer sales increase by more than fifty percent after it was featured in the film, The Firm.

According to an article by Psychology Today, it states that product placement can determine our attitude towards a specific television and/or film by the products that are being used in a scene. It also mentioned that product placement plays a role in how we as an audience identify ourselves with the product that is being advertised in a specific show. Product placement has become another outlet for film and television shows to receive more money to support their financial project without having to rely solely on advertising commercials.  Though product placement endorses and increase sales opportunities for company's branding their product it can also have a negative effect within the industry.

The featured film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, has been receiving complaints by two major Chinese companies that helped endorse the film. One of the two companies have argued that their brand did not received enough air time on the film. According to an article by the Atlantic, the other Chinese company, Chongqing Wulong Karst Tourism Company, is suing Paramount for not upholding their obligation to display their company's brand in the film. This is a great example of how product placement is not always the best marketing plan for a company. If an entertainment company does not give the other party's brand enough air time or if the movie does not do exceptionally well in the box office than it actually results in a marketing strategy that went completely wrong for each party. Both of these scenarios are examples of how product placement is not always the best way to market a company’s brand and/or product. In conclusion, product placement has it advantages and disadvantages but it is clearly becoming more popular within the entertainment industry and will continue to grow more as a marketing avenue for major companies who are seeking to advance their sales and operations.