by Lincoln Hay

Created on: February 06, 2009

"We'll be back after these messages". A familiar phrase that nowadays has less meaning than it ever has. With the increased amount of PVR, TiVo and Video-on-Demand in households, people can just zip through commercials, making them next to useless. Even for movies, people plan ahead to arrive just after those pesky previews, or skip through them all in video games. So what has the advertising industry come to? Product placement: the appearance of a product or service in a broadcast program or movie, paid for by the manufacturer to gain exposure for the product or service. This enables companies to essentially make people see their product whether you like it or not. For example, in "The Matrix" (1999), everyone uses Nokia cell phones. This advertising technique has history that dates back to the early nineteenth century. It also sparks lively debate over it's ethicalness, effectiveness and need for it. Throughout history, the debatable tactic known as product placement has thrived and will not be soon forgotten. As you read on, think about the different types of media product placement has been in.

The need for product placement in television came about in 1980 at the peek of advertising. With all of the new products available they needed some ways to get people to buy their goods, but first they needed to make everyone aware of them. Today, most plugs (products placed TV shows, the internet, etc.) are found in movies. The first movie plug was located in the movie "Wings" (1927), which had a bar of Hershey's chocolate in the hands of a happy fellow. But it wasn't only movies that changed the course of product placement. One of the early ways of product placement was putting brand names in the most popular books. That wouldn't last long. With increasing popularity of television and decreasing popularity of books, they figured that would be a good way to make the viewers aware of their products. By putting their brands of snack foods, electronics, and so on in the commonly watched television shows and movies, they would be able to alert the consumer of their goods. When product placement came to Canada in the early nineteenth century, it was rarely used, until the marketers figured out how beneficial it would be. Soon, it was popping up in many TV shows, such as Heroes and One Tree Hill; even old school video games (anyone remember the Kool-Aid Game?) had some help in this business trend. But was it for good or for worse?

There is no straight answer to that question.

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