Product Placement and the Question of Trust
Issue: How does product placement affect the credibility of the media property and the brand?
Commentary by: David
A typical product placement – this one on the season finale of NUMB3RS – raises the question for us of the effect of paid but undisclosed endorsement on brand equity. In this case, the placed product was a Dyson vacuum cleaner. The product was well integrated into the story line. The premise for this series is an FBI agent whose brother is a genius mathematician. In this storyline, the mathematician brother points to the Dyson vacuum and describes how its vortex suction works, then moves on to a mathematically similar method for solving the crime at hand. This is about as good as product placement gets since the Dyson is woven into the plot and the character takes a moment to explain the product. Dyson supplemented the placement with advertising (which we have reviewed previously here) which reinforces the brand message.
Two things tip us off to the fact that we are witnessing a paid product placement – one is integral to the placement itself, the other is not. The unavoidable tip-off is the appearance of the Dyson with the logo in closeup. The avoidable tell is the presence of Dyson ads during the episode. Both work together to make the placement memorable but evident. And therein lies the problem.
Product placement is a tricky game. It is a combination of advertising and publicity. It is advertising because it is paid for and not ‘earned,’ as news stories featuring brands are considered to be. On the other hand, product placement has the implied endorsement benefit that can work harder than advertising if it is handled correctly, and in this way it is more like PR. To work well, though, this paid endorsement must look like unpaid, naturally occuring story content. The more brazen and obvious a product placement, the less authentic it feels. When a product placement is too glaring or evident (as some of the placements on The Apprentice have been deemed to be), it loses the implied endorsement benefit and may actually generate a backlash.
The problem is that product placement is paid advertising, not unpaid endorsement. So making it work effectively means deceiving consumers to keep them from understanding the relationship between the brands featured on a television show (or in a movie) and the producers of that entertainment. And deceiving the consumers has many perils, not the least of which is the peril to the brand if the paid placement is revealed.
This creates a real problem for any enduring brand. Yes, it may be very straightforward to buy placement for a brand and that placement may help strengthen the brand equity. But if the increase in consumer interest comes as a result of deceiving the consumer, then the advertiser may risk suffering a significant backlash if the commercial relationship between the media property and the brand is revealed. In most cases, it is the opinion of this advertising blog that the risk is not worth the effort at deception. Unless the placement can be openly disclosed, but still effective (like Tiger Woods wearing Nike which is an open paid placement and endorsement), the brand benefits at great peril. Although it may work for some period of time, deceiving the consumer is bad business.
April 8th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I've noticed a lot of conspicuous product placement in NUMB3RS. Since I download them on my Xbox 360, I watch them commercial-free, so I don't have the "benefit" of seeing the corresponding paid advertising to make the correlations you mentioned in your commentary entry.
One that I've seen quite a bit is the conspicuous featuring of Megan's Acura. In one episode during Season 2, she inputs an address into the integrated navigation system. In the episode's credits, I noticed that they mentioned that the episode was sponsored in part by Acura. At the time, I thought it was pretty cool. Subtle, effective, honest. A few episodes later, Agent Granger says to Megan of a newly acquired suspect address: "Put THAT into the fancy nav system in your Acura." Not so subtle anymore. As a matter of fact, pretty darn distracting. And I have to agree that it reduces the effectiveness of the placement. Which is unfortunate, since I happen to be a big fan of Acura Motors. My dad drives one, and I especially like the itnegrated navigation system. I can imagine in real life someone saying EXACTLY that phrase, especially if the Acura were relatively new, and the nav system were a bragging point that MEgan brought up frequently (and recently). But conversations of that nature, while realistic, aren't usually featured in 41-minute crime dramas.
I'm watching the most recent episode right now, "Pandora's Box." Amita tells Charlie that she never used to lock her college dorm room until one day, someone walked right in and stole afossil watch right off her desk. Again, I'm a huge fan of Fossil watches. If I were talking to someone who knows this about me, I might mention the brand. Or, if the brand of watch were really expensive; Fossil watches are great, but Rolex or Movado they ain't. Otherwise, generally speaking, mentioning the specific brand in this context is so unnatural, that I had to stop the show and come and look for other mentioning of product placement in NUMB3RS.
If anyone who writes for or otherwise is involved in the preproduction of this show, please note: your audience notices these clumsy placements. If you feature a product in a positive and noticeable way without practically screaming the brand name, then I say "good job". When you name drop such that the obvious subtext is "LISTEN TO OUR BRAND NAME: YOU BETTER NOTICE, OR WE OVERPAID", then I have to blame very bad writing or a very bad advertising contract. Either way, I'm taken right out of the story, and the brand you're supposed to be helping drops a few notches in my respectometer.
My own Fossil watch (which has tremendous sentimental value) was damaged recently. I was going to replace it with another Fossil watch. Now I'm not so sure. I like the show and want to keep watching it. How do I respect myself, keep watching the show, AND buy a product so clumsily placed?