Product Placement and Embedded Marketing

Product placement is a form of advertisment used by companies where their branded goods are placed in movies ot television shows.

According to "Cable & Television" magazine "Two thirds of advertisers employ branded entertainment with the vast majority of that (80%) used in commercial televsion advertisment.

Association of National Advertisers said that "Reasons for using in-show plugs varied from stronger emotional connection to better dovetailing with relative content, to targetting a specific group".

The ten worst television shows for product placement are:

1. "The Biggest Loser" (6,248)
2. "American Idol" (4,636)
3. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (3,371)
4. "America's Toughest Jobs" (2,807)
5. "One Tree Hill" (2,575)
6. "Deal or no Deal" (2,292)
7. "America's Next Top Model" (2,241)
8. "Last Cosmic Standing" (1,993)
9. "Kitchen Nightmares" (1,853)
10. "Hell's Kitchen" (1,807)

The ten worst movies for product placement are:

1. I,Robot (Audi, JVC, FedEx, Converse)
2. The Island (Microsoft, Chanel, Nokia)
3. Blade Trinity (everything Apple)
4. Castaway (basically FedEx on an island)
5. Minority Report (Guinness, Lexus)
6. Austin Powers 2 (AOL, Pepsi)
7. Demolition Man (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut)
8. Back to the Future's (AT&T, Pepsi, Calvin Klein)
9. Evolution (Head & Shoulders)
10. Spider-Man (Sony, Dr. Pepper, Carlsberg)

PQMedia a site which tracks the product placement market tell us that product placement and advertisment combine in paypackets. All these payments to television and movie producers in 2006 accounted to $7 billion rising to $10 billion in 2010.

The film "Fight Club" featuring Brad Pitt was an unusual example of product placement. This included scenes where an Apple store was broken into and when Brad Pitt smashes the headlights of a VW Bettle! This self criticism is a rarity as it defaces products which paid to be in the film.

Another weird example happened after filming the current box-office hit "Slumdog Millionaire". The director Danny Boyle encountered product displacment. Brands such as Mercedes featured in the film but then asked for their logos to be removed digitally. Mercedes did not wish for their producted to be viewed in a slum setting!

Another tool which producers use instead of employing products is to make up brands of their own. The Simpsons have used this since their inception (Duff beer, Kwik-E-Mart, Laramie Cigarettes, and Krusty Burgers).