Brand Hype: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Brand Hype?

Brand Hype is a web-based resource focusing on product placement in the movies. The site is intended as an educational resource and information exchange for students, media literacy advocates, media researchers, moviemakers and moviegoers. It includes articles, videos and an annotated bibliography, but its key feature is a searchable database of movies and placements called Movie Mapper.

So, what is product placement?

Product placement is the intentional placement of brand name products and services within the context of scenes in movies. These products appear alongside the stars (often as props they use, places they frequent or subjects they talk about) and are frequently included as part of the storyline.

Brands are just part of our world now, isn't it natural and realistic, unavoidable even, that they appear in movies?

That is certainly one common argument, but if you think about the way movies are made, it doesn't actually hold much weight.

On being 'natural': When it comes to making movies, nothing in the frame is 'natural'; each scene is crafted in very specific and intentional ways. Each element is considered and reconsidered: all the props are there for a reason; the lighting, the framing, the cropping and editing are all done with certain kinds of aesthetic or dramatic effects in mind. A lot of the products we see in movies aren't there by accident; they're there because someone consciously decided to put them there (some combination of the writer, director, prop master, and placement agent). Additionally, if we want to consider how realistic such placements are, walking around with a Coke or Pepsi bottle so that you can clearly see the logo, or arranging your refrigerator so that all the labels are facing out, is not exactly 'natural'.

On being 'realistic': moviemakers argue this one both ways, depending on what suits the moment. For example, they'll claim that their violent movies don't make people violent (no media effects), but then declare they're going to help America heal in the wake of 911 by making happy, upbeat movies (lots of media effects). Besides, movies are not really about realism, they're about escapism. They use events or experiences in the real world and use them as a departure point for 2-hour flights of fancy (or fantasy). Product placement is about introducing brands into the frame in the most conscious and deliberate way possible to make those products look luscious and desirable. Take a look at the marketing literature put out by product placement agencies: they're not promising their clients realism, they're promising brand exposure through exclusive access to desirable market segments. If Coke pays, Pepsi gets shut out; if Budweiser signs up, the rest lose out.

On being 'unavoidable': Hollywood is an industry that can do all kinds of amazing things - it can take us to other planets, it can show us the White House blowing up, it can make a tsunami wave flood Manhattan; can we really be expected to believe that they cannot make a film set in modern day times without including really conspicuous, highly recognizable brands?

Why should I care about product placement in the movies?

One of the reasons why we should care about product placement is that the practice is, in many respects, deceitful. Product placements are different from traditional advertisements which announce themselves as ads and which we expect to try to sell us things. There is something underhanded about the ad being part of the actual movie we've paid good money to see. Are we there to see a movie, or to be sold stuff? In terms of the larger picture, product placement can be understood as a symptom of a 'hyper-commercial' culture, in which marketing practices dominate everyday life and advertisers increasingly colonize all kinds of visual space with their brand name products and services, including the movies. This commercial colonization is to the detriment of filmmaking as a way of telling stories about the culture we live in. There's a conflation of our identities as consumers and our identities as citizens, and that's worrying. The question is, do we want ads in our movies? Do we just want movies that are created in part to make certain products look good? Is it necessary that we always be addressed as consumers, as if we had nothing to do but buy and consume products? If our primary 'job' in life is to consume, what does that say about the future for us, and generations to come? (For a more detailed argument, check out the video Behind the Screens).

Okay, so I'm interested in product placement, how can I get involved with Brand Hype?

You can help us build the database! The idea behind Movie Mapper, the core feature of Brand Hype, is that the database will be collaborative, along the same lines as Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), or the early days of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). You can log in and then log movies and product placements to help build a database with an ever-growing number of movies (both current and older). We want Brand Hype to be a dynamic resource that belongs to the community; your participation is much appreciated!You can also help by spreading the word. If you know someone who'd be interested in this site, please let them know about us. We're also happy to receive any feedback you have about the site. You can send feedback to admin@brandhype.org.

How will I recognize a product placement?

Once you start to consciously look for product placements in the movies, you may be surprised to find how often they appear and how easy it is to recognize them. Mainstream, general release, big-budget Hollywood movies are a good place to begin your search, as chances are you'll find some placements. Check out trade magazines like Advertising Age (www.adage.com) for information on new deals between brands and movie makers. The following list outlines some of the telltale signs of a product that's been placed:

The product is onscreen for more than a couple seconds

The brand name is very visible, often lit beautifully and featured centrally in the frame

The product is being held, used or talked about by one of the stars,

The brand name is recognizable, e.g. Coke, Pepsi, Apple, FedEx, General Motors

For some examples of product placements, visit the Gallery.

If you see something fleetingly in the background, if it's very blurry, if you only see it once, those can be indications that it isn't actually a placement. Rule of thumb: if you're not sure, log it and we can discuss it.

I just watched a movie and I didn't find any product placements, should I log it in Movie Mapper?

Absolutely. Even if you didn't see any product placements, log the movie. You can still add related information to the Comments section when you log it if you want (e.g. When coffee cups did appear in this movie, they were generic, rather than brand name). There are a number of reasons why should you still log the movie: First, by having it included in the database we can keep track of which movies people have watched, which means other Brand Hype contributors won't waste their time watching the same movie over and over. Second, to get the best possible resource for analysis, it's important to include movies with and without placements. As the database grows, visitors to the site will be able to use it to ask a variety questions, including questions about the absence of placement. For example: which genres are more likely to have product placement and which genres are least likely to include product placement?

I see in the Gallery section of your site that you have pictures of product placement examples taken from the movies; am I expected to collect these too when I contribute to the database?

No, we don't ask or want people to do that. When you log in to the site you'll just be asked to log in movies textually (a process that is much simpler than trying to capture and upload photos). The gallery is a selection of examples of product placement. It's there to illustrate what product placement is and for teaching and educational purposes. We're not undertaking a project to visually capture every single placement we find.

Who are the Brand Hype team and how is the project funded?

Matt Soar, producer and co-director of the MEF video Behind the Screens (2000), and Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Concordia University, in Montréal, Canada, is the creator of Brand Hype. A number of graduate students at Concordia University have collaborated with Matt on the project since its beginnings. These include Fernando Aloise, Danielle Devereaux, Anne Marie Ennis, and Lesley Husbands. Stuart Thiel is our ace technical consultant and database programmer. The project is supported by a research/creation grant from SSHRC Canada.

I have a question that hasn't been answered in your FAQ section.

Ask us! Chances are someone else is wondering the exact same thing! If you have a question that has not been answered in this section, email the Brand Hype team at admin@brandhype.org and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.