Bibliography

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-Anderson and Strate, ed. Critical Studies in Media Commercialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

-Auty, Susan and Charlie Lewis. "Exploring Children"s Choice: The Reminder Effect of Product Placement". Psychology & Marketing, 21 (9): 697-713. September 2004. An analysis of whether children are aware of the brands placed in films. Their results show that implicit memory (i.e. repetition) is more important than explicit recall in terms of children"s brand choices.

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-Bishop, Ronald. "Good Afternoon, Good Evening, and Good Night: The Truman Show as Media Criticism". Journal of Communication Inquiry, 24 (1), January 2000. pp. 6-18. The author disputes the idea that films like The Truman Show critique the power of the media but rather contends that entertainment producers actively exploit and at the same time dissipate our genuine desire to engage in media criticism, reducing media criticism to consumption.

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-Brehm, W. "Legal Restrictions on Product Placement and Sponsorship in Films and Television Programs". Journal of Media Law and Practice. 1993, Vol 14 (2), pp. 97-100. Due to restrictions placed on the amount of advertising permitted on German television, there is a strong trend to extend advertising by seeking loopholes such as product placements.

-Brennan, Ian; Babin, Laurie A.. "Brand Placement Recognition: The Influence of Presentation Mode and Brand Familiarity". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp.185-203. This study examines the impact of adding an audible reference to a visually prominent brand placement on recognition of the brand placed. Results indicate that brand placement recognition levels achieved by audio-visual prominent placements exceed the recognition rates achieved by visual-only prominent placements.

-Codrington, Andrea. "Reeling & Dealing: A close-up look at the fine art of the product placement deal." I.D. Magazine. May 1997, pp.70-73.

-Craig, Steve and Terry Moellinger. " "So Rich, Mild, and Fresh": A Critical Look at TV Cigarette Commercials, 1948-1971". Journal Of Communication Inquiry. 25 (1), January 2001, pp. 55-71. The authors trace the twenty-two-year heyday of tobacco advertising on U.S. television up until 1971, when it was banned by the U.S. congress. Similarities existing between cigarette advertising and contemporary corporate marketing practices in television and the movies can be observed.

-Elliott, Stuart. "Reruns May Become a Testing Ground for Digital Insertion of Sponsor's Products and Images". New York Times. 23 May, 2001. This article discusses technology known as "live-video insertion" used to add product placements to television programs post-production.

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-Friedman, Ted. "Cast Away and the Contradictions of Product Placement." Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 171-184. The author argues that Cast Away is a particularly valuable case study because of the conflict between its relentless product placement and its dark vision of contemporary global capitalism.

-Friedman, Ted. "The World of the World of Coca-Cola". Communication Research, 19 (5), October 1992. pp. 642-662. The author explores the newly-unveiled "World of Coca-Cola" exhibit in Atlanta, Georgia, and asks questions about the marketing of Coca-Cola as a product and who owns Coca-Cola.

-Friend, Tad. "Copy Cats." The New Yorker. 14 September, 1998: 51. "What if Shakespeare sued the producers of "West Side Story" for copyright infringement? He"d probably lose." Is it any coincidence that many Hollywood films tend to resemble their predecessors? This article is an examination of ownership and copyright, specifically dealing with the stories that eventually become movies.

-Fuller, L. K. "We Can"t Duck the Issue: Imbedded advertising in the motion pictures. In Frith, K. T. (Ed.) Undressing the ad: Reading culture in advertising. New York: Peter Lang, 1997, 109-130.

-Galician, Mary-Lou. "A Leading Cultural Critic Argues Against Product Placement: An Interview with Mark Crispin Miller". Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 219-223. In the opinion of Miller, product placement is one way in which the forces of commercialization "domesticate" cinema and make it mundane. In the long run, the practice will only work against the interests of marketers as it worsens cinema.

-Galician, Mary-Lou. "A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Media Critic Discusses Product Placement: An Interview with Howard Rosenberg". Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 233-236. In Rosenberg's opinion, marketing strategies are extensions of the way television can influence people and consumers should be made aware when they're watching an unidentified commercial in a seemingly non-commercial context.

-Galician, Mary-Lou. "A Rising Independent Filmmaker Argues for Product Placement: An Interview with Samuel A. Turcotte". Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 223-227. In the opinion of Turcotte, moviemakers used to think that using brand names undermined the artistry of the cinema, but today we know that it undermines reality not to use them.

-Galician, Mary-Lou. "Harry Potter, Coca-Cola, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest: An Interview with Michael F. Jacobson". Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 227-232. In the early 1990s, Jacobson denounced product placement as the most insidious form of advertising, and as the representative of Center for the Study of Commercialism he petitioned the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to ban it or at least to require movies to list all product placements during the opening credits.

-Galician, Mary-Lou. "Introduction: Product Placements in the Mass Media: Unholy Marketing Marriages or Realistic Story-Telling Portrayals, Unethical Advertising Messages or Useful Communication Practices?". Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 1-9. The article focuses on the theory and practice of product placement in the mass media.

-Galician, Mary-Lou, Bourdeau, Peter G. "The Evolution of Product Placements in Hollywood Cinema: Embedding High-Involvement "Heroic" Brand Images". Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 15-37. This content analysis of the 15 top-grossing motion pictures of 1977, 1987, and 1997 uncovered 546 product placements present in fully one quarter (24%) of the total running time of the 45 movies.

-Galician, Mary-Lou. "Product Placement in the 21 St Century". Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 241-269. The article presents a group discussion on product placement in the present scenario and in the future. So many aspects of the American culture have been connected to advertising, marketing, and consumption that it becomes difficult to find any other form of discourse or ideas that are not connected to consumption or branding.

-George, Lianne. "Is Kiefer Sutherland Trying to Sell You Something." Maclean"s, February 21, 2005, pp 30-35. This article discusses several examples of the "imbedded" or ads that appear in several recent television shows as well as the creative conflicts that can arise between TV creators and writers and advertisers.

-Gluckson. ""Casting" Products in Films." Boxoffice. December, 1985, p. 34-36.

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-Gould, Stephen J., Pola B. Gupta and Sonja Grabner-Kruter. "Product Placement in Movies: A Cross-cultural Analysis of Austrian, French and American Consumer's Attitudes Toward this Emerging International Promotional Medium". Journal of Advertising. Winter, 2000. Vol. 29 (4), pp. 41-58. This cross-cultural study expands on exiting research on the U.S. consumer and looks at the acceptability of product placements and on potential purchase behavior.

-Gray, Ed. "How To Watch A Movie." US Airways Attach. March, 1999, p. 58.

-Gupta, Pola B. and Kenneth R. Lord. "Product Placement in Movies: The Effect of Prominence and Mode on Audience Recall". Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising. Spring 1998, Vol. 20 (1), pp. 47-59. This article looks at common product-placement strategies in Hollywood films and attempts to draw conclusions about the kinds of placements and the recall of products among audiences.

-Handy, Bruce. "101 Movie Tie-Ins: With merchandising money rivaling box-office intake, Hollywood is saying, Attention Shoppers!" Time December 2, 1996

-Hass, Nancy. "It"s Synergy, Baby. Groovy! Yeah! New York Times. May 2, 1999. "The Selling of Austin Powers, from the board game to the Madonna single, will all take place within Time Warner." An article describing synergy and its relationship to the film marketplace.

-Herzog, Charlotte. ""Powder Puff" Promotion: The Fashion Show-in-the-Film." Fabrications: Costume and The Female Body. Ed. Gaines, Jane and Herzog, Charlotte. New York: Routledge, 1990. 134-159. From the earliest days of cinema, fashion has made its way into commercial films. Outlines the intimate relationship that the fashion industry has with Hollywood. Costumes are just as carefully orchestrated as any other placement.

-Jacobson, M. and Mazur A. "Product Placement." Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide for a Consumer Society. Denver: Westview Press, 1995. P. 67-72. A complete and highly critical review of product placement. This article explains the process, discusses costs, and lists examples of placements in feature films.

-Jacobson, Michael F. Ph.D. "Before The Federal Trade Commission: In the matter of Unfair and Deceptive Acts in the Placement of Product Advertisements in Motion Pictures." Washington DC: Center for the Study of Commercialism, 1991.

-Kaplan, David A. "The Selling of Star Wars." Newsweek. May 17, 1999. A cover story on Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Describes the film as both hype and cultural phenomenon. This issue also features an unfavorable review of "Phantom Menace" by David Ansen. Kirchdoerffer, Ed. "Keeping Up With Today"s Kids." KidScreen. January 1999: 41. On the popularity of licensed characters with children.

-Kretchmer, Susan B. "Advertainment: The Evolution of Product Placement as a Mass Media Marketing Strategy". Journal of Promotion Management,Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, 2004, pp. 37-55. This essay explores the issues implicated by entertainment vehicles created solely to spotlight specific advertisers. This study considers the nature and implications of perhaps the ultimate evolution of product placement and blurring of the lines between entertainment and commercial persuasion.

-Lees, David and Berkowitz, Stan. The Movie Business. New York: Vintage, 1981.

-Lester, Paul Martin. Visual Communication: Images with Messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1995. P. 317-321.

-Linck. "Brand Names Go Hollywood: Props That Sell." Boxoffice. April, 1982. p.32-33. -Litman, Barry R. "Motion Picture Entertainment." The Structure of American Industry (9th Edition). Ed. Adams, Walter and Brock, James W. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.

-Marich. "TV Commercials in the Next Century? 2010 offers peak." Ad Age. 3 December, 1984. P. 4, 98.

-Marshall, Norm and Ayers, Dean. "Norm Marshall and Dean Ayers In Rebuttal: Product Placement Worth More Than Its Weight." Brandweek. 9 February 1998: 16-17. Two industry insiders weigh the pros and cons of product placement in movies.

-McAllister, Matthew P. The Commercialization of American Culture: New Advertising Control and Democracy. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1996.

-McChesney, Robert. Rich Media, Poor Democracy:Communication Politics in Dubious Times. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. (book and film available from MED foundation).

-Meehan, Eileen. " 'Holy Commodity Fetish, Batman!' The Political Economy of a Commercial Intertext." The Many Lives of Batman: Critical Approach to a Superhero and His Media. Ed. Pearson, Roberta and Uricchio, William. New York: Routledge, 1991. 47-65.

-"The Merchants of Cool". Narr. Douglas Rushkoff. Frontline. PBS Television. 27 February 2001. This fifty-three minute documentary reports on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers using several case studies.

-Miller, Mark Crispin. "End of Story." Boxed In: The Culture of TV. Ed. Miller, Mark Crispin. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1988. 186-246. Numerous examples of product placement are discussed with respect to their effect on scenes and plotlines.

-Miller, Mark Crispin. "The Media Nation: Publishing." The Nation. 17 March, 1997. Comprehensive table of networks of ownership.

-Miller, Mark Crispin. "The Media Nation: TV." The Nation. 8 June, 1998. Comprehensive table of networks of ownership.

-Morton, Cynthia R. and Meredith Friedman. ""I Saw it in the Movies": Exploring the Link Between Product Placement Beliefs and Reported Usage Behavior". Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Fall 2002, Vol 24 (2), pp. 33-40. This study presents an exploratory examination of the correlation between beliefs about product placement and reported product usage following exposure.

-Natharius, David. "When Product Placement Is NOT Product Placement: Reflections of a Movie Junkie". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 213-218. The attempt to make serious realistic films is sometimes sidetracked by a clearly fake product that strikes at the suspension of disbelief of movie goers, particularly when they have some familiarity with the product NOT being placed.

-Nebenzahl, Israel D. & Secunda, E. "Consumers' attitudes toward product placement in movies." International Journal of Advertising 12(1) (Wntr 1993), pp. 1-12. Marketing research based on interviews with lines outside movie theaters. Found that movie-goers didn"t mind placement " based on higher ticket prices as the only alternative.

-Nelson, Richard Alan. "A Product Placement Resource Guide: Recommended Publications and Websites". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 259-268. A selective guide to useful resources for the person interested in doing research on the product placement phenomenon including product placement firms and websites.

-Nelson, Richard Alan. "The Bulgari Connection: A Novel Form of Product Placement". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 203-213. This paper presents an analysis of the controversy surrounding British novelist Fay Weldon's decision to accept financing from the famed Italian jewelry company Bulgari to prominently mention the firm and its products in her 2001 book, The Bulgari Connection.

-Office of National Drug Control Policy & U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Use In Popular Movies & Music. April 1999.

-Ohmann, Richard et al. (Eds.) Making and Selling Culture. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England [for] Wesleyan University, 1996. Includes a critical interview with Strauss Zelnick, the then current president and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox.

-Olson, Scott Robert. "The Extensions of Synergy: Product Placement Through Theming and Environmental Simulacra". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 65-88. Corporations use synergy as a way of conveying consistent brand messages through multiple venues. Those venues have expanded beyond our conventional notions of the mass media, however, and increasingly rely on physical environments such as theme parks, casinos, and even residential communities to communicate and reinforce brand messages. The transformation of space into a new advertising medium has significant cultural implications.

-Ong, Beng Soo. "A Comparison of Product Placements in Movies and Television Programs: An Online Research Study". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 147-159. Product placements in television shows differ from placements in movies in terms of (1) federal regulations, (2) greater vehicle choices, and (3) ability to embed brands into TV shows that have proven to be successful. An online survey was conducted with the purpose of examining attitudinal differences, if any, between product placement in movies and in TV programs.

-Ong, Beng Soo and D. Meni. "Should Product Placement in Movies Be Banned?". Journal of Promotion Management, 1994, Vol. 2 Issue 3/4, pp. 159-175. This study investigates the associations among moviegoer"s purchase evaluations, brand recall patterns and ethical judgments of the medium.

-Pardun, Carol J. and Kathy Brittain McKee. "Product Placements as Public Relations: An Exploratory Study of the Role of the Public Relations Firm". Public Relations Review. Winter, 1999. Vol. 25 (4), pp. 481-493. The findings of the research suggest that public relations practitioners are active players in choosing whether to use product placements to enhance a client"s product or service.

-Pechmann, Cornelia and Shih, Chuan-Fong. "Smoking Scenes in Movies and Antismoking Advertisements Before Movies: Effects on Youth." Journal of Marketing 63(3) (July 1999).

"Pepsi wins product placement at "Oscar"". Reuters, 20 February, 2005. PepsiCo Inc. may be only the world's No. 2 soft drinks maker, but in terms of product placement on the big screen it outranked every other brand on the planet in 2004.

-"The Persuaders". Narr. Douglas Rushkoff. Frontline. PBS Television. 9 November 2004. This ninety-minute documentary explores how the cultures of marketing and advertising have come to influence not only what Americans buy, but also how they view themselves and the world around them.

-Roehm, Michelle L., Roehm Jr., Harper A. and Boone, Derrick S.. "Plugs Versus Placements: A Comparison of Alternatives for Within-Program Brand Exposure". Psychology & Marketing, Jan 2004, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p17-29. A study is presented that compares two forms of within-program brand appearances: product placements and celebrity plugs. Differences in presentation contexts may create differences in how memory for plugs and placements is organized.

-Rotkin. "Product Visibility in Motion Pictures." Marketing Communications. July, 1982. P. 4-5.

-Schatz, Thomas. "The Return of The Hollywood Studio System." Conglomerates and the Media. Ed. Barnouw, Erik et al. New York: The New Press, 1997. 73-105. How Hollywood studios are geared to produce not simply films but "franchises," blockbuster scaled hits which can be systematically reproduced in a range of media forms.

-Schiller, Gail. "Product Placements in TV, Films Soar, Study Finds." Reuters/Hollywood Reporter. March 30, 2005. The findings of a six-month market research study by PQ media reveal film and especially television placements are increasing and that the practice of product placement is becoming an integral part of larger marketing packages for advertisers.

-Schiller, Herbert I. "Corporate Sponsorship: Institutionalized Censorship of the Cultural Realm". Art Journal (USA) Vol. 50, no. 3, Fall 1991. pp. 56-59. This article critiques the practice of product placement as the transformation of the cultural sphere and creative expression into a marketing apparatus that satisfies the needs of its corporate sponsors.

-Siegel, Paul. "Product Placement and the Law". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 89-101. This essay reviews the evolution of the Supreme Court's commercial speech doctrine and concludes that product placements would likely not be considered commercial speech at all; moreover, the essay argues, even if they were found to be commercial speech, the Court's evolving doctrine would likely protect the placements from regulation.

-Stanley, T.L. "More Hype to Come: Even with a rash of summer movie tie-ins, Tinseltown marketers say the end is nowhere in sight." Brandweek. April 3, 1995. P 26-27, 30,31, 34.

-Turcotte, Samuel. "Gimme a Bud!." The Feature Film Product Placement Industry. The University of Texas at Austin, 1995. http://www.utexas.edu/coc/adv/research/papers/Turcotte/ A business thesis analyzing the practice of product placement in Hollywood. Includes extensive interviews with practitioners. The writer believes placement to be beneficial to audiences, as well as to marketers.

-Turner, Kathleen J.. "Insinuating the Product into the Message: An Historical Context for Product Placement". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 9-15. The cozy arrangement of marketers embedding their products in mediated messages has its antecedents in radio and television, when sponsors often controlled the entirety of programs. This essay sketches the rise and fall of this system as it paved the way for contemporary product placement.

-Vaczek, David. "Pay to Play." Promo Magazine. June, 1999. P 106. About licensing and promotion of products via film and TV. Also has a sidebar about movie studios developing "new merchandise-minded creatures."

-Wasko, Janet. Hollywood in the Information Age: Beyond The Silver Screen. Austin Texas: University of Texas Press, 1995.

-Wasko, Janet, Mark Phillips and Chris Purdie. "Hollywood Meets Madison Avenue: The Commercialization of US Films". Media Culture 15 (2), April 1993, pp 271-293. This article examines the growth of advertising and marketing of Hollywood products, arguing that they enhance the general commodification of culture and thus the promotion of a consumer society. Includes an appendix of the top-grossing movies of 1990 and the products placed in them.

-Wenner, Lawrence A.. "On the Ethics of Product Placement in Media Entertainment". Journal of Promotion Management, 2004, Vol. 10 Issue 1/2, pp. 101-133. This study examines the ethical propriety of current trends in product placement in television and film entertainment. Three distinct "genres" of contemporary product placement are analyzed: (1) Product Placement, (2) Product Integration, and (3) Video Insertion.

Williamson, J. Consuming Passions: Film Criticism: 1980-1990. London: Marion Boyars, 1993.

-Wise, J. Macgretor. "Mapping the Culture of Control: Seeing Through the Truman Show". Television & New Media 3 (1), February 2002, pp. 29-47. The author uses the Truman Show to theorize Deleuze"s "culture of control" and its cultural implications. He sees the film to be representative of themes found in contemporary society such as individualism, consumerism and surveillance.

-Wolf, Jamie. "The Blockbuster Script Factory." The New York Times Magazine. 23 August 1998: 32.

Posted by matt at March 07, 2005 10:22 AM

Filmography

Filmography on product placement compiled and annotated by Lesley Husbands

Value-Added Cinema (USA 2003, 47 min.) Steve Seid and Peter Conheim

Steve Seid, Video Curator for Pacific Film Archive and Peter Conheim of Negativland present a finely tuned montage of egregious product placement shots, drawing on 70 (commercial) films"removing the gratuitous and unnecessary plots and leaving behind just the exhilarating core of consumerism: product placement, tie-ins and cross-promotions (review by http://www.sfindie.com/archive-indiefest04/films/value_detail.html)

Enjoy (USA 14 mins)
Gordon Winiemko and Julie Wyman

The film chronicling its makers' obsession with a shining emblem of modern culture: a gigantic, electric neon Coca-Cola Sign. And yet, far from one story, Enjoy is several, packaged perversely as a series of meticulously crafted TV commercial simulations, each one offering up a different view of The Sign from its domination of the public landscape down to its relationship with the personal "impulse" for pleasure, the veritable will to "enjoy." (film synopsis from Gordon Winiemko"s website: http://www.enjoythesign.com/enjoy/)

Email him to buy DVD of his work including Enjoy: info@enjoythesign.com http://www.enjoythesign.com/dvd/index.html http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films/detail.tcl?wid=1001533

Rich Media, Poor Democracy
Featuring Robert McChesney
Media Education Foundation

"This video connects the decline of journalism to the profit motives of the mega-corporations that own the media. Based on McChesney's award-winning book, Rich Media, Poor Democracy questions how media policy decisions get made, examines the way our media system affects news coverage, and offers suggestions for reclaiming our media - asking if there is a connection between independent, public media and a vibrant healthy democracy." (MEF)

Posted by matt at March 06, 2005 02:41 PM

Links

Recommended websites/related links (education, advocacy and other):

ACME: Action Coalition for Media Education http://www.acmecoalition.org/ ACME teaches media literacy and advocates independent media and media reform.

Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhoodhttp://www.commericalexploitation.org The CCFC is a coalition of individuals who use action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration among organizations and individuals to counter the harmful effects of living in a consumer society. Their focus is on children and the commercialization of childhood.

The Center for a New American Dream http://www.newdream.org/ The Center for a New American Dream helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice. It is concerned that excessive materialism is having serious consequences and seeks to promote conscious consumption and "more of what matters" instead of just more.

Commercial Alert http://www.commercialalert.org/A non-profit organization founded in 1998 by Ralph Nader and Gary Ruskin seeking to "protect children and communities from commercialism". Commercial Alert has led successful campaigns to limit commercialism in American schools.

Free Press http://www.freepress.net/ Free Press is a small non-profit organization working to involve the public in media policymaking and to craft policies for a more democratic and diverse media system.

How Product Placement Works http://money.howstuffworks.com/product-placement.htm A tutorial explaining what product placement is and how it works. Several examples demonstrate how product placement has infiltrated not only films, but also television, books, video games and songs.

Judge Baker Children"s Center http://www.jbcc.harvard.edu Judge Baker Children's Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children whose emotional and behavioral problems threaten to limit their potential. This site contains information on youth marketing and the targeting of children by advertisers and useful links.

The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/index.html The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library is a digital library of internal tobacco industry documents from the files of top tobacco companies and two additional collections from the Tobacco Control Archives at the University of California, San Francisco.

Lovemarks www.lovemarks.com : The future beyond brands Lovemarks are brands that "inspire loyalty beyond reason" and that explains their success, says Kevin Roberts, Worldwide CEO of Saatchi&Saatchi.

Media Awareness Network http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/corporate/about_us/index.cfm MNet is a Canadian non-profit organization that has been pioneering the development of media literacy programs since 1996. Its focus is educating young people about the media in order to build critical thinking. MNet works together with government and private partners to develop research programs and workshops and it provides educational materials to educators and practical tools to parents.

Media Education Foundation
www.mediaed.org The MEF is a non-profit organization that produces and distributes educational video documentaries. Founded by University of Massachusetts Communication professor Sut Jhally, their aim is to counter the commercial interests of media conglomerates by encouraging critical thinking among the general population. Produced the product placement video Behind the Screens.

Media Literacy.com http://www.medialiteracy.com Promotes media literacy in American schools and provides teaching materials.

NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4647581 A look at some of the tactics studios use to seduce moviegoers to their films.

No Media Kings http://nomediakings.org/invoice.htm Novelist Jim Munroe sent invoices to ten companies whose products appeared in his novel, Everyone In Silico and then he waited for their responses.

The Product Placement Bible http://www.chaparraltree.com/oneshots/product.shtml A tongue-in-cheek website offering ad space to advertisers in a brand new translation of the Bible.

Posted by matt at March 05, 2005 02:50 PM

Behind The Screens

BEHIND THE SCENES: HOLLYWOOD GOES HYPERCOMMERCIAL

Hollywood has always been a commercial system. However, this video present compelling evidence to suggest that we have entered an era of 'hypercommercialism'. Tracking the phenomenal rise in product placements, tie-ins with fast-food chains, and mammoth toy merchandising deals, six interviewees - five leading scholars and a screenwriter- argue that mainstream, big-budget movies have become largely a vehicle for advertising and marketing.

Robert W. McChesney and Janet Wasko discuss the reasons for, and consequences of, and ever-accelerated concentration of media ownership; Mark Crispin Miller, Susan Douglas, Eileen Meehan and Jeremy Pikser suggest that this continues to have profound effects on contemporary cultural life.

Total duration: 37 minutes. ISBN: 1-893521-40-0
Courtesy of the Media Education Foundation
26 Center Street, Northhampton MA 01060 USA

A transcript of Behind the Screens in pdf format is available here.

Download or view Behind the Screens: Hollywood goes Hypercommercial.

Posted by matt at March 04, 2005 03:07 PM

Product Placement and the "Real World"

PRODUCT PLACEMENT AND THE 'REAL WORLD'

Excerpted with permission from Chapter 4 of McLeod, Kembrew (2005) Freedom of Expression: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity (New York: Doubleday), pp.188-197. Also available under a Creative Commons License from www.kembrew.com/books/

[...]

Because our world is saturated with commodities, advertisers argue that product placements in movies and television shows add realism to the production. Compared to our daily lives, though, there's nothing realistic about the way directors place products in the frame or, for that matter, the way products are spoken about. 'I was talking to my friend Jason,' says Illegal Art show curator Carrie McLaren. 'He's a comic, and he sent Comedy Central about seven minutes of him just doing a stand-up routine. And in the stand-up routine he just happens to name a couple of brands, just like it would come up in conversation. And Comedy Central called him back and said, 'We like your stuff, it's really funny, but can you send us something that doesn't have any reference to brands in it, because we can't air it.'

'And that's the thing,' she says. 'We live in a very commercialized, privatized society, and sometimes brand names come up in conversation.' But in a mass media with highly bureaucratized rules of internal conduct, the same kind of talk can't occur without significant editing. 'When you go to make a film, you have to clear any product placement'or any cultural reference,' says Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly. 'I mean, there's attorneys that you hire specifically to protect yourself from getting sued. It's a very long and arduous process.'15

On a cold Iowa winter day in 2004, I found myself eating at the Hamburg Inn diner with famed gross-out director John Waters' whose trademark pencil-thin mustache, I discovered when I sat across from him, is quite real. Waters is responsible for the arthouse classics Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, as well as the PG crowd-pleaser Hairspray. He has worked in both the film underground and the mainstream, and now feels the power that intellectual-property owners exercise over their products. Upon broaching the subject of Hollywood filmmaking and intellectual property, I opened up a torrent of stories and opinions about the 'incredibly stupid' rules he has to deal with. For instance, Waters told me that when filming the 1988 version of Hairspray, Aqua Net refused to allow him to use its hairspray cans in his film. He said to me, 'I always tell young filmmakers, don't ask, because to seek permission is to seek denial.' Conventional companies almost always tell John Waters no, though one of the few corporations that has granted him permission,Waters proudly told me, is Hustler magazine. It's in these permission refusals that advertisers lie when they claim product placements reflect the real world, because the media world adheres to legal-gravitational laws that are anything but natural, that is, unless they are literally referring to MTV's The Real World, which is one of the most heavily product-placed shows on television. Reality television turned out to be an incredibly important vehicle for placement; indeed, Survivor producer Mark Burnett described his show as being 'as much a marketing vehicle as it is a television show.' On Survivor, the contestants will compete for bags of Doritos or an SUV that will be waiting for them when they leave their 'exotic' set location. Burnett continues, 'My shows create an interest, and people will look at them [brands], but the endgame here is selling products in stores'a car, deodorant, running shoes. It's the future of television.'16

Product placement has also crept into MTV videos; for instance, Apple paid to have an iPod prominently framed at the beginning of Mary J. Blige's 'Love @ 1st Sight,' as well as other videos. Music videos now drown in a sea of placements, where advertisers such as Mazda pay to put its new car in a Britney Spears video. Another at- tractive thing for advertisers is that the production-turnaround time for music videos is much shorter than movies, so they can be more reactive to the marketplace. For the most part, the trademarked and copyrighted goods that appear in the fake world do so with the explicit permission (and often payment) of the intellectual-property owners. This is ironic, because in the non-Real World real world, we aren't given the choice of controlling which advertised intellectual properties are shoved in our face when we walk out our doors. Product placement is everywhere in Hollywood films. This practice was kicked off when Reese's Pieces saw a dramatic 66 percent rise in sales after the candy was featured in Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. Following that was the 1983 Tom Cruise vehicle, Risky Business, which set off an explosion in the sale of Ray-Ban sunglasses. Even a movie that makes fun of product placements' Wayne's World, starring Mike Myers and directed by Penelope Spheeris was shaped by a legal-gravitational pull that is more powerful than the filmmaker. 'We had to go through hell to get all the product-placement clearances,' said Spheeris. She was referring to the multitude of products that appear in the movie in ironic ways, such as a scene that parodies a popular mustard commercial from the early 1990s. 'It was so nerve-racking as a director to be like, okay, this is the day we have to shoot the Grey Poupon part. 'Do we have clearance yet, or should we change it to French's mustard?' We were skating by the seat of our pants.'

Most of us associate satire with, well, freedom of expression; genuine satire doesn't require permission from trademark lawyers. Wayne's World was lauded for its ironic, satirical take on consumer culture, but it is satire without any real bite, with no venom. For instance, there's one memorable segment where'wink-wink' Myers's character refuses to shill products in his show-withinthe- film, Wayne's World. 'Contract or no, I will not bow to any sponsor,' he says as he opens a Pizza Hut box lid, then drinks from a prominently framed can of Pepsi.17

While the gag is funny and seemingly subversive, the companies get to have their cake and eat it, too. Pizza Hut and Pepsi don't mind being included in this parody of product placement because their products have been very notably placed in a 'cool' movie.

If the companies didn't like it, they would have sent their trademark-lawyer attack dogs to stop Spheeris and Myers. The barking of these dogs has made studios overly cautious, something that leads to self-censorship. Such was the case with Raw Deal, a documentary about rape that contained a scene shot at a frat-house party that had music playing. Artisan, the distributor, dropped the project because of music-licensing problems. Joe Gibbons's short film Barbie's Audition is a darkly comic retelling of the age-old Hollywood casting-couch story, and it stars a Barbie doll. The short was originally selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival, but festival lawyers grew concerned and excluded it from the final festival line-up. In both cases, direct censorship didn't come from intellectual-property owners, but was the result of internal decisions and policies crafted by overcautious organizations. In mass-media art such as motion pictures, a lot of content is dictated by forces external to the production of the art. Associated Film Productions, an agency that helps companies place intellectual properties in movies, brags that it 'carefully controls the appearance of the client's product in films.' For instance, Adidas got what amounted to a commercial shoehorned into Orion's Johnny Be Good. 'It tied in visually so well,' said Orion executive Jan Kean, 'you didn't even know you were seeing a commercial.'18

Product placement can result in terrible, stilted dialogue, such as the following excerpt from Who's Harry Crumb?, where John Candy's character plugs Cherry Coke in a scene with Jim Belushi: candy: Cherry? belushi: No fruit, thank you. candy: Coke? belushi: No, thank you. candy: Mix 'em together, ya got a Cherry Coke. Ah ha ha ha ha ha! A Cherry Coke, ha ha ha ha! The film You've Got Mail seems completely constructed around its cross-marketing tie-ins with AOL and Starbucks.Written by the formerly respected journalist and essayist Nora Ephron, the film was in fact a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's product-free The Little Shop Around the Corner, a sharp and witty romantic comedy of the classic Hollywood era. In Ephron's highly commercialized cinematic remix, the relationship between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan primarily takes place on their AOL e-mail accounts and during their encounters at one of the coffee chain's stores. In one memorable (though completely gratuitous) voice-over, Hanks comments, 'The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee: Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low fat, non fat. . . .'

With its light, incidental music, the whole scene looks and sounds like a commercial for Starbucks. And it is. In terms of plot, however, the most obvious trademarked name'Barnes and Noble' was absent. Hanks's character played the owner of a large corporate bookstore chain that put Ryan's family-owned bookstore out of business. In a motion picture that owed its very existence to recognizable trademarks, wouldn't the obvious name of Hanks's store be Barnes and Noble, especially since Starbucks has partnered with the bookseller in the real world? To use the discourse of productplacing advertisers, wouldn't it add to the film's realism? Of course it would, but I'm sure Barnes & Noble had no desire to be placed in such a negative context.

Then again, You've Got Mail ended up asking the audience to sympathize with Hanks and accept the inevitability of the independent bookstore's death. This is how awful and insidious that film is: Near the end, Ryan discovered that Hanks knew her AOL identity, which meant he had been manipulating her in their cuddly online relationship and in their antagonistic business liaisons. On top of that, his faux Barnes and Noble drove her bookstore out of business, which had been in the family for generations. So what does Ryan do before the credits roll? Melt into Hanks's arms. Why audiences didn't riot at the end is completely beyond me; if ever there was a film that deserved the 'critique of the brick,' it's You've Got Mail. Wayne's World made product placement (or at least 'ironic product placement') cool. By the end of the 1990s, another Mike Myers helmed blockbuster, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, epitomized the new consumer-culture zeitgeist. In this hyperreferential, hyper-commercial movie, Dr. Evil's world headquarters is located atop the Seattle Space Needle, which has been branded with the Starbucks logo.Myers was playing off the widespread idea that the coffee-shop chain is an evil empire that colonizes everything, so it's fitting that Dr. Evil is behind this operation. 'Dr. Evil, several years ago we invested in a small Seattle-based coffee company,' says Robert Wagner's character, Number Two. 'Today, Starbucks offers premium quality coffee at affordable prices. Delish!' The humor here is toothless and faux-subversive, and required the permission of Starbucks.

The release of The Spy Who Shagged Me came bundled in so many cross-marketing tie-ins, it turned the film into little more than a series of vignettes tied together with quasi-commercials for Heineken, Virgin, and other companies. Since Wayne's World, other films have followed its product-saturated lead from playful, knowing movies such as Charlie's Angels to so-totally-not-ironic films such as the Michael Jordan Warner Brothers brand explosion that was Space Jam. Or somewhere in between, like the second Matrix film, where the Wachowski brothers publicist claimed they clamped down on merchandising to avoid any negative Star Wars comparisons. Thus they strictly limited the sequel's ancillary products, Frank Rich sarcastically wrote, to an Enter the Matrix video game, action figures, sunglasses (featured in another TimeWarner magazine, People) and an animated DVD. They kept the movie's product tie-ins to a bare minimum as well: Powerade drinks, Cadillac, Ducati motorcycles and Heineken.19

Although lots of attention gets paid to product placement in film and television, video games occupy the imagination of just as many teens and twentysomethings. These games are important because they seamlessly integrate leisure activity, consumption, and everyday life. This industry did $9.4 billion in business in 2001, and its market share continues to grow, making it a lucrative site to place trademarked products. In her book Branded, Alissa Quart describes the action in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, part of a series of Hawk games that has approached $1 billion in sales since 1999. Skateboarder Tony Hawk maneuvers near a Quiksilver sign. When Hawk melons or lipslides on a thin ramp, the Quiksilver logo is visible again, on his T-shirt. The action moves to Tokyo. When Hawk and his skater pals perform airwalks, they flash past the ubiquitous Quiksilver logo, which is nestled among all the other stickers and bright neon lights and the signs blaring brands such as Nokia and Jeep.20

Unlike most movies, people play video games multiple times and, by definition, they require the close attention of the viewer. This makes it a product placer's dream. Activision, the company that produces the Hawk game, claims that advertisers who place their logo in a Tony Hawk game get one billion 'quality brand impressions'the millions of teen and twentysomething gamers. It allows players to outfit their virtual characters from a selection of brand-name shirts, shoes, and other gear. The branding virus has infected popular music as well. A study of 2003 Top 20 radio hits found hundreds of brand-name references littered throughout the songs. 'It's about using brands as metaphors,' San Francisco marketing expert Lucian James told Billboard. 'Globally, when you say Gucci, people know exactly what you mean.' While companies don't mind the often-free advertising provided by pop-music artists, they don't like it when their trademarks are used for satirical purposes. But as I mentioned in the last chapter, a court ruled in favor of the Swedish pop group Aqua when Mattel sued over their song 'Barbie Girl.' Mercedes, the most popular trademark in the 2003 popscape, had 112 references in the Billboard Top 20, while Cadillac and Lexus were mentioned 46 and 48 times, respectively. (An inspired lyric from R. Kelly: 'The way you do the things you do / reminds me of my Lexus, cool / That's why I'm all up in your grill.') In just one song by Lil' Kim, 'The Jump Off,' she mentions Bacardi, Barbie, Bulgari, Ferrari, Bentleys, Hummers,. Cadillac, Escalade, Jaguar, Timberland, Sprite, Playboy, Range Rover, and Brooklyn Mint. After Busta Rhymes's song 'Pass the Courvoisier' spent twenty weeks on the charts, worldwide sales of Courvoisier rose 20 percent. Lucian James said that there are generally three reasons why artists mention a particular brand: They actually like the product; they hope to get free goods; or, increasingly, they have struck a strategic deal. Unlike Hollywood, the authenticity-obsessed world of music'especially hip-hop remains tight-lipped about this issue. 21

All this isn't to say that youth marketers are abandoning movie product placements; it's just that they are now considered to be but one component in a larger attempt to colonize the consciousness of kids. Dogtown and Z-Boys, a 2001 documentary about skateboarding, was financed by the skate accessory company Vans, and it functions as a very cleverly cloaked commercial. What at first glance looks like a historical documentary about the birth of anti-authoritarian skate culture turns out to be something else. After watching a number of carefully edited shots, you can't help but notice the relatively constant presence of Vans on the feet of the skaters. Because it's a documentary a genre associated with 'truth' and 'transparency' Dogtown successfully solidifies the association between skate culture and the company. When I grew up in the skate and surf town of Virginia Beach during the 1980s, I was well aware of the existence of Vans heck, I even owned a checkerboard pair, just like Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. But the way the brand is so often placed in the frame, Dogtown and Z-Boys creates a false or exaggerated kind of impression of their ubiquity. We really try to connect emotionally with the kids and find new ways of doing things,' says Jay Wilson, vice president of marketing at Vans. Speaking about the film, Wilson notes, 'We're getting more public relations on this thing than we ever imagined.22

In the 1990s Vans dramatically raised its profile and expanded its market share by sponsoring The Vans Warped Tour, the punk-and-extremesports summer festival. It was a smart move, and financing Dogtown further solidified its reputation as the official outfitter of disenfranchised youth, one of the arbiters of over-the-counter culture cool.

Increasingly, our cultural activities are tied up with carefully researched and marketed products and services. There's an interesting kind of synergy happening when people can play a Tony Hawk video game, watch the X Games on ESPN, take in an extremesports- and-punk-rock concert at the local stop of the Warped Tour, drive to the mall and buy Quiksilver gear, eat an Extreme Taco Bell meal at the food court, and check out Dogtown at the multiplex' all without ever having to skateboard once.When I was growing up not that long ago, the consumption options that now surround skateboarding simply didn't exist. It pretty much cost nothing (save for the board's price tag) to hang out and skate in a parking lot while a boom box played Black Flag. Now skateboarding is a crossmarketing dream or nightmare, depending on your point of view' or the contents of your stock portfolio.

Posted by matt at March 02, 2005 03:52 PM

How Hollywood Works

Coming Soon!

Posted by matt at March 01, 2005 03:54 PM