Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

When you immerse yourself in the cinematic universe, the intrusion of product placements in your favorite movies is like when the sound doesn't match the lips. Your attention is strained from the narrative for a short micro commercial within the flick. A nagging reminder of the omnipresence of advertisements and marketing plaguing everywhere. From the theaters to our living rooms, sports events, and downtown strolls, advertisements relentlessly tag along for the ride. This raises a good question. Are product placements in movies and TV shows still effective?

This article seeks to understand the nuances of product placements, psychological impact, and the effectiveness of aids constantly thrown in our faces.

The primary objective behind product placement in movies is to enhance brand awareness. This art should be subtle, where companies smoothly tie their products with positive characters. The delicate placement of Tom Cruise wearing aviator sunglasses, James Bond drinking a Heineken for around 45 million dollars and driving an Aston Martin for reportedly over $30m in 2002, or an actress slipping the brand of dress she's wearing. Every time you hear these subtle comments, you know the money is flowing somewhere.

Companies pay big money to put their products into celebrities' hands. Tom Cruise wearing a pair of Ray-Ban aviators while flying a jet is to subconsciously impose a positive sentiment next time you're out shopping for sunglasses. Product placement aims to exploit a psychological phenomenon known as social proof. Individuals are inclined to desire what others are enjoying. A classic example of seeing your neighbors smiling with a new car in the driveway, and suddenly you begin to pick apart things in your life. They bought something new, and now a tiny force is scratching its way into your thought process desiring a change. You might not buy a new car just because they did, but you may find other aspects you wish to change.

However, the saturation of these micro ads within movies has intensified, and there is a growing resentment towards the allure of endorsements.

The constant inundation of advertisements has begun to leave a foul taste, especially for me.

Recently, I watched the Power Rangers movie with my two kids. The film was released back in 2017. The entire movie is practically a Krispy Kreme commercial, so poorly done even my kids begin to question the motives of the characters and villain.

Of course, this whole industry of product placements in movies and television would not have ballooned into what it is today without success. The iconic DeLorean DMC-12 is a great example of the harmonious touch, where a car became an integral prop that suited the narrative. Or, the sales of Ray-Bans after Tom Cruise sported them in Top Gun, and the list goes on, but that was a long time ago, and the marketing industry is flexing some serious spending muscle to get their products everywhere.

In 2022, product placement worldwide spending was roughly 26.2 billion U.S. (1).

It also comes as no surprise that 9 out of the top 10 movies and 10 of the top 10 TV shows all have the highest amount of product placements and are all U.S.-produced (2).

I decided to rewatch the Transformer movie series. It's hilariously flagrant how Michael Bay purposely places products within scenes without any regard for blending them, and watching Mark Wahlberg slam a Bud Light in Age of Extinction made me laugh and cringe at the same time. There were 55 product placements within that movie. That doesn't even come close to ranking in the top ten. The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats takes the popcorn on that one with 109. The 2008 and 2010 Sex and the City movies are both in the top ten (3).

Some companies even pay for how their brands are displayed in movies. Have you ever seen a villain hold an iPhone? You never will. Apple controls how its products are handled on the silver screen, avoiding negative associations. Only the hero of the film should hold an iPhone.

Yet, the pivotal question remains: Does product placement in this day and age still influence behavior?

Personally, for me, I've swayed to the opposition. I love immersing myself in a long-awaited movie, and when I see these micro commercials rip my attention away, I tend to take note of it. I avoid these products in my daily life. These marketing tactics have become desperate and annoying, but there are conflicting feelings about the dual nature of this process. While children may succumb to the allure of social proofing in movies, as an adult, I feel value in exhibiting resistance and informing my children of what's going on.

As a child, I loved playing with Micro Machines after seeing how fun they looked in commercials, and try to recreate that excitement on my own. Only to have the thrill fade out quite fast, and who didn't wear Air Jordan shoes in the early '90s after watching him play? We're adults now, and product placement tactics should not carry the same effect, right?

The answer is a difficult yes and no.

The company behind Beanie Babies stated a significant rise in sales after the movie The Beanie Bubble released on Apple in 2023, collector price purchases rose online, and other numbers don't lie. Heineken witnessed a ten percent sales increase after Casino Royale. Audi felt the sixty percent sales jump from putting their cars in the Avengers movies. These are just a few on the list of successes in product placement, and the ugly truth is that social proof is a reality, so movie ads are here to stay. If we stop buying, then perhaps the corporate world will leave our movies alone.