A Play within a Play: Product Embeds

I have a habit of identifying fictional TV characters with the brands they use.  Like the Ron Livingston character on Band of Brothers who only drank Vat 69. Or the Milton character in Office Space and his red Swingline stapler.  Or Hannah Horvath and her iPhone. Not too long ago producers took pains to cover up a telling logo or create a fictional brand. (Remember those 70s sitcoms where they would actually put black tape over a product name?)  The label on Archie Bunker’s beer said simply Best Quality Beer: The Favorite Everywhere (though if you look carefully, the logo had rather Lowenbrau-esque heraldry:)

The Modern Family producers usually cover up the illuminated Apple logo on the backs of their characters’ laptops.  And so viewers were taken aback (or enraged) when an entire episode was devoted to Phil Dunphy’s infatuation with the new iPad. Many felt like they were sitting through a 30-minute commercial for Apple. As it turns out, Apple paid nothing for the product placement; it was just a convenient plot device that seemed to fit with Phil’s gadgety personality.

Intentional or not, there’s nothing new about product placement.  Even Shakespeare included references to specific brands of spirit — and was the reference to Marco Luchese’s inn (in The Merchant of Venice) a clever way of repaying a debt?  These days the placements are more likely to be fairly overt.  Watch any ten-minute cycle of Mad Men and count the product references. (One entire episode revolved around an ad launch for Heineken, and yep, it was paid for by the beer maker.)

How should we feel about it? In the UK it’s frowned upon. Never mind that London is one of the most ad-saturated cities in the world — any TV program with a product placement receives an icon to warn viewers.

Should PP’s be legislated? I’m learning to give them a break. Sometimes you need it for the gag. Like when the drowning woman in Horse Feathers is begging Groucho Marx to throw her a life saver, and he reaches in his pocket and … you guessed it.

Placements add verisimilitude as well. Sometimes it just makes more sense in a movie for the guy with a package to wear a FedEx hat rather than some distracting bogus brand (USP? ExPress?). And if we’re going to stare at Tom Hanks relating to a soccer ball for two hours in Cast Away, it doesn’t make much sense to call it anything but Wilson.

But wait, didn’t Hanks work for FedEx?

— Will Everett

Please comment with your favorite brand placement examples.

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References

Bershad, J. (2010, April 2). iPad produce placement on Modern Family, actually wasn’t, still irked fans.  Mediaite. Retrieved on March 4, 2013, from http://www.mediaite.com/online/ipad-product-placement-on-modern-family-actually-wasnt-still-angered-fans/

Tosi, L., & Bassi, S. (2011). Visions of Venice in Shakespeare. Ashgate Publishing Company.

Clip from Modern Family: Phil and his iPad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJp4_bxHOgU