Product Placement

What is product placement? Product placement can be defined as the use of a brand name product in a television show, movie, or event. Product placement is becoming extremely popular because many feel as though it is not as intrusive as conventional advertisements. Also, people are less likely to change the channel when brands appear in their favorite shows or movies as they might during a typical advertisement.

When watching television I have seen multiple occurrences of product placement. On Law and Order I noticed that Poland Springs water bottles and Kleenex tissues appeared multiple times. Also, on CSI, Ford, Saab, and even You Tube were mentioned specifically many times throughout the hour long program. On The Hills, the girls work for Teen Vogue which is advertising that magazine directly to their target audience of teen girls. I found that American Idol subtly mentions and promotes many brands. On American Idol I have seen the judges drinking Coca Cola, they have creating commercials for Ford using the current contestants, and they have promoted I-Tunes. All of these brands, by placing their products in the show, are reaching millions of potential customers as American Idol is an extremely well-known and regularly viewed televison show. In addition to this, I have noticed product placement in the movie Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is a three hour long movie and has won several Academy Awards. In this movie Dr. Pepper is mentioned and/or shown is almost every scene. In addition to this, I saw Sony and Nike product placements. If you look closely, you can find product placement in just about every television show, movie, and event.

I think there are many advantages to using product placement. One advantage of product placement is that products being advertised are being used in a natural setting which may help people understand their purpose, how they are used, and why they need that product in their life. Also, if a person sees one of their favorite celebrities using a particular product in a television show or movie, they may be more likely to go out and purchase the product thinking it must be a good product if these people are using it. Furthermore, product placement is unexpected and may catch the eye of people who are irritated by the commercials interrupting their shows.

In addition to there being many advantages, there are also some disadvantages to using product placement. One disadvantage of product placement is that the brand name of the product may go unnoticed as there is a lot going on in movies and television shows as it is. Another disadvantage is that there may not be a match between the product and the movie or its audience. Furthermore, how well the product is noticed and purchased by new customers could depend on whether the movie or television show is a success or a failure.

With these advantages and disadvantages in mind, I think that product placement is a good idea. It is a way for advertisers to get their product noticed in a different way and in a way that people are likely to notice and remember.

Millennial Generation

The Millennial Generation includes those born roughly between 1978 and 1998, although there are many different opinions on the actual years. Being born in 1987, I am right in the middle of the Millennial Generation and I am proud to be there. In the last couple of years the Millennial Generation has become increasingly powerful as more and more are entering college and the workforce. Also, the Millennial Generation will be an important factor in this years upcoming Presidential Election. With Baby Boomers leaving the work force and beginning to collect Social Security, it is up to the Millennial Generation to take their place in the workforce and come up with new and different ideas and technologies.

The Millennial Generation is known by many terms, namely Generation Y, the Baby Boom Echo, and the Internet Age. Millennials are known for an addiction to technology through the ever-expanding Internet, cell phones, and portable computers. We demand new, more, and greater products and services on a daily basis. We not only want the newest technologies available, but we want a wide range of them designed to fit our individual preferences. Competition is fierce as companies attempt to differentiate their products from those of competitors and try to diversify their offerings. I feel as though all of these are accurate assumptions of the Millennial Generation because these days when you walk down the street it is as if the cell phone is permanently attached to ones ears or fingers.

Advertisers have a difficult job to do in that advertisements need to not only represent the intended product well, but also appeal to the varying tastes of the Millennials. Advertisements need to be eye catching and memorable in this fast paced world with Millennials constantly on the go. Some advertisers have started posting advertisements and such on social networking sites in order to reach Millennials, however it has not yet been widely received. In the future, I believe that a great deal of advertisements will be broadcasted on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace as they are frequented multiple times a day and thus are more likely to be viewed on a daily basis. Posting advertisements on Facebook and Myspace may also generate a greater response to the advertisement in the future as long as they are eye catching and relate to the everyday lives and interests of Millennials as more and more people are logging in to these social networking sites everyday.

I am thrilled to be included in the Millennial Generation as it is known for powerful, intelligent and creative people that work well with one another in discovering new ideas and technologies in this fast paced world.

Anti-Drug Advertisements

Have you recently seen any anti-drug advertisements on television? I feel as though every time I turn on the television I see anti-drug advertisements and most are different and ever changing. I have seen a variety of different anti-drug, anti-drinking, anti-smoking, etc. advertisements in the last couple of days and certain components of each have captured my attention.

First of all, I noticed that each of the anti-drug advertisements targets a different audience. During the Superbowl an anti-drug commercial aired that involved a dirty looking man (the drug dealer) saying that sales are down and business is decreasing. This decrease was because kids no longer need a drug dealer when they can just go in their parent’s medicine cabinets and get high off of their prescription drugs for free. The commercial ends with the drug dealer saying that next time something goes wrong parents can’t blame him because it is their fault (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY5Css5U82E). This commercial is primarily targeted at parents. Another commercial involves a teenage girl walking to school when she gets an embarrassing picture message of herself from the recent party she attended. What’s worse everyone else around her has received the same picture message. What’s even worse is that she does not have any recollection of this party because she was so drunk. This advertisement is targeted at teenage females. Another similar advertisement includes a teenage boy who took a girl to a party the night before where he took part in smoking pot. The next morning he calls his friend and asks what happened that night because he has no recollection and the friend says he abandoned the girl and that they are no longer friends. This advertisement is targeted at teenage males. In addition to this, I saw an anti-drug ad campaign that used cartoon like graphics that showed a stick figure kid doing drugs and he asks his dog if he wants a hit. The dog replies by saying, "you disappoint me" and walks away (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPs2pm4eKW8). Commercials like this are targeted at smaller children, namely preteens and younger.

Secondly, I noticed that each of the anti-drug commercials has something different that captures ones attention when watching television. I saw one anti-tobacco commercial that had a man with a tracheotomy hole in his neck singing that you do not always die from tobacco. This commercial was a little disturbing and I am sure it captured a lot of people’s attention (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRHvZazd4IM). There are other anti-drug commercials that use an animal to communicate the message about how their owner has changed as a result of their use of drugs and alcohol, which captures many peoples attentions. Many of these anti-drug commercials and ad campaigns use testimonials of people who have had life altering events happen to them as a result of drug and/or alcohol use. I believe that these testimonials make the advertisements appeal to people and capture people’s attention on a personal level and makes them think about what is being said. As a result of this, anti-drug campaigns are effective forms of advertisements.

Local and National Advertising

What does a marketing plan consist of? The marketing plan of any business or product contains the four P’s, namely product, price, promotion, and place/distribution. When looking at the advertisements around me on a daily basis, I find many national and local products being advertised to me. Many similarities and differences can be found between national and local advertisements.

Take newspapers for example. My local newspapers are The Springfield Sun and The Chestnut Hill Local. Occasionally we get The Wallstreet Journal, a national newspaper. I found that local newspapers tend to be less expensive to purchase a daily subscription to than national newspapers. This makes people more likely to subscribe to their local papers than to national newspapers such as The Wallstreet Journal. In addition to this, in terms of distribution, local papers are distributed business to business and also distributed by townships. Similarly, many national newspapers are distributed business to business. Furthermore, in terms of substance, local newspapers tend to primarily cover local news and events, whereas, national newspapers focus more on national and international events. National newspapers have to target the nation, which consists of many different regions and different people. National headlines have to capture the attention of all of these different people for the newspaper to survive. In addition to this, local newspapers tend to be distributed weekly, whereas, national newspapers tend to be distributed daily. National newspapers tend to have more up to date, current, and factual information than local newspapers.

Another example can be sports. Local sports teams and sporting events take place daily. Local teams such as the Phillies, Flyers, Phantoms, Eagles, and Sixers at the beginning of the season will use commercials to promote the team by offering family packages of a certain amount of tickets, food, and drink for a certain amount of money that is significantly less expensive then it would cost to purchase separately. These offers are also occasionally distributed in schools to encourage kids to read or do community service. National sporting events, such as the Superbowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup finals, etc. are often nationally broadcasted through commercials reaching far more people. These national events also tend to be significantly more expensive to attend than local events and they occur only once a season. Marketing directors of these sporting events have a difficult job to do in that they must not only appeal to the fans of teams who are in the finals, but also appeal to the fans of those teams that are not in the national sports finals.

The similarities and differences I find when comparing local advertisements and national advertisements are that national products, promotions, and events tend to be significantly more expensive than local products, promotions, and events. This is due to the fact that national marketing plans have to appeal to a larger number and variety of people than local marketing plans. Also, national products have to be distributed to more people in a greater variety of states and regions, whereas, local products usually do not have far to go to reach the intended consumer. Both national and local advertisers have to develop a marketing strategy that not only reaches intended customers, but makes these customers want to have their products.

Society vs. Advertisements

The question: What came first the chicken or the egg? has sparked a lot of thought and consideration. How could the egg come first because a chicken would have to lay the egg, and how could the chicken come first because it had to have hatched out of an egg? Similar to this is the question: Does society emulate advertisements, or do advertisements emulate society? In response to this question, I would say that society and advertisements emulate one another in a sort of circle.

Society has a set of wants, needs, expectations, and standards that have been put into place over the years. Society began, however, with basic needs for survival such as food, water, and shelter. As new products were developed, advertising came into play. Advertisements created a false need. People began to believe that they needed a certain type of food, clothing, shelter, etc. in order to survive. Therefore, advertising was beginning to shape society’s wants and needs and began establishing these expectations and standards.

After seeing these advertisements promoting new products, new technology, and new body images society began to change and emulate advertisements. People believed they had to look like, act like, and possess the same things that people in the advertisements had. Society began to change in response to these advertisements. In response to this, advertisements had to change to attract and target their new and changing audiences and live up to society’s new expectations for new and better products.

I believe that society feeds off of advertisements and advertisements feed off of society. Society establishes standards and expectations and advertisements define what society wants and needs. For example people do not need cars, but society and advertisements make it seem like a person can not get anywhere without a car. Also, society and advertisements make it seem like a person can not live without a cell phone, whereas, in earlier years there were no telephones. Furthermore, women do not need make-up or cosmetics, but society suggests that women are ugly or unappealing without make-up and advertisements suggest women can look ten times better with make-up on. As a result of this, I would say that advertisements and society go hand in hand in a vicious circle and base their standards and expectations off of each other.

Stereotypical Advertisements

Stereotyping can be defined as linking a person, group, culture, etc. to a group of traits. As I watched television and paid close attention to the advertisements, I found that most stereotypes were between men and women as opposed to based on race, religion, etc. Also, I noticed a stereotype present in terms of actors and actresses ages relative to the product they were selling.

The commercial for Caduet, a medicine for blood pressure and cholesterol, has an older man walking two paths in the woods, which come together (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdEXl9r-Kb8). The stereotype in this advertisement is that many associate high blood pressure and high cholesterol with older people and more specifically older males.

A commerical for Progresso soup's new 100 calorie soups shows all different women of different races and ages walking around saying their on a Progresso soup diet. I know I, along with many others, associate dieting with women as you rarely see a man dieting in commericals. In addition to this, women are notorious for going from one diet to another.

I find cosmetic commericals and advertisements very stereotypical as well, especially Covergirl's advertisements. In a three minute block of commercials I saw two Covergirl advertisements, one for mascara and one for foundation and eye shadow. The spokesperson for mascara was Drew Barrymore and the spokespeople for the foundation and eye shadow commerical were Queen Latifah and Penelope Cruz. I find that Covergirl and other cosmetic companies use new or well-known, beautiful, flawless looking actresses to demonstrate their product. The spokespeople appeal to a target group such as Queen Latifah appeals to curvy people and African Americans. These cosmetic commericals suggest that if you, an average citizen, use this product you will have beautiful, flawless looking skin as well.

Finally, I found that the majority of commercials selling household products such as Swifter mops and dusting products and Reynolds Wrap, showed women in the kitchen cooking for the family, or mopping the house, or dusting the house. In fact, I do not believe I saw one man in any commerical in the block of television I watched performing such tasks. I found this a little demeaning. I viewed such commericals as suggesting that women still belong in the household cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children as opposed to having a career of their own outside of the home.

I was surprised by how much stereotyping takes place in commercials and advertisements. Many of the above commericals I have seen over and over again, but I did not notice the stereotyping until I paid attention to exactly what the commercial was saying, showing, and how they were showing it. As a result of this, I believe I will be paying much more attention to commericals in the future.

Current Advertisements

In the media today there are new and changing advertisements constantly being broadcasted. Each advertisement is in some way or another attempting to capture the consumer's attention, get the brand name in the consumer's minds, and make the consumers feel as though they have to have that product. All advertisements have a demographic in mind, or a target group of people to which they intend to sell thier product. Advertisers for one company may have several different commercials that target different demographics. We discussed how Geico does this by using a geiko, a caveman, and celebrities.

There have been a few commercials that recently captured my attention. One commercial that I found interesting was the commercial for Comcast that uses the turtles, The Slowskys and says that they are DSL customers. This commercial uses the turtles to say that DSL is much slower than Comcast and that is why the turtles like it, suggesting that everyone else should sign up for Comcast. Another commercial that I found interesting was the Mastercard commercial that has different events occurring that sets dollar amounts for each event. The last event they say is priceless. The commercial usually ends by saying something like: some things in life are priceless, but for everything else there is Mastercard. Mastercard has different commericals set in different places but with the same theme. This is most likely the result of Mastercard's advertisers trying to appeal to various demographics. Each of these commercials had elements that appealed to me and made the company name or brand stay in my mind.