If I write about Pepsi will you go buy one?

Lauren Stauffenger

ls731307@ohio.edu

Product Placement

As if journalists don't already struggle to be seen as unbiased and credible in the eyes of the public, apparently now there are talks of changing reporting guidelines in newspapers and magazines about including placements in stories.

Already in Advertising

I am an advertising management student and, as such, the topic of product placements has come up on countless occasions in the classroom. But, the hot topic will soon be finding its way into all sequences of journalism - that is, if it hasn't already.

E.T. Loves Reese's Pieces

According to an article by Jay Newell, Charles Salmon and Susan Chang posted on the CBS Business Network site, the idea of product placement was thrust into public consciousness as an advertising ploy in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In this film, the alien follows a trail of Reese's Pieces. After the increase in sales for Reese's Pieces, credit was given to the practice of product placement and it became a more common practice.

Does E.T. Really Love Reese's?

However, in many advertising classes on campus, we are taught that this supposedly subconscious form of advertising really has little to no effect on our purchases as consumers. Therefore, instead of there being a causal relationship, it is merely coincidence that sales increase when product placements are used.

Consumer's Feelings

A study done by BIGresearch and reported by Media Life Magazine has brought forth evidence to support the claim that there are more effective forms of advertising than product placement.

In my opinion, using product placements to advertise a product, more or less, just creates consumer distrust towards the company that funds the placement as well as towards the field of advertising as a whole. Consumers do not like when businesses assume they are stupid and can be easily manipulated.

According to one consumer quoted in Laura Petrecca's story writted for USA Today, "Product placement - you can't escape it", product placements are "just annoying everybody".

Video.