Experts researched how men and women communicate and found there are many differences between the genders. Now, these differences don’t apply to everyone but they do represents some generalities in the way each gender approaches communication.
Our friends from the TV show Friends give us an excellent example. (Watch the video. It’s only 1:02. It will make the rest of this blog easier to understand.)
As Phoebe, Rachel and Monica demonstrated, females tend to focus on details, the emotions, the thought process. As Chandler, Joey and Ross showed us, males tend to focus on facts. It’s just one of the many differences in gender communication styles.
One of my favorite movies is Love Actually. The movie begins with aging rocker, Billy Mack, bastardizing one of his former hits, Love is All Around Us to Christmas is All Around Us. The idea was to capitalize on holiday sales. In truth, Love is All Around was originally recorded back in the 60s by The Troggs.
The song came to mind as I mulled around what to write for this blog. Love IS all around. But I contend an even more prevalent force surrounding us is media.
According to a report issued by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at USC each of us consume over 15.5 hours of media each day… outside of work. Wow! That’s a lot of media. We’ve developed into a multitasking society where we have a television show on, while using social media on our computers and sending text or Tweets on our smart phones. So, it is possible for a person to consume more than 24 hours of media within a 24 hour period.
Product placement is where a brand is incorporated into the scenery of a movie or television show. And it’s big. Really BIG. In 2017, product placement represented $8.78 Billion in spending.
A little product placement history
One of the first product placements I remember is Reese’s Pieces in the movie E.T. The Extraterrestrial.
Yes, originally Spielberg wanted to use M&Ms, but Mars turned him down. So, the producers went to Hershey’s and they gladly gave permission to use their little known candy. The deal struck between Hershey’s and the movie producers involved a Hershey promise to spend $1,000,000 to promote the movie. In exchange, Hershey’s could use E.T. in their ads. After the movie’s premier, sales of Reece’s pieces increased by 65 percent.
When they re-released E.T. in 2002, Hershey’s struck a similar deal (as this commercial demonstrates.)
There are four types of product placement.
One is the deal like Reese’s Pieces.
A second type involves the company providing the movie producers big ticket items such as cars, appliances, technology equipment for free. Almost half of all product placement is based on this type of deal.
The third type is “straight fee.” This is where the advertiser pays to have the product included in the film or television show.
The fourth type is “organic.” The product becomes part of the storyline without any goods, services or money being exchanged. This can be a bit risky if the product is being used in a negative or derogatory manner.
The product isn’t just sitting on the table; now it’s part of the story line
In this digital age, advertisers are too aware of how fast forward on the remote impacts a commercial’s effectiveness. Smaller audiences television audiences means advertisers are looking for means, other than a 30 second spot, to get their product into the hands of consumers. In fact, product placement has kept some television shows on the air. Spend 5 minutes and watch the very clever Stephen Colbert explain how this works. 🙂 (Video is back from the Colbert Report days. Classic!)
Like those horrible soap opera scenes, product placement has reached a new level. The product becomes a part of the story. For example, one of the great scenes from Wayne’s World involves Wayne and Garth (not) hawking various products.
Rampant Product Placement
Sometimes product placement is incredibly obvious. The Internshipwith Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn and was pretty much a 24/7 product placement for Google, right down to the movie’s logo.
Other times, the product placement is seamlessly incorporated into the script. In the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away a Wilson volleyball becomes a main character. And an unopened FedEx box provided a plot twist.
A really well integrated product placement happened in the first season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. It centered around Eleven’s obsession with Eggo Waffles.
Eggos became an “organic” part of the storyline. (Organic means Eggos didn’t pay to be part of the show.)
On Seinfeld, Kramer drops a Junior Mint into a man’s chest during surgery.
M&Ms and Livesavers turned down Seinfeld’s request to use their candies. Junior Mints didn’t pay for the product placement, yet this episode, which inadvertently credits Junior Mints for saving a man’s life, increased Junior Mints viability.
Trivia – When Kramer slips and the Junior Mint flies through the air and into the patient, the Seinfeld crew actually used a York Peppermint Patty. Junior Mints were too small to follow on camera.
In a tongue-in-cheek style,30 Rockincorporated produce placement gags for Snapple in several different episodes.
I used to watch the television series Bones (2005-2017). I’ll admit I stopped watching when I saw some extremely blatant product placement. Toyota provides the cars and, when the lead character uses parking assist, navigation or other vehicle feature, it becomes part of the script. You can almost hear the script stopping, the product placement run, and the script picking up again.
And this is just one example of how the series incorporated product placement into the script.
Even video games have some sometimes product placement, including the use of billboards in the Burnout Paradise driver game for the Obama 2008 presidential campaign! (It’s about 1:20 in the video)
And just when I thought I saw it all…I did some research and found this. One of the main characters in Final Fantasy XV wears a Nissin Cup Noodles on his head. Apparently, one of the quests in the game is to look for toppings to make the already delicious Cup Noodles taste even better. I’m not a gamer. I don’t get it. But it must be working.
Even sneakier… digital product placement
Now, product placement has gone digital. Advertisers don’t even have to provide a product while the show or movie is being shot. It can be digitally inserted long after the television show or movie has been edited and aired. This 5:30 minute Slate video shows you how.
The technology is so good, they say it won’t be long before you’ll watch a movie where they digitally place chicken or beef products in a kitchen scene. Your vegan friend could be watching the same movie in another room and they would digitally replace the meat with fruits and veggies in the same scene.
Your assignment
Product placement is all around us. For this assignment you’ll have to do some research into production placement. Go to Blog:Product Placement for assignment details.
It defines much of our communication and why we do what we do. There may be many reasons why you and I show up for this class each class period. Some of those reasons deal with power.
You are reading this blog because I said it is part of an assignment where you can earn points toward a final grade
You are taking this class because someone paid your tuition and they expect you to show up for class in exchange
I show up because, if I don’t, the university will dock pay from my check or they may even fire me
Many of you live on the west side of Washington and are familiar with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The bridge crosses the Puget Sound between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula. The state built the original bridge to help connect Tacoma to the navel ship yards in Bremerton along with McChord Field and Fort Lewis.
When the bridge opened in July 1940 it was the third longest suspension bridge in the world, behind the Golden Gate Bridge and the George Washington Bridge in New York.
But even during construction, workers were aware of how the wind played havoc with the road bed. In fact, they nicknamed the bridge “Galloping Gertie.” The name stuck. Four months later, on a windy November day, the bridge did a twisted, roller coaster dance before it collapsed into the water.
Media permeates your lives. Many of you can’t live without your music. Some of you have developed friendships with people who live far away by playing video games. You may have met the love of your life via the Internet. (My son did!) Others can cite television shows or movies that have changed their outlook on life.
Media does bring us together. Many of us remember where we watched HBO’s Game of Thrones finale in May 2019. Over 13 million of us watched it live. Over 19 million watched if you count streaming and replays.
The Big Bang Theory also had its finale in May 2019. Variety says 18 million of us gathered around the television set to watch.
Media brought us together. It continues to bring us together. In fact, I can tell you where I’ll be next February 11th. You probably know where you’ll be too. I’ll be at my brother’s house running on the betting games at his Super Bowl party.
Through this blog post we’re going to demonstrate how media changes culture. The very fact that I’m using a blog post to communicate with a classroom of students is just one example of media influence.
To start the discussion, I submit a new approach to advertising. This is an interactive video promoting the Honda Civic R. Once it starts playing press the “R” on your keyboard to see an alternate story or “the other side” of a Honda Civic.
What changes in advertising have you noticed thanks to new technology?
