The movie taught me about how marketing has become an important part of movies and the way companies are using product placement to reach out to potential customers. Many directors are forced to include products in their movies by producers as it is an essential source of revenue for the business. This means people can no longer escape marketing, as they are always facing advertising in one way or another. Earlier, I thought marketing was a way to inform for people about products and benefits of using the products. I was totally unaware how influential marketing has become and the way it influences our daily lives. This movie has made realize that our world has too much advertising and the influence will keep increasing with time.
Making money has become an essential part of business; product placement gives companies opportunity to market themselves (Spurlock, 2011).
As a marketing tool products placement is a goldmine. Having superstars such as Beyonce, Bono, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise talking about perfumes, vodka or cars; have a huge impact on potential customers. For many products it is a way to increase sales and for others it is used by businesses to introduce a product. People still recall some of the famous product placements such as Tom cruise wearing Ray-Ban wayfarer sunglasses in Risky Business. The product placement helped Ray-Ban to sell 360,000 pairs of their Wayfarer sunglasses within one year (CNBC, n.d.). Product placement has become an essential part of marketing as several brands are encouraged to use its marketing potential. More and more businesses over the years have used product placement as it has been a highly effective tool in the past few years and builds brand image and increased brand recognition (Spurlock, 2011).
Product placement can be both ethical and unethical; it depends upon the use of the product and its suitability to the advertising medium. It is ethical if it only informative and the medium utilized suits the product. For example: an actor wearing a sunglass in the movie is not against the ethics and can be an effective tool for marketing. But, there are instances when product placement is unethical. For example: a child being served with unhealthy fast food ads in classrooms through television is highly unethical as it is making children habitual of unhealthy eating habits. Children hooked on McDonalds are practically the result of product placement in television, banners, movies, etc. Therefore, product placement can be both ethical and unethical; it depends upon the type of product and the medium used to market (Spurlock, 2011).
Product placement laws in Brazil are an example to follow for other countries, especially the United States of America. The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo has implemented legislation that has outlawed product placement in the city and all OOH ads such as banners, signboards, etc are banned in the city. Unlike all cities in the United States of America, where product placement is part and parcel of life and everywhere you look product placement can be seen. In one way, all major American cities and Sao Paulo are the absolute opposite of each other in terms of their product placement philosophies. In America, customers are living in an environment that encourages product placement, but Sao Paulo does not force its citizens to watch the same number ads. Other cities all over the world such as Tokyo also have the same product placement policy as signboards can be seen all over the buildings in the main city (Spurlock, 2011)
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References
CNBC. (n.d.). 10 Big Successes in Product Placement. Retrieved 11 February 2016 from, http://www.cnbc.com/2011/06/03/10-Big-Successes-in-Product-Placement.html?slide=2
Spurlock, M. (Director). (2011). POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold [Motion picture]. United States: Sony Pictures Classics.
