Product Placement In Films

Introduction
The film industry falls into the category of industries that moves millions of people and dollars every year will be subject to the scrutiny from critics and public opinions. Practices, which are common in the film industry, such as casting actors to play characters with a different ethnicity or the number of female directors have been subject to critics recently. Concerns are voices by people who are concerned over the impact it could have in children and in society. Product Placement is a recurrent practice in films which causes concerns over its subliminal effects while also allowing more films to be produced given the advantages it has for producers. Despite the concerns, rating associations, the closest thing to an authority

2) The practice itself was first considered as a combination between advertising and publicity by Balasubramanian in 1994 (as cited in Gould, Grabner-Kräuter & Gupta, 2000). In the works of Gould et al. (2000), it was stated that although advertising and product placement are not identical, the similarities between the two practices allow for general accepted statements of advertising to be acceptable for the practice of product placement as well. In an earlier work by Gupta and Gould (1997) after conducing research on the acceptability of product placement, the authors concluded that the practice would progress with the development of fields such as technology and

Chin et al., (2013), recollected definitions in chronological order between 1987 and 2011. This shows the evolution of how the concept was considered. Steortz (1987, p. 22) defined Product Placement as “the inclusion of a brand name product, package, or other trademark merchandise within a motion picture”(as cited in Chin et al., 2013, p. 76). The definition then was updated to show the fact that both parties got something in return. In 1993, Nebenzahl and Secunda (p. 2), defined product placement “(PPL) as the inclusion of consumer products or services in motion pictures distributed to theatres by major Hollywood studios in return for cash fees or reciprocal promotion exposure for the films in marketers’ advertising programs” (as cited in Chin et al., 2013, p. 77). Williams et al. (2011, p. 2) say that “Product placement (…) is a practice in advertising wherein a brand name, product package, signage or other trademark merchandise is insert into and used contextually in a motion picture for commercial purposes” (as cited in Chin et al., 2013, p. 78) This final updated definition makes an allusion to the fact that there is a conversation between advertisers and production companies to promote the product in a way that would fit the plot of the