Is Product Placement Still Effective?

More and more frequently when I go see a movie I feel as if I’m watching a two hour long commercial rather than the cinematic depiction of a bachelor party in Vegas. And frankly, I’m becoming a little jaded by the continuous product placement or “brand integration” as it’s called now. I then started to realize I was seeing the same products in many of the movies I went to see. That in turn has made the impact of seeing my favorite actor/actress drinking my favorite soda while driving a brand new car less meaningful. Rather than believing this character would actually chose to buy those things it has made me believe that the brand just made a better offer to the production company and won out.

Product placement became popular in the 1980’s and has continued to grow in popularity ever since. One of the earliest examples of product placement involves the movie E.T. and Reese’s Pieces, (I know you remember the scene) so what used to be a non-traditional form of advertising is very much now the norm and doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. In 2010 $5.6 billion was spent on product placement, and that’s more than double what was spent in 2005. One of the biggest drawls to advertisers to use product placement is the hope that consumers will develop a stronger emotional connection with the product, and the ability to target a specific group through relevant content.

But what brands are shown most often? Here are the 10 brands with the most appearances in a top film (topped the box office at least once) since 2001:

1. Ford – 152 times
2. Apple – 124 times
3. Coca-Cola – 99 times
4. Chevrolet – 86 times
5. Mercedes – 81 times
6. Budweiser -78 times
7. Sony – 72 times
8. Pepsi – 70 times
9. Nike – 67 times
10. Cadillac – 59 times

Source: brandchannel.com

To check out the rest of the list visit here, and take note of how the top product placement companies has and has not changed throughout the past 10 years. Most interesting to me is the rise of Apple on the list, and the stronghold Ford has on the top spot over the years.