Analysis: There are many worries behind the proliferation of product placement advertising in China

It has been more than a month since the Spring Festival Gala, but people's controversy and criticism over the placement of advertisements in Zhao Benshan's sketches have not subsided. With the popularity of "Boss's Happiness", many brands such as Yanghe Wine Industry and Great Wall Motors have connected with Boss's happiness.

Looking abroad, the development of product placement has become a global trend. ldquo; We are moving from an era of interference in marketing communication to an era of implantation.& rdquo; Cindy Karop, president of the American chapter of the Global Brand Content Marketing Association, hit the nail on the head. But behind the prosperity of product placement advertising, there are also many hidden concerns.

Merchants entrust writers to write novels

In people's minds, books as spiritual food should be holy. However, this is not the case. According to Wu Yuetian, president of the French Literary Society of China, advertisements in books actually have a long history. As early as the 1950s in France, advertisements such as Do you want to go to the Côte d'Azur for a vacation or perfume appeared on the front or back cover of some detective novels, and they had nothing to do with the content of the novel. Later, books gradually began to have product placement advertisements, such as asking the protagonist to drink famous martini wines and smoke soft Gaul cigarettes.

French writer Paul Rupsulize once signed a contract with the Martini Wine Company, which paid him a remuneration of 80,000 francs. When he wrote the novel "Green King", he mentioned Martini Wine in his work. No less than three times. After tasting the sweetness, he asked the secret agent Margo to drink famous champagne, wear famous Swiss watches, and use the famous silver-plated lighter in another novel. As a result, the work seemed nondescript and failed.

The most controversial is the marriage between British best-selling female writer Faye Weldon and the famous Italian brand Bulgari Jewelry in 2001. Bulgari funded Weldon to write a novel promoting his products, and the Bulgari brand was mentioned no less than 12 times in the book. Originally, only a few hundred copies were planned to be printed and given as gifts to important customers when Bulgari's London branch opened, but Weldon published the book,"Bulgari Relations" in large quantities in London and New York, causing a stir.

The book is believed to be the first example of a commercial company directly commissioning a novel by an author and is considered a notorious betrayal of literature. But Welton himself didn't care. She told the New York Times reporter: She once told herself, you are a writer, you can't do this kind of thing, otherwise your name will always be mud." ldquo; But it didn't take long for me to think, I don't care, just let my name turn into mud, they will never give me the Booker Prize anyway." rdquo;

Welton didn't care, but readers did. Wu Yuetian believes that although advertising can increase the popularity of a certain brand, if an advertisement suddenly appears during quiet reading, readers 'thoughts or interest in the book will be interrupted. More importantly, literature will be corrupted and destroyed as a result. In any case, books, the last frontier, cannot be lost.

British and Japanese TV cannot place product placement ads

Cai Mingye, a researcher at the Institute of Media Research at the University of Leeds in the UK, said in an interview with reporters that there are no advertisements on British TV programs because regulations do not allow them. The UK implements public television, and even television stations that can broadcast advertisements, such as ITC (Independent Television), C4 (Channel 4), and C5(Channel 5), are still public television. Although some people have been discussing relaxing regulations in this area in recent years, no actual action has been taken yet.

About 10 years ago, British commercial television could accept sponsorship from manufacturers, but this was not advertising placement. Take the TV series "Coronation Street"(which has been broadcast continuously for 50 years) as an example. The sponsor is Cadbury Chocolate, and a few seconds long Cadbury sponsored opening line similar to the nature of the program will be broadcast at the beginning. However, there is no mention of Gabriel Chocolate in the opening title and plot of "Coronation Street". Even if the products appearing in the play have names, they are all fictional to avoid suspicion of advertising placement.

Liu Di, a scholar living in Japan and a visiting researcher at Waseda University in Japan, told the author that Japanese news, film and television do not allow placement advertisements. In the news, certain product names will even be covered in the camera to avoid certain street advertisements. If there are product placement advertisements, they are generally public welfare, such as factories opened for the elderly to re-find employment (equivalent to what we call poverty alleviation), or the dissemination of traditional culture. In Japan, it is almost impossible to see advertisements implanted through plots. If a beverage packaging appears on the guest table on Japanese TV programs, the trademark will generally be crossed out.

There are many worries behind the glory

In addition to commercial value, does product placement have cultural significance? In this regard, Cai Mingye said: I actually like Spider-Man movies very much, but I still think there are really too many advertising placements in this series. And I don't think seeing those products will increase my entertainment experience in watching movies.& rdquo; So what is the cultural significance of product placement for the movie "Spider-Man"? Maybe it gave the film's producers more money to play, so from a positive perspective, advertising placement makes the film and television products more and more glamorous. But at the same time, does it also make film and television creation more and more materialistic and secular? In the long run, will this make the audience only accept media products that are becoming more and more beautiful on the outside, but are actually becoming more and more materialistic and secular products? She was deeply worried about this.

Professor Wang Rui of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in an interview with reporters: I can responsibly say that American TV programs absolutely do not advertise as nakedly as the Spring Festival Gala. Advertising is advertising, and the boundaries are very clear.& rdquo; The annual Super Bowl finals in the United States are very popular, and major companies have to spare no effort to buy advertising time, which has created an invisible advertising competition show. Every year after the Super Bowl is over, the media also specifically discusses who does the best advertising. Regarding the situation of the Spring Festival Gala, a netizen said well: Please don't interrupt the Spring Festival Gala in the advertisement! rdquo;

Extended reading: Cross-implantation of multiple media

Some scholars say that as long as it is a medium that can convey information, it can become a carrier for product placement advertising.

Take "American Idol", the most popular talent show in the United States, as an example. During its competition, viewers can always clearly see the advertisements and products of Coca-Cola, AT T Wireless, Ford, Old Navy and other companies. For example, the three venomous judges had a large glass of Coca-Cola in front of them, and the players gathered in the Coca-Cola room, sitting on the Coca-Cola sofa, waiting for the results and appearance. Even on the "American Idol" website, there are product placement advertisements combined with the website's column settings, such as behind-the-scenes tidbits of Coca-Cola, the Old Navy Game Entertainment Section, etc.

In the 1980s, product placement began to appear in video game software. When playing Crazy Taxi, passengers will ask to be taken to Pizza Hut or KFC; when playing Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, they will see Zippo lighters and Motorola mobile phones

Product placement ads first appeared in the song in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game": Take me out to watch the ball game,/Take me into the crowd./ Buy me some peanuts and amber popcorn,/I don't care if I can come back and amber popcorn is a product placement. After that, record companies negotiated product placement deals with merchants related to their artists. Some products appear in songs one after another, and some even become song titles, such as "My Adidas". (silently)

Link: Appeared in movies 60 years ago

I'm strong, I love spinach, I'm Popeye Popeye Poppy.& rdquo; This is the line from the 1929 American cartoon "Popeye". It turned out that the film was sponsored by the manufacturer that produced canned spinach. The earliest well-documented film product placement appeared in the 1951 film "The Queen of Africa", in which the male and female protagonists drank Gordon's gin and its trademark was clearly visible.

In "E.T. Alien"(1982) directed by American director Spielberg, there is a plot in which the protagonist uses Reeses Piece candy to attract aliens into the house. Subsequently, sales of Reese Candy soared. The film is considered to be the first successful example of effectively connecting film and advertising (similarly, Steinberg is also praised as a failure for his blunt insertion of a Mercedes-Benz commercial in "Jurassic Park"(1993)). After that, more and more product placement advertisements were included in movies.

When placing advertisements in American films, they pay more attention to the unity of brand image and film characters. In "The Devil Who Wears Prada"(also translated as "The Devil of Fashion"), the protagonist Miranda is the most powerful woman in the fashion world, standing high and high like a queen. She likes to wear Prada suits, asks her assistant Andy to buy hot Starbucks coffee every day, uses only Apple computers, and also asks Andy to get the unpublished Harry Potter book for his twin daughters within three hours. These product placement advertisements further strengthen the image and personality of the female devil.

The "007" series of films is undoubtedly a successful example of product placement. High-tech, bright-looking cars are the topics that people pay attention to every time except for the hot Bond girls. In "Tomb Raider" and "Tomb Raider II", the well-equipped Land Rover, the cool Jeep Wrangler, and Laura played by Angelina Jolie achieve a perfect match in temperament and personality.