Product Placement

In last the few decades, advertising and marketing company have had to become more creative in the way they promote their products. With the landscape of technology constantly changing, the way consumers receive messaging is shifting alongside it. Consumers of media have become much more savy on how to tune out advertisements when they are unavoidable, and have found ways around them all together in some instances. With ad free streaming services like Netflix, and the seemingly ubiquitous DVR trend that allows you to fast forward through commercials, advertisers are leaning further away from investing in commercials and towards more subtle means like product placement. 

Product placement is when companies pay to have their products integrated within the narrative and setting of typically a television show or movie. We see this tactic used in mediums such as books and video games as well. Because these materials are worked subtly into the narrative, the advertising messages are supposed to translate to the consumers on a more unconscious level. 

This can be done on a number of levels. Most commonly, companies are either name dropped in a exchange between characters or the products are openly and clearly displayed within a scene. The integration of these products are not intended to be overly palpable. However, when you are looking and listening for them, it's unbelievable how present they are.

They've done a number of studies revolving around the best strategies in terms of engaging this devise. Tanner reports in his article for Forbes, "we examined how product placement might affect the audience for subsequent ads in a number of cases. These included a perfect match, which is when the same product features in both the placement and the ad, e.g. the judges on American Idol drink Coke and then a Coke advertisement is shown in a subsequent commercial break. A brand-only match represents the case where different products from the same brand feature in the placement and ad, such as an iPhone commercial following an earlier MacBook Air placement. A competitive-match occurs when a specific product placement is followed by an advertisement by a category competitor, imagine for example if the Coke placement on American Idol was actually followed by a Pepsi commercial." Tanner continues to state, "Our investigation was motivated by the fact that psychological research on priming suggests that brief exposures to visual stimuli can be sufficient to alter how people respond to subsequent stimuli in an entirely nonconscious fashion.  The primary idea we rely on is that when a placement and a subsequent advertisement feature the same brand (perfect match and brand-only match) the placement acts as a prime that activates the brand in the viewer’s memory, thus leading to temporary increases in its accessibility. Several theoretical accounts predict that such increased accessibility should result in increased attention being paid to subsequent advertisements featuring the brand. For example, if there was a box of Cheerios in a kitchen scene in 'Modern Family,' then despite not consciously noticing it, a viewer may nonetheless pay more attention to a subsequent Cheerios ad than if the placement had not been present."

The studies found that consumers being exposed to the products previously did indeed aid in reception to the commercials later, however, much more so in perfect match and brand-only cases. They found within competitive scenarios a slight increase in attention, but found a higher level of interference than synergy with this style of integration.

On a more psychological level, product placement also taps into a number of sensitive spots within our subconscious. According to Dr. Zimmerman, "product placement can affect what’s called implicit self-identification.  Implicit self-identification is automatically associating yourself with an object, for example a consumer brand.  When we watch a liked character use a brand, we can start to automatically identify with the brand as a way to vicariously experience that character’s life. He continues to conclude, "psychologists have actually found we’re more likely to buy something we identify with than something we like...it [also] shows that even when we view placements skeptically they can still give us a favorable inclination toward placed brands."

 These underlying identity pieces play a huge role in the success of this advertising tactic. This also leads one to question whether or not (given how the advertisers chose to integrate a product) product placement in this way could be seen as a form of targeted advertising. 

Ultimately, product placement has been more successful than many would credit as it works more on an unconscious level. Sometimes they are utilized to prime for later more blatant advertisements for the same product or to subliminally translating messages about identity and inclusion. As the digital media landscape continues to shift, it will be interesting to evaluate how the use of product placement evolves alongside of it. 

Sources:http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2014/09/08/synergy-or-interference-how-product-placement-in-tv-shows-affects-the-commercial-break-audience/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sold/201303/product-placement-can-be-lot-more-powerful-we-realize

"Modern Family" and the "Nuclear Family"

 

    "Modern Family" is a wildly popular television show that seeks to capture the reality of internal American family relationships, and to evaluate how our definition and understanding of the "nuclear family" has evolved. Since it first aired in 2009, the show has been credited with an astronomical number of nominations and accolades proving there is something about this "mockumentary" style family comedy that is deeply connecting with viewers.

       
      Our characters comprise a tangled family tree (pictured above) that feels comfortably relatable to many. Bruce Feiler in his article for the New York Times states, "From the beginning, the creators Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd conceived their show around a newfangled family tree: Jay Pritchett, the patriarch; his Colombian trophy wife, Gloria; and her son, Manny; Jay’s grown son, Mitchell; his partner, Cam; and their adopted Vietnamese daughter; Jay’s high-strung daughter, Claire; her goofball husband, Phil; and their three suburban children." The show seeks to represent many different family structures, allowing viewers to find themselves in one of the households. Upon it's initial airing, most of the buzz centered around the homosexual couple, Cam and Mitchell. Creators of the beloved series, Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, say they were not attempting to make a political statement through these characters, but rather viewed them as an essential piece of the "Modern Family" puzzle. The intergenerational and interracial relationship Jay and Gloria share was also a point of conversation among early viewers. Their unit is also a blended family system as both Jay and Gloria had prior marriages, with Gloria bringing her son Manny from her previous marriage into their family. Lastly, we have Phil and Claire who represent the stereotypical "nuclear family" with their 3 children, Haley, Alex, and Luke. 

  Another central aspect of the show is the way it embraces technology as an integral part of our day to day lives. The teenagers in the show are more often than not shown with their cell phones in their hands, just as is true within most households. In a time when family members text one another that dinner is ready or that it is time to go, the ubiquity of technology within the writing of the show is deeply connectable and rings startling true. 

   

    Filming "Modern Family" in mockumentary style does a number of things. Bruce Feiler aptly describes the facet of this style and how it influences the messages the creators are attempting to send. He states, "characters in the middle of a scene will often glance at the camera, a disconcerting aside that has the effect of making the viewer feel both like a part of the family and an observer...second, the characters in “Modern Family” all offer confessional interviews directly to an unidentified cameraperson. Jay may say he pretends to love his daughter’s blueberry pie, but he really hates it. Or Mitchell may say, as he does in this episode, “Cameron has it in his head that I don’t listen to him, but I do.” This not only invites us into these families in a more personal way through breaking that fourth wall, but also is a more realistic representation of true family communication. The interviews give viewers more information the way specific pieces of info are shared among some family members but not others.  While this may seem like a more trivial piece of the "Modern Family," I would argue that this conjoined with the close integration of technology is one of the most essential components of how this show is shaping our understanding of what the modern family communication system and overall functioning looks like. 

    

The "Modern Family" writers upon developing our beloved characters decided not to attempt to break down or challenge stereotypes, but rather to lean into them. Each character embodies and addresses a different commonly held stereotype. This makes them each comical and relatable, but also allows audience members to recognize the presence of these conventional portrayals without being assaulted  by them. Gloria (shown above), for example, is portrayed as a stereotypical Latino woman: sexy, hot tempered, loud, and passionate about everything. She brings an unparalleled color and comedy to the group, and serves as a (rather loud) loving voice of reason that is essential to her household. By each character serving as a representation of these commonly held perceptions, we as a result are met with bold and strongly enunciated family units who feel very real to life despite their slightly overdramatized nature. 

While there are some stereotypes and issues the show leaves untouched, the writers are clear their agenda in the creation of the series was never political in nature. They sought to create a show that rang true with a wide variety viewers, and felt like a honest portrayal of modern family systems. It's incredibly important to evaluate how "Modern Family" and similar forms of mass media influence our perception of and personal ideologies about family systems and other areas of our lives. Viewers are consuming the model's presented within the series as true to life normalcies. They watch the show and subconsciously identify these units as models of the revised "nuclear family." When we look at comparable iconic family comedies that were popularized in the past, such as "The Brady Bunch" or "Full House," we see the value this holds. Twenty years from now, we may very well look back on the huge success of the series and timestamp it as influential within our popular culture's history. "Modern Family" is working to shape the way we as a society define and understand the "nuclear family," and what communication looks like within that system.