Advertising in the Age of TiVo: Targeting Teens and Young Adults With Film and Television Product Placements

Abstract

Product placement in film and television is examined as a growing force in transmitting brand messages to hard-to-reach consumers-especially teens and young adults who use new technologies to tune out commercials. Although many scholars have scrutinized product placement's cognitive effects on mass media audiences—and critiqued impacts of consumer culture—few have examined how marketers apply classical conditioning theory. Interviews were conducted with global brand managers who have placed their brands in blockbuster films and highly rated television programs in recent years. Initial findings suggest that marketers predict increased attention to product placement and a redefinition of advertising space.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An earlier version of this article was presented to the Mass Communication Division of the National Communication Association in Boston, November 2005.