ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a form of advertising that goes under the radar: that of advertisers paying for their brands to be embedded in the storyline of movies, games, TV programs, song lyrics, music videos or books. Product placement remained rare for many years even though it existed in the very early days of movie making. In the 1950s movie The African Queen starring Humphrey Bogart as the gin-boat captain, the company manufacturing Gordon's gin was said to have paid to ensure that the gin in the movie would be theirs. And in the movie Superman II, Philip Morris paid to have the truck that Superman destroyed be a Marlboro truck. The main reason why advertisers were slow to embrace product placement was its inability to communicate explicit messages. Product placement can work much more broadly and it does so through a variety of mechanisms including implicit image association, reinforcement of familiarity, agenda setting and perceived popularity.
