Blog 1 - The Ethics of Advertising

While I knew that I had a relationship with advertising, this movie opened my eyes to the extent I am being advertised to. Companies have their brand plastered all over the products I use in my daily life as well as having their products strategically placed throughout the media I consume every day. This type of advertising has been a part of life for Americans for generations and while there have been some regulations created on what can be advertised, I believe that there should be clear warnings of advertisements as well as product placement not being in media geared towards children.

I believe that people within the United States are susceptible to influence from brands when it comes to product placement advertisements. When products are subtly added into films and television shows oftentimes people do not understand that they are being advertised to. I was surprised to hear that the original Iron Man movie had 64 product placements scattered throughout the film and even if I had known that before watching the movie, I don’t think I would be able to identify them all as they are meant to come off as part of the character’s everyday life. I don’t believe that it is right to give consumers no warning that product placement is present in a film as they are unaware that brands are paying millions to have their brands present.

When it comes to advertising to children the product placement of Reese’s Pieces in the movie E.T. shows the impact of product placement on a brand’s bottom line. After the movie’s release, Hershey’s saw a 67% sales increase in Reese’s Pieces and the target audience for this film was children. While Reese’s Pieces may have seen sales increases that were higher than what may be standard for a single product placement, many other products are reaching kids in the same way. Coca-Cola has been guilty of this a variety of times as they have continually placed their product in films geared towards children including Ghostbusters and The Karate Kid. Coca-Cola took it a step further and purchased a production company (Columbia Pictures) in the 1980s which made it easier for them to integrate into their advertisements and reach the masses through product placement. This is something that I would say is very unethical as children are more impressionable and are easily influenced by their favorite character loving a product.

Overall, the removal of advertisements from media will not be happening anytime soon in the United States but hopefully, we will be able to make people more aware of when they are being advertised to and limit the amount of advertising to children. In the future, when brands use product placement advertising, they should disclose on the screen that they are paying to have their product advertised so that the consumer is aware. As someone who was unaware of the extent of advertising’s integration into everyday content, I will definitely be more aware of when product placement is being used to influence my purchasing decisions in the future.