Product Placement - Both Good and Bad

In today's world, advertising encroaches upon every aspect of our lives slowly, since old advertising becomes ineffective as we are desensitized to it. Advertising agencies are always looking for new ways to grab our attention, regardless of how much they mess up public space. Product placement is one of the newer forms, and depending on how it is implemented the result can be good or bad.

When is product placement actually good? Product placement can contribute to the authenticity of a scene, whether in a game or a movie, if it makes sense for it to be there. Saying the product's name or brand out loud shouldn't even be necessary, people should be able to tell what the object is just based off the logo or appearance, and the identity of it shouldn't be focused upon at all; it should just blend right into the scene. If done right, the placement won't seem out of place, people won't focus on it, but they'll remember the brand when they are going to buy something next. Things like having a soda machine with the Coca Cola logo on it make sense since many do in real life, but you wouldn't put that logo everywhere.

Unfortunately, it is mainly the bad product placements that get our attention, since they stand out so much. It is just yet another way that advertising is intruding into every experience. Sometimes it is just excessive, far too many placements. Other times things are just out of place, or way too obvious. One of the more recent examples I can think of, which I brought up in class, was with Dell XPS placements in F.E.A.R. The Dell XPS is a high-end gaming computer, and all of the ones placed in the game were all clean and everything. Yet for some reason there was nearly a dozen XPS computers in an office of all places. And on top of that, there was a place that had been abandoned for ages, with a rusty desk, yet the XPS there didn't even have a bit of dust or anything on it, just perfectly clean.

Personally I disagree with product placement for the most part. The main reason to put advertisements into games is for the publishers and studios to make more money, but that profit rarely, if ever, trickles down to the consumer. If a game with advertising in it had a lower retail price, I would be fine with that. But making consumers pay the same amount and shoving advertising in their face is hardly a good strategy.