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To cite this Article Sung, Yongjun and de Gregorio, Federico(2008) 'New Brand Worlds: College Student Consumer
Attitudes toward Brand Placement in Films, Television Shows, Songs, and Video Games', Journal of Promotion
Management, 14: 1, 85 — 101
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/10496490802498272
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10496490802498272
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Journal of Promotion Management, 14:85–101, 2008
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1049-6491 print / 1540-7594 online
DOI: 10.1080/10496490802498272
INTRODUCTION
In 2002 hip-hop musician Busta Rhymes released Pass the Courvoisier. The
song remained on Billboard’s Hot 100 music chart for over 20 weeks, the
attendant music video was reportedly shown over 600 times across the MTV
and BET networks, and was played on the radio “more than 97,000 times”
85
86 Y. Sung and F. de Gregorio
(Roberts, 2002, p. 42). Sales of Courvoisier cognac, the main subject matter
of the song, rose by double digits.
The goal of 2001’s Super Monkey Ball video game is to collect as many
bananas as possible within a specific time limit while avoiding obstacles and
roving enemies—each banana is prominently labeled with a Dole company
sticker (Emery, 2002). Contestants on the wildly popular FOX reality show
American Idol wait for their turn on stage in the Coca-Cola Red Room while
the show’s three judges sip out of cups conspicuously labeled with the Coke
logo.
Discussions of brand placement in the popular press and academic
literature predominantly revolve around film. However, the opening exam-
ples and recent content analytic work (e.g., de Gregorio and Sung, 2004;
Ferraro and Avery, 2000; Friedman, 1991) demonstrate that brand appear-
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ances within other media are prevalent and continue to increase in incidence
as time progresses. Although scholarly brand placement research has been
ongoing since the late 1980s, there has been a dearth of investigations of the
practice in non-film media (for overviews of the practice see Galician, 2004;
Lehu, 2007).
While there have been numerous recent popular/trade press articles,
and even two websites (AmericanBrandStand and BrandCameo) devoted
to the proliferation of brands in general media content, there are few at-
titudinal studies of this issue. Numerous studies have examined attitudes
toward brand placement in films, and two have gauged perceptions of the
practice in video games (Nelson, 2002; Nelson, Keum, and Yaros, 2004).
However, despite calls by Karrh (1998), to the authors’ knowledge, only a
single, qualitative study has yet examined attitudes toward the practice in
multiple types of media (DeLorme, 1998). This exploratory study builds on
and contributes to previous work by serving as a quantitative comparison of
attitudinal responses to brand placement in films, television shows, songs,
and video games. Based on Lutz’s (1985) discussion of attitudes toward ad-
vertising in general, understanding global perceptions of brand placement
in specific media is a significant first step, as they are likely to serve as an-
tecedents/influencers of attitudes toward placement of specific brand types,
in turn potentially facilitating purchase intentions and behaviors (Fishbein
and Ajzen, 1974). First, a background context for brand placement is pro-
vided, followed by a review of the literature on consumer perceptions of
the inclusion of brands in various forms of media content. Subsequently, the
implementation and results of a survey of 437 college student respondents
are reported, followed by discussion of the findings and implications for
advertisers and policymakers.
College Student Consumer Attitudes toward Brand Placement in Four Media 87
LITERATURE REVIEW
History, Current Status, and Proliferation
The deliberate placement of brands within films is not a new phenomenon.
A prominent pouring of a bottle of Gordon’s Dry Gin over the side of a boat
occurred in 1945’s The African Queen, while even earlier, during the 1890s,
the Lumière brothers had included placements for Lever’s Sunlight Soap
as part of their early film experiments (Newell, 2003). What distinguished
these early days of brand placements from today’s era was the casual and
haphazard nature of the process. Over time, the practice has slowly become
more organized, sophisticated, and in demand, with the 1982 placement of
Reese’s Pieces in E.T. resulting in a notable rise in sales, bringing a tipping
point of interest toward the strategy from practitioners (Wasko, Phillips,
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and Purdie, 1993). Currently, the industry has progressed to the point of
having two of its own trade organizations (the Entertainment Resources and
Marketing Association and the Branded Content Marketing Association), with
more than 90 member agencies.
Brand placement in other media is also not a recent phenomenon. Ad-
vertisers produced, sponsored, and inserted their products into television
shows during the 1950s such as the Colgate Comedy Hour and Kraft Tele-
vision Theater (Roberts, 2004), early arcade racing games in the form of
cigarette billboards (Emery, 2002), and even music—a song from 1903 enti-
tled Under the Anheuser-Busch asked listeners to “Come, come, drink some
Budwise [sic] with me” (Barnet, Nemerov, and Taylor, 2004). Brand place-
ments in non-film media have now become an integral part of the organized
structure of the industry, with media-specific placement agencies beginning
to appear, such as Maven Strategies (songs) and Massive, Inc. (video games).
Along with the expansion and increasingly structured nature of the
placement industry over time, has been a simultaneous rise in the incidence
of brands within media content. While there have been relatively few empir-
ical examinations of this trend, those that have been conducted have found a
longitudinally increasing rate of brand appearances. In a film context, Sapol-
sky and Kinney’s (1994) analysis of the top 25 movies of 1989 and 1991, and
Galician and Bourdeau’s (2004) examination of the top 15 box office hits of
1977, 1987, and 1997 uncovered a combined 402 unique brand occurrences,
a longitudinal increase over time, and automobiles, alcohol, and soda as
the most popular brand product categories. In a series of content analyses
looking at the spread of brands and products into various written media,
Friedman (1991) examined brand mentions over time in popular novels
(1946–1975), British and American plays (1946–1980), and lyrics of hit songs
(1946–1980). Across all these media forms, he observed a sizable increase in
the rate and number of brand insertions over time. Finally, de Gregorio
and Sung (2004) have found a longitudinally persistent increase in the
88 Y. Sung and F. de Gregorio
of the world that has been created in their product (Govani, 1999). Many
claim that if they were to not use real brands, products would either have to
be brand-less (unrealistic), labeled with fictitious brand names, or identified
with generic labels such as “watch”—any of which are disliked by consumers
and causes a “break” in their level of immersion.
Research Questions
As previously stated, to the authors’ knowledge, there exists no prior quan-
titative comparison of attitudes toward brand placement across different
90 Y. Sung and F. de Gregorio
media. As such, two research questions were derived from the extant litera-
ture to serve as a guide for the study. The bulk of movie-focused attitudinal
investigations have shown generally positive perceptions of brand place-
ment, and preliminary work by Delorme (1998), Nelson (2002), and Nelson
et al. (2004) into non-film brand placements would indicate that the posi-
tive perceptions revealed by investigations of filmic contexts are potentially
applicable across different media. Based on these findings, the following
research question was posed:
RQ2: Which genres, if any, of movies, television shows, songs, and video
games are considered especially appropriate and inappropriate for brand
placement purposes?
METHOD
Survey Instrument
Attitude toward Brand Placement. The survey contained multiple brand
placement items measured along a 5-point, Likert-type scale across movies,
television shows, music (including radio listening, CDs, tapes, and MP3s),
and video games. Specific scale items were derived from both Gupta and
Gould’s (1997) and Karrh et al.’s (2001) instruments. There were over
College Student Consumer Attitudes toward Brand Placement in Four Media 91
50 items across both studies and several items overlapped. Moreover, both
instruments were specifically developed to measure attitude toward brand
placement in movies. Thus, we conducted pretest with 40 undergraduate
volunteers to obtain a more manageable and relevant number of items ap-
plicable across all four media types. The final scale consisted of 15 items,
modified appropriately for each medium (e.g., “I prefer to see real brands in
video games rather than fake/fictitious brands” was modified to “I prefer to
hear real brands in music rather than fake/fictitious brands” under the music
section).
there are no concrete genres for each of the four media of interest, genre
categories were obtained from a diverse set of sources. Movie genres were
derived from Eliashberg and Shugan (1997), television genres from Ferraro
and Avery (2000), music genres were based on Billboard’s classifications (the
major music industry trade publication), and video/computer game genres
were obtained from Sherry, Lucas, Rechsteiner, Brooks, and Wilson (2001).
Sample
The study employed a convenience sample of college students at a large
Southeastern university. While there exists debate as to the merits of data
yielded by college students in consumer research, the use of such a sample
is appropriate to this study. The 18- to 25-year-old group that comprises
the majority of college students is a highly sought after audience for film-
makers, television and music producers, and video game designers. Industry
reports estimate college-aged students comprise 26–45% of music audiences
(Recording Industry Association of America, 2002; Whelan and Yin, 2001),
and approximately 36% of the movie-going population (Motion Picture Asso-
ciation of America, 2004; Nielsen Media Research, 2003). A study conducted
for the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Jones, 2003) on gaming
habits among college students revealed that 65% of respondents considered
themselves regular/occasional players.
The initial sample consisted of 455 volunteer students enrolled in large
introductory courses. All volunteers were given extra course credit as an
incentive. The final sample size (n= 437) reflects a reduction of the initial
number of volunteers who were eliminated due to incomplete surveys and
the halo effect (i.e., marking the same responses on all questions). Among
the 437 respondents, 268 were female and 169 were male. The majority
were between 18 and 25 years old (98.4%), with a range from 18 to 32 years.
Caucasians comprised 85.4% of the sample. Before respondents started, they
92 Y. Sung and F. de Gregorio
RESULTS
One-Way Within-Subjects ANOVA and Research Question 1
To discern any brand placement attitude differences across media types
(RQ1), the mean scores of 15 brand placement attitude items were compared.
In addition, a series of one-way within-subjects ANOVAs were conducted. As
shown in Table 1, the overall mean scores indicated that respondents have
more positive perceptions of placements in movies and television shows than
in music and video/computer games. The results of the one-way within-
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Mean∗
placements (3.05), prefer to hear real brands (3.36), the presence of brands
enhances realism (3.01), and learn about new brands from listening to music
(2.65).
Finally, respondents indicated that they were less likely to buy brands
because they have seen or heard of them in video/computer games (2.12)
and disagreed that they have learned about new brands from playing
video/computer games (2.33). They also showed uncertainty regarding sev-
eral items, such as hate seeing brands in games (2.81), realism enhancement
(3.39), and preference for seeing real brands (3.30).
Research Question 2
Respondents were to check particularly appropriate and inappropriate genres
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for brand placement across the four media of interest. As shown in Table 2,
for movies, 84.6% of respondents indicated that comedy is an appropriate
genre, followed by action (73.2%), drama (56.7%), and romance (53.4%). On
the other hand, 63.8% of respondents felt that brand placement in historical
films is particularly unacceptable, followed by political (56.5%) and animated
films (51.6%). For television genres, 77.3% of the sample felt that the reality
genre is appropriate for brand placement, with only 11.7% evaluating it as
inappropriate.
The findings also suggest that, in addition to reality shows, situation
comedies (76.1%), game shows (70.2%), and sports events (69.5%), are ac-
ceptable television genres for brand placement. The majority of respondents
(63.7 %) agreed that cartoons are a particularly inappropriate genre for plac-
ing branded goods and services as props or plot devices. Regarding music,
68.7% of the sample selected hip-hop/rap/R&B genre as being particularly
appropriate for brand placement, followed by pop (56.5%), country (47.7%),
and rock (41.5%). The two most inappropriate genres for brand placement
Christian (74.1%) and classical/opera (73.4%), followed by jazz (56.8%), and
blues (47.3%). Finally, over 70% of respondents indicated sports (71.2%) and
racing (70.6%) games were very appropriate for placement of brand-name
products. However, puzzle games were considered the most inappropri-
ate (45.8%), followed by strategy (42.5%), fantasy/role-playing (39.2%), and
shooting (36.4%).
The descriptive results of this study reveal several interesting findings. The
findings of research question 1 demonstrate that opinions regarding movie
and TV show placements tend to be rather similar and more positive (per-
haps due to perceived similarities of their media’s characteristics) than those
dealing with music and video games. In reference to films and television
College Student Consumer Attitudes toward Brand Placement in Four Media 95
Appropriate Inappropriate
Although video game and music placements are generally viewed more
negatively than television or film, it cannot be said that attitudes toward
placement in the former two media are negative overall. In fact, across all
four media, respondents generally do not mind if content creators receive
compensation for placed brands, would rather see/hear actual brands in me-
dia than fictitious ones, agree that brands enhance the realism of content,
do not feel that placement practice should be governmentally regulated,
conceive brand placement as a form of paid advertising, and are concerned
about the placement of brands of ethically charged products/brands. This
perhaps indicates that the interactivity of computer games and the combined
audio-visual nature of films and television shows are considered to enhance
the potentially negative effects of such placements to a greater extent that
the audio-only music medium. Our overall results mirror those of previous
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ular among the dominant mainstream charts, while those inclined more
toward the three other media may achieve greater acceptability in sports
programming (in addition to the other genres specifically appropriate for
each medium). Additionally, our results provide preliminary evidence that
two ways advertisers can potentially segment their brand placement audience
is according to acceptance of advertising in general and level of involvement
with brands. Greater research is needed, however, to develop more detailed
and precise points of segmentation for the two criteria than our separation
of high/low and more/less.
The results of this study are also relevant for policymakers. In con-
trast to the opinions voiced by many social critics and consumer interest
groups, it appears that audiences are generally accepting of brand place-
ments, do not find them as unethical or unacceptable as the former groups
would believe, and feel that they actually enhance the aesthetic realism of
content. Moreover, respondents were clearly disinclined to have the gov-
ernment regulate placements of brands, irrespective of medium. This is de-
spite the fact that respondents concomitantly evinced the belief that people
are subconsciously influenced by the integration of brands into media con-
tent. These findings generally mirror those revealed by prior film-specific
attitudinal brand-placement studies. Based on our results and the accumu-
lated prior findings in this area, policymakers are cautioned to consider the
utility of taking regulatory action that may be unwelcome by media audi-
ences (perhaps being viewed as patronizing or unnecessary).
advertising attitude, and brand involvement variables, there are several limi-
tations that must be borne in mind. First, our sample was limited to college
students. Although they are justifiable as a sample group due to their status
as prime consumers and target markets of media content creators, they by
no means comprise the entire media consuming public. Thus, to ascertain if
there are significant differences among these groups, future research should
focus on the perceptions of non-college students regarding brand placements
in various media types. A related issue is the type of students that comprised
the sample. While the courses from which students were recruited were not
restricted by major, roughly 80% of respondents were Business and Commu-
nications majors. It is possible that students in majors not so closely linked
with advertising/marketing (such as the hard sciences or the humanities)
would hold differing opinions regarding placement practice.
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Even though the results of this study have yielded positive news for
advertisers in that attitudes toward brand placements are rather favorable
across media types in terms of the practice in general, it would be unwise
to assume that consumers would also be willing to take action as a result
(e.g., purchase, brand inquiry, etc.). Understanding attitudes at a global level
is a crucial first step, as a negative overall attitude would greatly minimize
the likelihood of marketer-intended responses on the part of consumers. Ac-
cording to the correspondence principle, however, in order to validly predict
action, measurements of attitude must be at the same level of specificity as
the behavior in question (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977). As such, if one wished
to predict whether people would be willing to purchase products based on
exposure to some form of placement, the attitudinal measure would have
to specifically address purchase-resulting exposure to placements. Our ex-
ploratory study goes further toward establishing the acceptability of brand
placement practice, but the next step in attitudinal investigations of this strat-
egy would do well to focus on perceptions of particular actions arising from
placement exposures in order to be able to postulate actual behavior.
While this study has yielded some interesting preliminary results regard-
ing consumer opinions about the integration of brands into various media
and genres, in addition to replications and extensions of such attitudinal
studies, there is a need for experimental investigations gauging the impact of
medium type and genre on brand placement effectiveness. While a few stud-
ies have looked at the effectiveness of placements in non-film media (see,
e.g., Nelson, 2002, for video games and Russell, 2002, for television shows),
the incorporation and comparison of two or more media in single studies
is necessary so that how, which, and why certain characteristics/features of
different genres and media influence consumer recall, recognition, cogni-
tive processing, and implicit memory of brand placements may be better
understood.
College Student Consumer Attitudes toward Brand Placement in Four Media 99
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