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The placement of different brands of alcohol in movies has a long tradition, and product
placements of alcohol also appear frequently in rap songs. Although concerns have been
raised about the impact of such placements on adolescent drinking, research is needed to
explore the influence of product placements on adolescents' attitudes toward drinking, their
perceptions of the normative appropriateness of drinking and the prevalence of drinking, and
whether placements influence adolescent drinking behavior.

One early example of product placement of alcohol in movies is the 1945 movie, a

 , in which Joan Crawford²who received the best actress Academy Award for this
role²drank Jack Daniel's whiskey. Perhaps a better known example is Katharine Hepburn's
discarding Humphrey Bogart's²he received the best actor Academy Award for this role²
Gordon's Dry Gin into the river in  
   (1951). The placement of alcohol
products in the media is widespread. A content analysis of the top 10 movies each year of the
1990s found that the two most popular placements in these movies were for soft drinks and
beer. In 1997±1998, there were over 230 paid placements of alcoholic products in movies and
more than 180 different paid placements in TV series. In 2005, the first product placement on
Broadway was for Jose Cuervo tequila in the Neil Simon play,   . Simon agreed
to changes in the script so that the placement could occur. Likewise, recent studies of popular
music have found that close to half of all rap songs mentioned specific brands of alcohol.

Why have product placements become so prominent? One reason is that audiences seem to
like product placements because they make the TV show or movie seem more realistic.
Indeed, early product placements simply involved a company providing its product to
production companies for use in movies. More recently, product placements have developed
into a form of paid advertising, where the company pays for the product to be used in a movie
or TV show; more prominent product placements cost more than simple background
placements of the product. Indeed, the practice should be called   placement because the
investment in placements is not to increase the use of the product category; rather, companies
hope the placement will increase the use of their brand of the product. For example, sales of
Red Stripe beer reportedly increased 50% after it appeared in the movie,   . A second
reason why placements may be so popular is the practice allows advertisers to target very
specific audiences because the demographics of who attends which kinds of movies are well
understood. Third, compared to paid advertisements, product placements are cheap.

The concern about alcohol product placements involves their effect on children's and
adolescents' likelihood of drinking alcohol. A 1998 survey found that 50% of all high school
seniors reported drinking at least once in the past month, and 31.5% of the seniors had
engaged in binge drinking (defined as five or more drinks in a single drinking episode).
However, as the American Medical Association notes in a 2001 report on underage drinking,
there is a distinct lack of research on the influence of product placements on adolescent
drinking.

Research does suggest that people are less approving of placement of alcohol and tobacco in
movies and on TV than they are of other types of product placements. But adolescents, in
general, like product placements more than adults. In addition, adolescents who watch lots of
movies tend to be more brand conscious and pay more attention to product placements in the
media. Finally, adolescents tend to perceive that other people are influenced by product
placements but that they are immune to the effects of placements.

²David R. Roskos-Ewoldsen

Further Readings

 

Roskos-Ewoldsen, David R. "Product Placements, Alcohol."  
 
 


   a . 2006. SAGE Publications. 11 Jan. 2011. <http://www.sage-
ereference.com/childmedia/Article_n351.html>.