In the early twenties, tobacco companies realized that when people saw their favorite actors smoke in a movie, the sales of their products increased. Soon afterwards, also clothing brands successfully tried this form of advertising. Product placement was born.
When product placement first showed up, it was
mainly a coincidence. Hollywood was convinced that a mafia member had to smoke, because it wouldn’t be a real gangster if he didn’t.
Nowadays, different brands have acknowledged the effectiveness of product placement and are willing to spend thousands of dollars to get their brand in a popular movie.
At first this seemed like a win-win situation. Films had a bigger budget and brands were able to reach their potential consumers easily. Nevertheless, today the downside of it all becomes more and more clear. As companies are willing to pay larger amounts of money, film scripts are rewritten to make sure the brand can have a good spot on the screen, sometimes spoiling part of the story.
In the long run, Hollywood might lose more than it gained. When stories get altered to much, decent movies can become very rare, and big Hollywood films could lose their biggest fans. Bye Bye James Bond?
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