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Product placement is wildly popular in the US. It's in many of their TV shows, as well as in movies and now on internet YouTube videos. Though product placement is popular in American culture, we don't see as much of it here. That's due to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) placing strict rules and regulations on the use of product placement in the UK.
We've written about product placement before and mentioned its advantages and disadvantages for both marketers and consumers. In short, product placement can be highly effective at selling a product and can help TV shows and movies to get made by adding to their budget. However, it can be seen as spam or even unethical as people may not know a product is being sold to them.
Product Placement on Social Media
Social media has been a grey area for advertising since its inception. There are definitely fewer regulations regarding these platforms and a high quantity of content to be monitored. Furthermore, these companies are based all around the world and are capable of serving ads to many different countries, so it can be hard to work out which set of rules/laws to follow.
Recently there have been a few headlines about social product placements being pulled. This included ex-Made In Chelsea star, Millie Mackintosh's Instagram video post being removed as it wasn't clearly product placement. We've also seen popular YouTube vloggers in trouble after posting sponsored videos that weren't clearly labelled as sponsored content.
Though a few high profile cases have made headlines it's virtually impossible for the ASA to police all of this content.
Product Placement on TV
Product placement is primarily thought of as a TV form of advertising, rather than an online method. However, we don't see much of it in the UK. This is due to much stricter rules than other countries, originating from the early days of television when the BBC was the only channel. These rules haven't changed much but are starting to. Some TV shows can use product placement if a small 'P' logo is placed in the corner of the screen, however, product placement cannot affect a show editorially.
