Did you see that, or didn't you?

TV commercials are the most effective way of advertising in terms of reachability. 

According to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India, 2018 showed a 12% rise in TV viewers, which is now more than a whopping 800 Million. 

But this post is not about mainstream TV commercials, but about Product Placement, or rather, a dark side of Product Placement, i.e. Subliminal Advertising. 

What is Product Placement ?

Product placement means placing a product or service into media content so that it is part of the content as part of an article, TV program, movie or computer game. Instead of the product, its logo or advertisement may also be product-based.

As most movie makers want the scenes in their movies to be as close to reality as possible, they have to use certain unavoidable products. And in turn, they reap benefit from that by charging the sponsors for the same. The whole idea behind Product Placement is that people feel more connected with the product when they see it under the context of normal scene. Product Placement seems to be a win-win for all - Producers get sponsors for their programmes/movies, companies are able to popularize their products amongst the masses and people get the context of the products. So?

Yes, product placement is great form of advertising, but only to the extent till the viewers are aware that the product is being advertised.

Remember Inception ?

Subliminal Advertisement :

There is a type of product placement which generally goes on behind the normal visualisation, you will probably just get a quick glimpse of the product or a fast moving logo. These are kind of like hidden messages behind the scenes. The conscious part of your brain may not recognise them, but they have a direct effect on the subconscious part of the brain.  These messages rely on subliminal perception, the idea that we can perceive and react to subtle imagery and sounds without being consciously aware of them. Such kind of advertisement is termed as Subliminal Advertising. This effect may result in you making non rational decisions.

The effectiveness of subliminal advertising was first proved by a Market Researcher named James Vicary. He claimed to have conducted an experiment during a movie. He stated that he exposed moviegoers to subliminal messages to "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Cola" by quick 0.03 seconds flashes during the movie. He claimed that this experiment actually increased the sales of PopCorn by 57.5% and that of Coke by 18.1%.

Subliminal Advertising is likely to impair the consumer's ability to make an informed purchasing decision or any other decision related to consumer goods and services, and cause the consumer to make a decision that he or she would not otherwise have made.

The segments of audience which get most affected by Subliminal Messages are Children and People with special conditions. Their limited ability makes it harder to refrain from such kind of messages. There was an experiment performed to study the effects of such advertisement on Children. They are divided into two groups. They were shown multiple clips including a clip from a popular children film "Home Alone", the difference was first group was shown the clip where Kevin drinks milk and second group was shown clip where Kevin drinks Pepsi. After this, children were asked what do they want to drink Pepsi or milk. Most of the children from second group chose Pepsi. The most interesting part was that when they were asked about the content of the clip, almost no one remembered Coke.

Laws ?

Since now we can say that not all types of Product Placement strategies are ethically correct, the next question is - are there any laws or rules regarding the same ? Yes and No.

Product Placement are part of the media since God knows when, but it got first recognised by USA as a type of advertisement in 1980s. It was forbidden in EU until recently 2007. 

Where are we ?

As for India, I tried to find out through various sources about the laws regarding subliminal advertisement, even filed an RTI, but no luck. It still seems to be a grey area as per Indian Broadcasting Rules. As per the limited knowledge that we have, Indian Movies and Television shows have to show a statutory warning whenever there is any kind of abusive substances like alcohol,tobacco or smoke are involved in part of the scene. It is a good start in the direction but that is not considering the whole big picture of subliminal advertising. We haven't even acknowledged that there is a problem.

In second shot you can clearly see a “Bisleri” Branding in the background, it was a quick flash to be considered as advertising by your conscious mind. 

Conclusion:

Product placement does seem like a win-win for all, but only until the consumer knows that they are being advertised. Most of the people are not bothered by product placement as they know product are being presented naturally and in the context of the movie. It is the children and special ability people that needs to be taken care of in such cases. While there is a very thin line between ethical and unethical product placement, in the end it is upto the company to decide which consumer segment they are targeting and how.

Not sure whether you noticed it or not, but there was a subliminal message in this blog also. By the time you finish reading this blog, your subconscious mind must have made an opinion that "Pepsi is for kids, and youth drinks Coke."