Blog #6

While it would seem like product placement in television and movies would be the sneakiest and therefore the most effective, I haven't found this to be especially true. I think that when the product placement is subtle enough, I believe the technique can be extremely effective. However, when using a specific brand name in the product placement, it can be apparent to the viewer. I recently just watched the movie Eagle Eye. They constantly said verbatim "Porsche Cayene," which was the kind of car that the main characters were riding in. Rather than saying something more generic such as, "black SUV" they used the specific brand name. This leads me to think that Porsche had some major benefit from the movie. It just makes me feel insulted as a consumer when the supposedly subtle techniques are unmasked. I feel like the media is trying to baby the viewer into realizing the movie is an ad. The video from Thirty Rock exagerates the idea, but it's not really that much of a stretch. It's pretty similar to a lot of product placement, which can be quite blatant.
In conclusion, I think that while product placement can be effective, I would also say that it's difficult to be tactful and disguise their attempts to influence the consumer.