A Look at Product Placement Advertisements

In our modern society, people are bombarded with hundreds of advertisements. Although obvious electronic display advertisements can easily be avoided, other means of advertising that subconsciously affect people are not so easy to detect. Product Placement Advertisement (PPL) refers to advertisements that appear subtly in television programs, movies, or other forms of media.

Korea has relatively lenient regulations regarding PPL. As a result, the PPL market is one of the fastest growing industries in Korea. Since the government passed the law that allows indirect advertisements to be shown on TV programs in 2010, almost all Korean TV programs use an excessive amount of artificial PPL that often greatly disturbs the audience.

Of course, using PPL advertisements in moderation can benefit both the advertising companies as well as TV programs. TV programs (especially high quality movies or dramas) require large funding from external sources. Without sponsorship, the quality of the programs also drops naturally. With PPL advertisements, TV programs can earn money through sponsorship and companies can expect an increase in their sales and improve their brand image. However, the problem arises when it becomes too excessive.

One of the biggest problems that arise is that these artificially fitted advertisements often times ignore the TV program’s innate characters. For example, there have been many criticisms regarding abrupt PPL advertisements that affect the overall flow of the TV programs. In fact, many big companies can manipulate the storyline of movies or TV dramas so that they can advertise their products within these programs. If TV shows center around the PPL advertisements and change their storylines accordingly, this will defeat the original purpose of TV programs. Instead, these programs will just turn into another form of advertisement.

Another problem related to PPL advertisements is that it subconsciously encroaches into people’s minds. Many viewers, whose original purpose was to enjoy the TV shows, are affected by advertisements without even realizing it. This could be infringing people’s rights, since these advertisements are forced into the audience without forewarnings. This could be against ethics, as it violates the people’s right to watch TV shows without getting brainwashed by hidden advertisements.

PPL advertisements are unavoidable parts of our lives. However, there should be certain regulations that could better control the excessive use of PPL. In order to achieve this, the broadcasting stations, advertisement firms, and the government should work together to find a rational way of controlling PPL.