ISU prof’s research on movie product placement gains national audience

Cable T-V viewers across the U-S are seeing a series of movies this month that share one theme — they all feature “product placement,” as analyzed in research done at Iowa State University. Communications Professor Jay Newell says he was honored that Turner Classic Movies, or T-C-M, devoted the air time to the films — and his work. Newell says the concept of product placement dates way back before 1982’s blockbuster “E-T” and those Reese’s Pieces candies. Newell says “Products like pink champagne were in movies in the 1940s because advertisers wanted them there. Diamonds were in movies in the 1930s because advertisers wanted them there.” He says product placement, or the use of brand-name items as props, dates back to the earliest of movies in the late 19th century. The first movies were shown in December of 1895, and by 1896, there were very specific product placements where a manufacturer intentionally wanted to use movies to advertise their products and they’d sneak it into the story. Newell says a popular soft drink maker is masterful at the technique, though initially, it was a cross-promotional barter arrangement, not one for cash. Coca-Cola would deliver cases of Coke to movie sets in the 1930s and if that Coke bottle showed up in the film, the company would help to promote the movie through posters, ads and distributors. One of the movies being shown this month on T-C-M is “Superman Two,” which Newell says contained several blatant product placements by a certain tobacco giant. He notes you see Superman fighting the bad guys in the streets of Metropolis and rising from being pounded under the pavement -through- a Marlboro cigarette truck. Oddly enough, Newell says Marlboro didn’t even have such trucks — it had to be made just for the movie. Other movies that are part of this month’s series include: “Scarface,” “Urban Cowboy,” “A Night at the Ritz,” “Father of the Bride,” “The Seven Year Itch,” “Three Guys Named Mike” and “Arsenic and Old Lace.”