Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

According to some people advertising is dying. In reality it’s not, especially if you can play the McDonalds theme song ‘I’m lovin’ it’ and every child in the room starts talking about MacDonalds. Its effectiveness might be beginning to wane and people should look at the overall communications mix rather than focusing on the good old reliables. What about one of the new pretenders which is apparently going to revive advertising - product placement?

Done tastefully I think it serves it’s purposes. If the presenters of the morning TV show are working off branded laptops, then I will probably pick up on it subconciously. However if the product is focused on I will automatically register this and become suspicious.

Here’s a great example of this. I’m big into the UFC, I can’t get enough of it. Lately I’ve been watching the spin-off, the Ultimate Fighter, a reality TV show where entrants compete to earn a UFC contract and pick up a few bruises and broken bones in the process. While I think it’s a great show, I can’t help but pick up on the blatant product placement that goes on. The TV crew regularly cuts to the competitors as they drink supplements or use Right Guard Extreme.

While it puts the product on my consideration list, I have also blacklisted the product because it employs the age old tradition of in-your-face advertising. It’s bad enough that I have to sit through ad breaks during the show, so the last thing I want is to see advertising during it also!

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