After reading this article, you’ll become more aware of product placement in films and TV shows. You’ll also learn how to use product placement to help fund your next film.

Examples of Product Placement in Movies

Product placement is an excellent resource to fund your movie and offset the negative costs of the production. Some say product placement can cover or replace 50-60% of a film’s budget. It’s a big business and a smart way to cover certain production costs. Yet, there are logistics to deal with and corporations and representatives that need to convince you that your film is worthy of its product placement.

Product placement involves props, vehicles, set dressing, and wardrobe donated or loaned to production for on-air use. For example, it could be as simple as a shot of a familiar airline logo. Even when an airline jet takes off, or a billboard or banner promotes a brand-name product, the effect can be pretty noticeable. You might have spotted a box of Cheerios at a breakfast scene—When Harry Met Sally, where Sally microwaves Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Stranger Things nabbed $27 million in product placements, from KFC to Cola to Eggo Waffles to Gap.

Product Placement in Film: A Huge Business

The process seems easy for a brand to pay for, loan to, or even donate to a film production. That is not the case. It is a huge business. What the manufacturers decide to pay, loan, or donate for valuable exposure is determined when they or their representatives evaluate the script, cast, and director of the project. It takes just as much, if not more, work as procuring funding for a film. Still, it gets done and is worth the effort and time. A filmmaker can cover transportation or meal costs by agreeing to product placement.

Paul Newman and Tom Cruise

Anyone can think of the last film they saw and notice the product placement in that movie. The late Paul Newman was known for drinking Budweiser beer in his films. Budweiser also supported his car racing. The Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One film was all too obvious, with the chase involving a tiny yellow Fiat car in Rome. But who didn’t want a cute Fiat after that scene? The James Bond franchise has fancy cars, designer clothes, and Heineken sipping. The list of product placements is long, dating back to 1910.

Product Integration in Film

Product integration is another term used around the industry for product placement. The term denotes products and services incorporated into the film and used, consumed, worn or mentioned by the main characters. The Barbie movie is an obvious example of product integration. The film’s focus is the Barbie doll, which is mentioned in press junket interviews and on social media.

Major studios and production companies have product placement departments. Producers can hire companies or promotional agencies to help manufacturers place their products in films. Filmmakers seeking funding or donations should find companies and agencies, do research and be prepared to negotiate.

Once a product placement is assigned to a film project, a wise filmmaker assigns an individual to coordinate and supervise the entire process, ensuring the brand is correctly represented in the film.

Brands or Companies Get Exposure

It is impressive what these product placement agencies can do. They include online services that partner with products and productions. They even specialize in helping new brands or companies get their first exposure secured in films. As a filmmaker, it is your job to use your imagination and ingenuity to choose the types of brands or products you can place in your movie. That requires a scene breakdown of where each scene takes place and which brands or products appear in it. For example, the kitchen scene means food, cooking ware, food products, etc.

For the most part, independent films with producers, property masters, transportation coordinators, department heads, and costume supervisors usually handle their own product placement. That way, they avoid having the overhead of paying a salary or fee to someone else. Still, the filmmaker and producer ensure they maintain their product placement agreements or contracts. The best way to hold and control product placement is to keep the number of people responsible on your crew to a minimum. The filmmaker must consult any agreement or contract for product and service placement with the production executive, producer, and production attorney.

Ethan Coen’s “Drive Away Dolls” is subtly featured in this barroom scene. Source: Kenna McHugh

Product Placement Regulations

Because product placement is so popular and widely used in the film industry, a filmmaker will discover more regulations regarding it than they ever imagined. It’s not just about placing a banner. Because of laws governing the financing of such commodities and the possibility of payola—bribing someone to use their influence or position to promote a specific product or interest—the film industry is more open to product placement than the television industry. The television industry must disclose its product placement at the end of the episode as a “promotional consideration.”

With that, a filmmaker needs to set their standards or policies on how they want to approach product placement for their movie. The filmmaker avoids outlandish bribes or unreasonable requests by having guidelines. The idea is to maintain a realistic storyline without jeopardizing the integrity of the film. Thus, avoid placing or accentuating products that appear to be advertising or sponsorship. Some standard rules of thumb are that production personnel, cast and so forth may not accept gifts from companies that want their products used in the film. Thus, no one associated with the production can endorse or refer that a specific talent will promote a brand or product in a movie.

Sample Letter Requesting Product Placement in a Short Film

The Bottom Line

Again, the filmmaker needs to put on his thinking cap and consider his storyline and overall movie genre. Take a marketing perspective and imagine what products would do well in his film. There are companies out there that want to integrate their products into a variety of entertainment media. They will probably get involved if the movie is a high-profile project with some very talented and up-and-coming movie stars.