Product Placement and Music

PRODUCT PLACEMENT and MUSIC!!!!

People everywhere are listening to music on their radios, cell phones, portable music devices, the Internet, T.V. and even at sports games.

One of the earliest product placements was in an American baseball tune we seem to hear at every ball game.

This tune "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" written by in 1908 by Jack Norworth and later scored by Albert Von Tilzer, the chorus goes like this:

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.

(source: http://money.howstuffworks.com/product-placement8.htm)

Product placement in music would continue to grow from here.

Ashkan Karbasfrooshan in his article The Growth of Product Placement in Music Videos said that "The Lady Gaga video for "Telephone," for example, has been viewed 108 million times on YouTube. It included product placements from Miracle Whip and Virgin Mobile."

(Source:http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/149688/)

It also included cans of Diet coke that were used as hair rollers.

This means that 108 million people and counting have seen these products.

Lady Gaga being a prominent singing icon and having many fans can positvely affect the brands displayed in her music video. They might want to drink Diet Coke because she had it in her video. Some other interesting facts about the video and her intentions with product placement.
Some placements were paid, but a surprising number weren’t—a rundown:

·         Wonder Bread: Unpaid. Used in a sequence showing Gaga poisoning diner customers, because Gaga wanted to contrast the poisoning with an all-American brand.

·         Miracle Whip: Paid. Used in the same scene—and for the same reason—as Wonder Bread; seems to be part of the spread’s new, edgier campaign.

·         Diet Coke: Unpaid. It was Gaga’s idea to curl her hair with Diet Coke cans in the video as an homage to her mother.

·         Virgin Mobile: The cell phone in the video is a nod to the company, a mobile sponsor of Gaga’s Monster Ball tour.

·         Polaroid: Camera and photo booth featured acknowledge Gaga’s role as Polaroid’s creative director.

·         Heartbeats headphones and Beats laptop: Unpaid. An extension of her partnerships with Interscope Music and Hewlett Packard.

·         PlentyofFish.com: Unclear. Possibly the weirdest deal of the bunch; result of the dating site's partnership with Interscope.

(Source: http://www.newser.com/story/83253/lady-gaga-video-has-lots-of-product-placement.html)

There are many popular songs new and old that contain Product Placements
ELVIS promoted BLUE SUEDE SHOES indirectly in general with a brand not necessarily in mind.

KODAK CAMERA featured throughout the song "Give Me Everything"

In the beginning, Pitbull talks about Kodak, at 2:19 of the song, someone takes a picture of him and at the very end, 

there is a huge Kodak billboard with him sporting the camera in his hand.

According to TMZ, Brittany Spears made half a million dollars from the product placement in her video "Hold It Against Me." Among the products features in the clip are various Sony televisions and monitors, Make Up Forever Eye Shadow, Spears' own Radiance perfume and the dating site Plenty of Fish.

(Source:  http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/britney-spears-made-500-000-from-product-placement-in-hold-it-against-me-video-20110222#ixzz1uPUE9vdV)

WHY do the product placements exists in these music videos?

  According to a report released last week by PQ Media, a research firm, the money spent on product placement in recorded music grew 8 percent in 2009 compared with the year before, while overall paid product placement declined 2.8 percent, to $3.6 billion.

The money is often used to offset the video’s cost, which is usually shared by the artist and label.

Patrick Quinn, chief executive of PQ Media, said that revenue from product placement in music videos totaled $15 million to $20 million last year, more than double the amount in 2000, and he expected that to grow again this year.

(Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/business/media/06adco.html?_r=2)

As you can see and hear, Product placements in music videos are also becoming popular. It has become a win-win for music videos. The video gets funded with more spending money and the product gets to be seen.