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During the past few years, most of the highest-earning films have highlighted food and drink product placements – with junk food and fast food restaurants getting most of the spotlight, a recently conducted study reveals.
The point of concern, according to the researchers, is that brand placements were featured in most of the movies rated PG and PG-13, which are usually intended for children and teens, and in one-third of G-rated films.
The big question is that whether those ad placements of products have an influence on the preferences of youngsters. And that will be a subject worth looking into in the coming years, said the new study’s lead researcher Dr. Lisa A. Sutherland, of Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
In an interview with Reuters, Sutherland said that parents need to be aware of the fact that films can serve as a supplier of some sort of junk food advertising.
She said that product placement may not even enter our minds as a form of advertising. Yet for a long time, advertisers have been paying for the use of their products in TV programs as well as in the movies. Sutherland and her team point out. The researchers note that the influence of food product placement became obvious when Reese’s Pieces posted an increase of 65 percent in sales in the few months after the release of the blockbuster film "E.T." in the 1980s.
However, Sutherland said that their study, published in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to examine the prevalence of placements of food and drink products in popular movies.
For the new study, the researchers looked at the top 20 box-office films for each year between 1996 and 2005. Sutherland and her colleagues found that of the 200 movies examined, 69 percent featured at least one brand placement for a food or beverage product or a food retailer.
That included one-third of films rated G, 58 percent of PG-rated films, as well as 72 percent of PG-13 movies. And in terms of product type, majority of those given a lot of spotlight included products such as candies and other sweets, chips and pretzels and other salty snacks, and soft drinks.
Fifty-nine percent of the featured food brands included candy, sweets, and snacks loaded with salt, while sugar-sweetened soft drinks accounted for 75 percent of beverages. And when restaurants or food outlets were given the spotlight, 62 percent of the time, it was a fast-food establishment.
Sutherland indicated that the genre of the film carries some weight. Comedy films and action/adventure movies tended to spotlight any brand placement, with 30 percent of films in each genre, and comedy films in general showed the highest number of placements per film. By comparison, 4 percent of animated films made for family entertainment showed a placement for a food product.
According to Sutherland, she and her team are currently investigating whether there have been any changes in movies released since the year 2005. The researchers indicate that in 2006, the Better Bureau launched a program known as the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.
The voluntary program includes a pledge made by 15 firms not to pay for or purposefully ask for "food and beverage product placement in editorial or entertainment content that is primarily directed to children under 12."
"Will we see there has been a decline in product placements, or will we see that movie studios are still including placements without (being paid)?" that is the question, said Sutherland.
She said that for parents, the message is that advertising of junk food is not limited to the TV alone – the medium that often gets the blame for the advocacy of nutritionally questionable foods to kids.
Sutherland noted that if you have a concern about these ads, you need to know that "popping in a bunch of movies may not be any better than letting your kids watch TV."
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