Ego Depletion and Subtle Product Placement During Television Programs Lead to Ethical Concerns Due to the Viewer Being Unaware They are Being Advertised to.

Advances in technology such as digital video recording (DVR) and online streaming create a shift in viewing tendencies from watching television programs live to waiting until a more convenient time. This allows the viewers to skip commercial breaks and watch their favorite shows uninterrupted and thus makes commercials an obsolete form of marketing. Television stations generate majority of their money by selling ad spots during their programs and because of these new technologies companies may cut the commercial budget for better forms of marketing. This means that television stations need to find new methods to generate revenue. Because of this media is trying to implement brand marketing directly into television programs in order to generate positive attitudes towards brands. This is known as Product placement and can be either done blatantly or subtlety. Understanding how media sources influence the public beyond the news they choose to cover is an important topic to understand in order to keep media influence to a minimum.

This shift in the way people view shows is apparent from the data I have obtained through an anonymous survey:

The above chart from the survey shows that 82% of the people polled watch their favorite shows using other technologies other than a live television broadcast. Furthermore, it is seen below that only 36% of the same group reported watching a live broadcasted program more than 2-3 times a month.

Blatant vs. subtle product placement and ego depletion's effect on brand attitudes.

As stated above their are two forms of product placement blatant and subtle. Blatant product placement integrates the product within the plot of the television program and the characters of the show reference it. Subtle product placement merely has the product visible in the scene as a prop. A recent article published in May 2015 by Brian Gillespie sought to analyze how ego depletion affected the viewer's reaction to both subtle and blatant product placement. Ego depletion is theory that an individual has a limited pool of resources when engaging in tasks the require self regulation. In other words this means that when an individual regulates distractions from responsibilities, such as changing their routine to accommodate for work demands or avoiding texting/personal emailing during work, they deplete their ability to continue this self regulation throughout the day. Gillespie says that by the end of the day individuals will be in a depleted state and unable to further self regulate their habits. He goes on further to say that individuals will need a rest period to replenish this pool. This state of ego depletion will directly affect how the individual responds to product placement and will create a negative attitude towards the marketed brand.

Television stations will broadcast new episodes of their most popular programs during "prime-time" hours from 8pm to 11pm. If the viewer is in a depleted state during these hours and getting product placement wrong could negatively effect brand attitudes. Recognizing blatant product placement in a program while in a depleted state does not require intellectual capacity which will make the product easily recognizable. However, due to the Persuasion Knowledge Model, theorized by Friestad and Wright in 1994, Individuals will develop a coping mechanism to persuasive attempts and they will not affect them. This leads to a negative attitude toward the product being advertised. A student at The University of Maryland named Zack gave me his insight on how he feels about Product placement during his favorite prime time show:

Zack is not the only one who feels this way either, a recent article published in May 2015 by Elizabeth Cowley found similar results to what Brian and Zach described. Cowley says that viewers who like the program are more sensitive to interruptions when they are watching their favorite programs and this didn't even take into account an ego depleted state. If a viewer is in a depleted state and highly likes the program, any product blatantly advertised will result in negative brand attitudes. Jordan, another student at The University of Maryland, also reports that blatant product placement resulted in a negative attitude and even recalled the product he associated it with:


Conversely, if a product is subtlety advertised and a viewer in a depleted state might not even recognize the product because of the intellectual capacity it takes. Cowley addresses this and says that even though the viewer may not remember subtle placement, brand attitude increases. This is because the viewer subconsciously remembers the product but persuasive knowledge did not activate and therefore there is no interruption of the viewers program. Since there is no need to recognize the product, no intellectual capacity is actually required. This concurs with Gillespie's findings that subtle product placement increases product brand attitudes without recognition of the product.

Ethical issues associated with product placement

This poses interesting ethical issues when it comes to media influence with the viewers of their programs. Potential media influence could become a serious issue since theoretically media could influence the decisions you make when you buy products. The viewer would also not even know they were being advertised to since they are in a depleted state during these "prime-time" hours and do not posses the intellectual capacity to recognize the product that is influencing them. Lindsey, a current graduate student and resident director at The University of Maryland, says that she realized she subconsciously has bought a product because of a show she watches:


Effects on brand awareness and brand attitude if you know beforehand you are being advertised to.

An interesting solution to the ethical issues associated with product placement is currently being implemented in Europe and also promises beneficial results to both media and the viewer. The European Union currently has regulations on product placement and requires that a disclaimer be posted to alert the viewer that they are being advertised to during a show. This article published by Sophie Boerman also says that by using this disclaimer system, there is an increase in both recognition of and the attitude towards the product being advertised. So this not only alleviates the concern about the viewer being advertised to unknowingly but ultimately benefits the product as well. Boerman also says that by combining both a disclaimer and a logo the highest recognition and best attitude are achieved. When asked if his favorite program incorporated a disclaimer and a logo Brady, a student at The University of Maryland, had this to say:


Conclusion

With the increasing shift towards newer technologies that allow viewers to watch their favorite shows when it is convenient media has started to implement product placement. Blatant product placement proves to be harmful if used during "prime-time" hours since the effects of ego depletion on an individuals self reliance. Subtle product placement proved to be the ideal way to advertise during these hours because the best brand attitudes are obtained. This has inherent ethical issues associated with it especially since it was found that the viewer does not even know they are being subjected to advertising during subtle advertising. Implementing some sort of disclaimer and logo combo diminishes these ethical issues and increase the effectiveness of subtle product placement.

The Political Climate Infographic by GOOD Infographics Is Very Explanatory but Could Still be Better.

The political climate infographic developed by GOOD and Hyperakt is very informative but it could still be easier to use and understand. The data is broken up into three categories titled all americans, democrats, and republicans and the percentages of each that hold a certain topic to be a top priority is displayed on the left hand side in a tiny bar graph. This bargraph has a legend to show what each color means but it is in a separate location and isn't easily identifiable. It also doesn't have the percentages labeled and is hard to compare interests from year to year. The main graph shows topics and americans interest in each for a certain year and is easy to know exactly what you are looking at. This is because there is a caption in the center the states the year, percentage, topic, and category you are looking at. It also lists important events that happened that year to show why interests may have changed. Over all the infographic is very explanatory and easy to use but the bargraph part could be improved.

Interactive Mediums Won't Have a Greater Effect on Users Than That of Passive Mediums.

Based off of the uses and gratifications theory, there should be no difference between the effects of an interactive media source such as video games and that of a passive source such as television. It has long been stated that video games pose a greater threat to youths than previous forms of media like TV because video games are interactive. The uses and gratifications theory is defined in the book Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication, written by John Pavlik. It is defined as using media to meet personal and especially psychological needs. This means that despite the source of the media, people will seek out the form that fulfills their needs.  So if they have a need for violence they will seek out violent media and determine whether the passive source or interactive source meets those specific needs. Both sources may be effective to accomplish the users goal and is solely dependent on the users preference.

The uses and gratifications theory makes assumptions that are key to understand in order to see how it applies to interactive and passive sources, among them are:

• The audience is active and its media use is goal oriented
• The initiative in linking need gratification to a specific medium choice rests with the audience member
• The media compete with other resources for need satisfaction
• People have enough self-awareness of their media use, interests, and motives to be able to provide researchers with an accurate picture of that use.
• Value judgments of media content can only be assessed by the audience.

The first assumption shows the user has a choice in which media they choose and they seek media to accomplish a goal. The second states that the effectiveness of the media is determined by the user but based of the third assumption is in competition with other sources so one source may not always be effective for everyone. The fourth will be beneficial later in this response and states that users are able to define why one media source is effective and they choose that. The last states that the user can only express the value of any one source. Even though video games are interactive TV may still be a better media source to fulfill violent needs of the user based of these assumptions.

There is also an article written by Victor Strasburger which states that there is little research done on comparing the effects of video games to that of TV even though there are multiple studies saying each may cause violent tendencies in their own way. The uses and gratifications theory allows us to hypothesize that each may cause violent tendencies and that each is effective to the particular user who is trying to fulfill a need. Recently video game violence has come into question from school shooters reporting that they were obsessed with violent games but before video games you had movies that prompted violence like Taxi Driver did with John Hinckley. Who is to say that one form of media was more effective at eliciting a violent tendency than another? If John Hinckley had access to video games would his Jodie Foster obsession been any less of a cause for his actions? By the uses and gratifications theory each user would have chosen the form of media that best accomplished their goals and would have lead to similar outcomes despite the form of media.

To further address if video games pose a greater risk of having more harmful effect than TV you have to look at the positive effects of their interactive nature. Based of the fourth assumption, users are able to provide researchers with an accurate picture of their media use and why they use it. This is helpful when analyzing Jeroen Bourgonjon's research titled Players’ perspectives on the positive impact of video games. Players in this study gave their perspective on how video games can create friendships, teach lessons, and provide stress release from the problems of everyday life. This is because games are interactive and require that players work together and make difficult choices. The virtual world also provides a place for many gamers to escape to and relax. Video games, as well as TV, may be chosen as a form of media to accomplish more goals than just violence.

Media is a tool and just like any tool can be used for good or be misused for violence. There is no one form of media that will accomplish everyones goals just like there is no one tool to finish all jobs. It is the users of media that will choose a form of it that best suits their needs. For some it may be video games but it could just as easily be a fan trying to recreate a scene in a show or movie. All forms of media are in constant competition with each other and by the uses and gratification theory any form may fulfill the needs of the user but which one does is up to them.

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