22-11-2017
Product placements – why context is key
Author: Louise Watson
This year I’ve again been sticking to my yearly tradition of watching The X Factor in the run-up to Christmas. If you’ve been following it too, chances are you will have noticed the glaringly obvious product placements. If however you haven’t been staying in every Saturday and Sunday night to watch it, let me explain – the lines the contestants deliver about a whole variety of brands, from airlines to mobile phone networks and even printers, are so blatant and frequent that they lack any subtlety whatsoever! Every time a brand is namedropped on the programme, I cringe at how unnatural and uncomfortable the contestants look using the product name in their everyday conversations.