This article is an attempt, using specific examples, to convey to the reader an understanding of how significant the impact of the media on an individual and on society as a whole is, and to demonstrate that methods of hidden influence are actively used today. The fact is that many people still do not realize even banal hidden advertising, not to mention more subtle manipulations, considering them fictions or exaggeration. Meanwhile, the entire modern system of mass media and cinematography is more a propaganda tool than a tool for informing or entertaining citizens.
To begin with, what is hidden advertising, it is also product placement. This is a phenomenon when an advertisement for a product is added to a work of art (more often in films) in such a way that it is woven into the plot, which gives the viewer an impression of the naturalness of the broadcast message. This leads to the fact that the viewer's attention does not fix the fact of advertising, which increases its effectiveness, because it passes by bypassing the filters of critical perception. Due to the fact that attention and consciousness are distracted by the plot, information about the advertised object falls directly into the unconscious levels of the psyche, as a result, it turns out not just an extra reminder to the viewer about the product, but in his worldview exactly such an image of the product is created that the advertiser needs.
Proof of hidden advertising
First, it's worth noting that neither advertisers nor filmmakers who use this technology like to talk about it. The explanation is simple: any corporation strives to maintain the appearance that their product itself is so good and popular that it naturally flashes in the cinema, and not because it is artificially "pushed through". Recognition in hidden advertising will not give the product any advantages, it will only harm the image, therefore, these facts are not advertised. Filmmakers or book authors are also reluctant to talk about such "bookmarks" in their works, because the consumer will be unpleasant to realize that he is being manipulated and imposed on him desires.
Secondly, it is enough that the term "hidden advertising" exists, enter it into a search engine and read at least an article on Wikipedia. It explains how it works, there are several examples. Moreover, there are books on hidden advertising, which are written by the people involved in it, they show examples of famous brands in films and data on how much it cost. Information about hidden advertising is periodically popping up on various official sites on the Internet.
Thirdly, hidden advertising is prohibited in Russia under the law on advertising, but it is impossible to objectively prove that a specific product in the film was added for the purpose of advertising, and not for artistic intent, which is actively used by filmmakers and advertisers. This is another reason why official figures are difficult to find. In the West, the situation is similar - they do not advertise the fact of hidden advertising so as not to pay taxes on it.
There are even agencies that are engaged in placing hidden advertising in books and films, more precisely, such agencies were, for example, "Fabula". Now the site fabula-adv.ru no longer works, as well as the site ctc-tv.biz, which offered placement of hidden advertising in popular TV series on the CTC channel.
Promotional video:
Screenshots from the site ctc-tv.biz:
An example of a page on which it was possible to order hidden advertising on the STS TV channel in popular TV series.
An example of a form for ordering hidden advertising on the site
Over the past few years, sites on this topic have disappeared, and if using a search engine you want to buy hidden advertising in a movie, then you also will not find anyone to contact. This is despite the fact that the hidden advertising market, according to experts, continues to grow rapidly. Why, then, on the Internet do not appear, like mushrooms after rain, proposals for the placement of hidden advertising in popular films and TV series?
My version is this: advertising in films is very expensive, for example, a series of commercials in a regular TV series costs from $ 100,000, which only large companies can afford. Representatives of such companies already have contacts of the right people - CEOs of channels, producers and film directors, they will not look for connections through Internet searches. In addition, the community of creators of major cinema and TV production is quite close, everyone knows each other there. Therefore, it makes no sense to create a site on the Internet “buy hidden advertising from us”. It was the development of the hidden advertising market that led to the fact that there was no need for such sites and the publicity of the offer, no matter how paradoxical it may sound.
Now directly to the evidence. They can be found, starting with information published on Wikipedia, and ending with books like "Technologies of hidden advertising" or "Product Placement in Russian", which was written by the director of the marketing communications agency Polina Kiseleva. These editions indicate how much was paid for the placement of the product, in which film, how much money it brought in, and so on.
Confessions of media personalities
But for greater persuasiveness, we will also cite several stories in which famous people themselves admit to hidden advertising. The first video shows how Timati was taken by surprise by the question of the presence of alcohol in his videos (Timati himself is a teetotaler and does not poison himself with alcohol). From the surprise, the singer was so taken aback that he decided to tell the truth in order to quickly close this issue.
Just look at how Timati tried to get away from the question: at first he pretended not to hear, then he said the term “product placement”, which does not say anything to an ordinary person, and sent it to Google for definition, instead of telling what it is. Avoided the question "This is not a stylistic moment, are you just selling?" and began to tell that this is normal (why he himself does not use, since it is so “normal”), in order to create the impression that alcohol appears in his videos just like that, and not as an advertisement. Then I tried to translate the topic into a standing bottle.
In the second video, Sergei Dorenko tells how he was approached by the tobacco lobby, offering huge sums of money to influence his audience and promote smoking.
And here a well-known woman in the USA tells how she wanted to publish a children's book promoting a healthy lifestyle, and she was offered to pay in full the cost of printing the entire circulation for placing hidden advertising.
There are not so many such admissions on the Internet (for obvious reasons, they are not on TV at all), because media persons do not like to talk about hidden advertising in their products, and if a little-known person talks about this, then the information does not gain popularity either.
It is clear why the participants in such "deals" do not want to advertise the fact of hidden advertising, but why do those who refused do not talk about it? After all, it will open people's eyes to how they are being manipulated.
It is likely that famous people feel that the disclosure of such information could harm their future careers. If the actor talks about hidden advertising, then the directors will not invite him to the shooting in the future. The director of the TV channel is also unlikely to be happy if someone from the team of its hosts informs the viewer about the latent mental influence in the programs of this channel.
Soft striking power
To understand how significant the influence of the media on society is, one can use specific examples.
Example 1. An illustrative case occurred with the creators of Back to the Future. For a long time the writers could not understand how to portray the "time machine". In the first version of the script, this device was a laser setup in Dr. Brown's laboratory. There was also an option with a refrigerator, but this idea was rejected because of concerns that little kids would start checking their refrigerators for a similar device and inadvertently close the door behind them. It wasn't until the third version of the script that the time machine became a DeLorean car.
Consider what this fact tells us from the filming history of Back to the Future: The impact of films is such that children will repeat what they see. The scriptwriters did not integrate something dangerous into the plot of the film - the then American refrigerators slammed shut, and it was impossible to open them from the inside; if a child wanted to play in a time machine, it could end very sadly. Those who want to tell that what is shown in the films does not affect a person in any way, and all this does not matter, let them argue with the writers of one of the masterpieces of world cinema.
Example 2. Henry Ford was a frequent critic of international Jewry. He once stated that Jews corrupt Christians with the help of "syphilis, gambling, jazz and … Hollywood," which is "designed to destroy true beauty and culture." At this passage, the Hollywood figures of the mentioned nationality threatened Ford that if he continued in the same spirit, only Ford cars would be crashed in Hollywood films, and in each newsreel there would be footage of car accidents occurring with cars of the same brand. Henry Ford was seriously thinking …
A well-known story from which we can conclude that Henry Ford considered the influence of cinema on people to be quite important. If in Hollywood films mostly Ford cars break down, then the viewers will have a corresponding opinion about the quality of these cars. Another interesting detail follows from the same story - there is a force in Hollywood that can influence what will happen in each film. Since most people think that it is impossible to produce collusion of this level, this makes their heads vulnerable to ideas being hooked on. “If this is shown in every film, then it’s true,” the viewer will think and be mistaken.
Example 3. The main character of the film "Rain Man" in one of the episodes said that he would fly only on the planes of the Australian company Qantas, since they never crashed. This is partially true: this carrier had accidents only before 1951 and only on biplanes, and passenger liners were not involved in accidents that would have resulted in the death of passengers. All airlines except Qantas cut this scene from the in-flight version of the film.
They cut out this scene because it is a clear and direct advertisement of a competitor (albeit hidden from the viewer) - thus all airlines have confirmed the significant influence of hidden influence on human choice.
As you can see even in the example of these few cases, large companies always understand the importance of the images that a person receives from the screen. And therefore, these same companies are willing to pay huge sums of money to promote their products. But after all, modern marketing has long gone beyond the typical model of "advertising goods" and moved to a system of artificial demand generation, and even modeling the desired views of the audience. This means that the largest players - transnational corporations - are already using all these means not only to popularize their brands, but also to form the necessary worldview in people - most often this is instilling a thoughtless and consumerist attitude to life. And until a wide audience begins to realize what is being put into their heads through so-called entertainment content,this crowd manipulation scheme will continue to be actively used.
Author: Konstantin Orlov