Commercials and Product Placement: Why They’re Good For Us As Artists

Commercials are everywhere. They’re on our televisions and social media, in our movies, and play before our YouTube videos. It’s true that their omnipresence can frustrate me from time to time. Ads can be exhausting and occasionally make me feel like I’m being bombarded by capitalism. However, there remains a wealth of reasons why commercials are a great thing for us both as consumers and artists.

1. They Provide Jobs

Being an artist and/or filmmaker is classically one of the toughest fields as far as job security goes. I might not enjoy every car or fast food commercial I see on cable but I appreciate how they provide work for thousands of people. It’s tough to get experience as a director, cinematographer, editor, sound engineer, etc. Thankfully, there’s not likely to be a shortage of commercial work anytime soon. Each commercial made, whether it be video or audio, offers more opportunity for all of us to secure work in these positions. While these can still be difficult positions to get, this is a valuable professional resource for burgeoning artists as we work toward whatever it is we truly wish to be doing, such as working on films or shows. And, if your ultimate goal actually is to work on commercials, even better.

2. Commercials and Product Placement Provide Budgets

Product placement in movies and TV shows has seen a dramatic increase in the past decade. Companies have learned that they prove more effective than traditional TV ad spots. These placements give products more context for the viewer. They force the viewer to emotionally connect the product with whatever show or movie they’re watching. Unfortunately, this form of advertising doesn’t exactly provide jobs like standard TV/radio/YouTube/etc commercials. However, they provide another very valuable service to the creative process. They furnish additional budget to the creators of the films and shows that feature them. Movies and shows are expensive to make (obviously) and making placement deals with companies is a brilliant way to provide artists with the high budgets they require to produce quality content for us to enjoy.

3. Product Placements Can Be Creative and Funny

Personally, some of these placements can come across as silly, over-the-top, or on-the-nose. Many of them feel forced or contrived and can jeopardize the artistic integrity of a movie or show. However, I think they offer artists an interesting challenge to incorporate products in a realistic and creative way. I like when I see ones that make sense and add to the realism within the world of a film, like Mountain Dew in The Social Network above. These placements work well because they’re nearly transparent and offer a very subtle form of advertising which I respect. I also enjoy when placements are done with a comedic spin. It’s great when they poke fun at the very fact there’s a product placement. The movie Wayne’s Word is the most famous instance of this but the trend continues today like with this Ford placement in New Girl. 

In this scene Schmidt gets in the car and says, “I love the new Ford Fusion.” When I see these kind I almost feel as though I can hear the filmmakers saying, “yeah, we needed the sponsorship money. So what?” and the transparency is oddly refreshing. Product placement has definitely been around for a long time and like I said, it’s only getting more and more common. I found a great list of famous instances of product placement here that I recommend browsing.

4. They Save Us Money As Consumers

Commercials also save us as consumers from having to pay far more for services we use everyday. If it weren’t for advertising, we’d be much more likely to have to pay for services such as Facebook, Instagram, and even Google. I think the best example here is YouTube though. YouTube is a brilliantly vast free resource that has become one of my absolute favorite sources of not only entertainment, but also education. I watch YouTube videos about everything and especially love ones that teach me more about the crafts of writing and filmmaking. I don’t mind watching a 30-second commercial before a video that allows YouTube to remain a free service. That’s better than not having commercials and in turn having to pay a subscription fee to keep up with my favorite vloggers.

This is not to mention that those ads help finance some of the best YouTubers. They make it so content creators can afford to create their videos without always having to work a second job. YouTube is a fantastic platform for people to create quality content they’re passionate about and then share it with people who want to see it. When I’m working on a new project, certain YouTube channels are one of my primary go-to’s for research and/or inspiration. This has become valuable to my creative process so I remain very grateful that commercial advertising allows them to remain a free service for me.

I don’t enjoy all commercials, but I definitely enjoy the fact that they exist and appreciate the functions they serve. I like that they provide jobs for artists and provide budget for artists to create their work. And, I’m grateful that they allow services to remain free for those of us who use them to help create our work. That’s a pretty good package of benefits for something that is ultimately trying to take our money.

Michael