The selections here are a very small sampling of what is seen daily on television and in films by children, who, depending on their age, may be unaware of what they are seeing, but who may be absorbing content through their subconscious minds. Such impressions may have a direct affect on them by causing them to want things they cannot have, or have an affect on the way they think about their environment, and on their self-esteem.
TELEVISION
Example 1: KFC
This advertisement, while apparently offering a great bargain for a sandwich, also has a flagrant, hidden message (a2mNT, 2008).
Example 2: McDonalds
This video was also shown on news stations - the ironic placement of a McDonald's advertisement in a daytime cooking show raised many eyebrows. It may require a second viewing to catch the ad (Eli8bit, 2007).
Example 3: Fox News
This clip was shown before the recent Rupert Murdoch News of the World scandal, but is equally newsworthy (fliesintheK, 2008).
Example 4: Shameless Product Placement
This clip from YouTube was an endless stream of product placements clipped from recent television broadcasts. In the last clip, Tina Fey lets the audience know that she knows they know (RuwayneNell, 2011).
FILM
Product placements are widely used in popular films. A recent example are those used in the Twilight sage. According to one blog article, there were 65 product placements spotted in the third episode, Twilight Eclipse, and reported on before the movie was released in 2010. Twilight was one of the top box-office hits of the last three years, with ticket sales totaling $2 billion worldwide. (http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=eclipse.htm)
Example 5: New Moon
This is a selection of clips featuring product placement of a Volvo from the second episode of the series, New Moon. The Volvo was just one of the many product placements in the film. The most recognizable products were Rainier beer, Coca-cola, Red Vines candy, Apple laptops, and Body Glove diving suits (VolvoofLisle, 2010).
Example 6: E.T. and Reeses candy
In 1982, the Hershey Company agreed to let Steven Spielberg use Reeses Pieces candy during the making of the film E.T. . Twenty years later, the companies involved took advantage of the popularity of both the candy and the animatronix extraterrestrial creature to make a pitch with this commercial which celebrated both the candy and the 20th anniversary of the film with the idea of increasing sales of both (TheWMEforever, 2010).
DISNEY/PIXAR
Example 7: Pizza Planet Truck in Pixar films
Pixar had no hesitation about inserting the Pizza Planet truck in every nearly every film they have made. The Pizza Planet truck goes straight to the Pizza Planet restaurants at Disneyland and Disney World (dogman15, 2009).
Example 8: Easter Eggs
Look closely at a Pixar/Disney film and you will find an Easter egg - a hidden link to another Pixar/Disney film (k9774 Productions, 2010; Collins, 2003).
Example 9: Sexy, Naughty, Dirty Disney Girls
Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontas, Esmeralda (from The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Mulan, the Little Mermaid - a cast of innocents made to look alluring, man-hungry, desperate, and devious. Judging from this video file, the scripts for these films appear to be written in such a way as to attempt to transform their audience through subliminal messaging about traditional sex roles, desire, and appearance (SolangeMarie1, 2009; Young, 2005).
Example 10: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
This is a video diatribe by a boy who looks to be about 13 years old against the Disney Company. He created the video after noticing an instance in the Disney children's television show the Suite Life of Zack & Cody that contained a racial slur regarding Latinos which he found very offensive. The long-running Disney show also contains disturbing and discriminatory representations of African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and other minorities.
MORE COMMENTS ON DISNEY RACISM
This video contains more commentary on the racism in Disney films - the use of chihuahuas to represent Latinos, the hyenas that were stamped as African-American in The Lion King,, the Siamese cats of The Lady and the Tramp, and the American Indians as portrayed in Peter Pan (47claytonic, 2011)
DOVE SOAP
Example 13: Dove
These are messages from Dove about how women can survive the onslaught of product placement and promotion of body images put forth by the film, television, and print media. They try to teach women and girls to feel good about themselves, to accept themselves the way they are, and to move forward with your life as you live it. Unfortunately, it is clear they have an ulterior motive, which is to sell their product, which they advertise as "pure," in contrast to the rest of the products advertised that cater to the desire for beauty (Piper, 2007).
Example 14: Dove2
This video demonstrates how far advertisers have come in making young girls believe they are somewhat less that they should be (Dove, 2009).
OTHER SUBLIMINAL MESSAGING PRODUCTS
Example 15: Mindmaster
This is an ad for a subliminal messaging tool for purchase online. There are many such tools that promote the use of subliminal messaging to get a certain job done, to find peace, to learn how to meditate, and so on (Master your destiny, 2010).
