In-Film Product Placement an Emergent Advertising Technique: Comparative Analysis between ...

117 Pages·2015·0.74 MB·English

by  Angela Mccutcheon

In-Film Product Placement an Emergent Advertising Technique: Comparative Analysis
between Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films 2010-2013

A thesis presented to
the faculty of
the Center for International Studies of Ohio University

In partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Master of Arts

Kareem R. El Damanhoury
May 2015
© 2015 Kareem R. El Damanhoury. All Rights Reserved.
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This thesis titled
In-Film Product Placement an Emergent Advertising Technique: Comparative Analysis
between Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films 2010-2013

by
KAREEM R. EL DAMANHOURY

has been approved for
the Center for International Studies by

Gregory Newton
Associate Professor of Media Arts and Studies

Lawrence Wood
Director, Communication and Development Studies

Lorna Jean Edmonds
Vice Provost for Global Affairs
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ABSTRACT
EL DAMANHOURY, KAREEM R., M.A., May 2015, Communication and
Development Studies
In-Film Product Placement an Emergent Advertising Technique: Comparative Analysis
between Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films 2010-2013
Director of Thesis: Gregory Newton
Products have been placed in films since the appearance of Sunlight soap in a
1896 film. However, in-film placement has started to gain much traction in recent
decades due to technological advances, such as the internet, Digital Video Recorders, and
over-the-top providers that have been lessening the impact of traditional marketing.
Product placement expenses in the American media have risen from $190 million in 1974
to around $3.5 billion in 2004 (Lehu, 2007). The practice is also existent in major
regional film centers such as Bollywood, Korea, and Egypt.
This study examined the in-film placement trends in Hollywood and Egypt
through a quantitative content analysis of the top earning films between 2010 and 2013.
Results show that the average number of placements was 35.30 and 27.65 per Hollywood
and Egyptian films respectively. The practice was aligned in both in terms of modality,
product category, scene setting, and character association.
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DEDICATION

I dedicate my work to my guardian angel, Zeinab El Sayed. I would have never been able
to make it without you, Mom.
كلضف كرشأو بر اي كدمحأ
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I cannot express enough thanks to my committee chair and thesis advisor,
Professor Gregory Newton, for his continued guidance, advice, support and
encouragement. I offer my sincere appreciation for my committee members, Professor
Lawrence Wood and Professor Drew McDaniel, for their constructive feedback and the
learning opportunities they have provided me with.
My completion of this project could not have been accomplished without the
cooperation of my friends and colleagues in Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo
University, Rehab Hany and Eman Soliman. I am forever grateful to my Program
Director and academic advisor, Dr. Lawrence Wood, for the countless times you’ve
received e-mails asking for help and advice throughout my two years at Ohio University.
Finally, to my mother, father, and brother on the other side of the ocean: my deepest
gratitude for your continuous love and encouragement.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3
Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 4
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... 8
Chapter 1: History of Hollywood and Egyptian Cinema .................................................. 10
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 10
The Birth of Cinema ..................................................................................................... 11
American Cinema: Hollywood ..................................................................................... 13
Technology vs. Production ....................................................................................... 13
Evolution of the Business ......................................................................................... 14
Finance and Advertising ........................................................................................... 16
Egyptian Cinema: The Arab Hollywood ...................................................................... 19
Birth of a National Film Industry .............................................................................. 21
Growth of the Industry .............................................................................................. 22
Nationalization Wave ................................................................................................ 23
Privatization and Commercial Films ........................................................................ 25
Chapter 2: Product Placement ........................................................................................... 28
Technology and Advertising ......................................................................................... 28
Definitions of Product Placement ................................................................................. 30
Rise of In-Film Placement ............................................................................................ 32
Financial Aspect ........................................................................................................... 34
Chapter 3: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 36
Cross-Cultural In-Film Placement ................................................................................ 37
Cross-Cultural Analysis ................................................................................................ 38
Film Genre ................................................................................................................ 40
Prevalence of In-Film Placement .............................................................................. 40
Product Categories .................................................................................................... 41
Modality, Plot Integration, and Prominence ............................................................. 42
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Ethics and Regulation ................................................................................................... 43
Ethically-Charged Placements .................................................................................. 44
Realism vs. Deception .............................................................................................. 44
Regulatory Context ................................................................................................... 46
Cross-National Regulations ...................................................................................... 48
Culture Dimensions ...................................................................................................... 50
Individualist vs. Collectivist Cultures ....................................................................... 51
Low vs. High Context Cultures ................................................................................ 51
Cross-Cultural Advertising ....................................................................................... 52
Chapter 4: Methodology ................................................................................................... 57
Sample .......................................................................................................................... 57
Coding Scheme ............................................................................................................. 59
Variables and Categories .............................................................................................. 60
Inter-coder Reliability ................................................................................................... 62
Chapter 5: Results ............................................................................................................. 64
Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................. 82
Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 82
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 87
References ......................................................................................................................... 92
Appendix A: Coding Book ............................................................................................. 107
Appendix B: Coding Sheet ............................................................................................. 114
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1: Placement Prevalence per each Top Hollywood and Egyptian Film between
2010 and 2013 .................................................................................................................67
Table 2: Unique Brands in Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films between 2010 and 2013
.........................................................................................................................................68
Table 3: Plot Integration and Placement Prominence in Top Hollywood and Egyptian
Films between 2010 and 2013 ........................................................................................69
Table 4: Ethically-Charged Products in Top Hollywood Films between 2010 and 2013 ..
.........................................................................................................................................70
Table 5: Categories of Ethically-Charged Products in Top Hollywood Films between
2010 and 2013 .................................................................................................................71
Table 6: Product Categories in Top Hollywood Films between 2010 and 2013 ............71
Table 7: Product Categories in Top Egyptian Films between 2010 and 2013................72
Table 8: Type of Character Role Associated with the Placements in Top Hollywood and
Egyptian Films between 2010 and 2013 .........................................................................73
Table 9: Main Character Placement Association in Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films
between 2010 and 2013 ..................................................................................................73
Table 10: Placement Modality in Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films between 2010 and
2013.................................................................................................................................75
Table 11: Visual Placements in Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films between 2010 and
2013.................................................................................................................................76
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Table 12: Verbal Placements in Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films between 2010 and
2013.................................................................................................................................76
Table 13: Placement Prevalence According to Genres of Top Hollywood and Egyptian
Films between 2010 and 2013 ........................................................................................77
Table 14: Scene Settings in Top Hollywood and Egyptian Films between 2010 and 2013
.........................................................................................................................................78
Table 15: Product Categories within Dominant Scene Settings in Top Hollywood and
Egyptian Films between 2010 and 2013 .........................................................................79
Table 16: Character Involvement in Top Hollywood Films between 2010 and 2013 ....80
Table 17: Character Involvement in Top Egyptian Films between 2010 and 2013 .......81
Table A.1.: Product Category Codes ............................................................................107
Table A.2.: Instructions for the Coding Sheet ..............................................................110
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CHAPTER 1: HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD AND EGYPTIAN CINEMA
Introduction

Although cinema is considered the youngest of many forms of art such as music,
dance, sculpture, and painting, it has become an influential industry in the past century
due to its interplay with culture, economy, and politics. The tools of cinema are capable
of putting the audiences in a different world from their own, yet making films seem real
as they watch fictional characters portrayed on the screen (Basinger, 1994); therefore,
films have always been distinctive in their potential to shift public spaces (Baker, 1995).
Film is considered a powerful medium that expresses and reflects culture and captivates
the audience (Lehu, 2007; Zuhur, 1998), thus it has become an important vehicle for
advertising throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Unlike other
mediums, the actual experience of watching films in the movie theater gives filmmakers
some degree of control over the viewer’s understanding. The cinema dictates that the
audiences watch the scenes of a film in the same order and duration that were intended by
the director unlike a reader flipping pages while reading a book and changing the station
while watching television or listening to radio (Basinger, 1994). Films preserve the
ability to break through the dominant forms of speech and behavior (Baker, 1995), yet
they are often controlled and used by authoritarian regimes as a propaganda tool.
Film has developed into an industry that relies on mass production, distribution,
and the division of labor (Shafik, 2007). Although the terms: films, movies, cinema,
motion pictures and moving images refer to the same phenomenon nowadays, each
entails specific meanings and inventions historically. Meanwhile, cinema cannot be