Product Placements in Movies: An Australian Consumer Perspective on their Ethicality and Acceptability

This paper replicates prior research and investigates the attitudes and perceptions of Australian moviegoers in respect to the acceptability of product placement and audience attitudes towards the placement of ethically-charged products, such as alcohol, guns and cigarettes. The findings indicate that product, gender and movie frequency viewing have an impact on product -placement acceptability. Australian consumers find ethically-charged products to be less acceptable than neutral products. Gender comparisons revealed that males are more accepting of both ethically-charged and neutral placements. Comparisons to the previous American, Austrian and French findings showed a similar pattern of individual influences on product-placement perceptions.