Consumers' Perceptions of the Ethics and Acceptability of Product Placements in Movies: Product Category and Individual Differences

Product placement in movies is an important emerging area of marketing and advertising communications, but it also raises controversial ethical issues. In order to investigate these issues from a consumer point of view, this paper reports on an empirical study of 1012 college students and their perceptions of the acceptability of such placements. The results indicate that while there are generally favorable attitudes toward product placement, ethically-charged products, such as alcohol, cigarettes, and guns, are perceived as less acceptable than others. Individual differences among the students, based on their related attitudes, movie watching frequency, and gender, also have an impact on product placement acceptability. Managerial and research implications reflecting these results are drawn.