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A surrupticious marketing tool whereby products are placed in films and TV shows where the audience thinks the product 'just happens to be there', in fact the production is paid handsomely for the placement of the product in the public eye. A deceptive cultural marketing tool.
Some of the world's richest companies are paying thousands of pounds a year to have their products 'placed' on television programmes, including [top-rating soap operas such as] East Enders and Coronation Street.
They are able to do it because of a loophole in the broadcasting regulations which allows programme makers to accept valuable props for nothing. Instead of paying to hire normal props, they take the branded products for free.
The deals are organised by so-called product placement agents- middle men who are hired by companies which want their goods to achieve greater exposure on television.
A Sunday Times investigation suggests that the 'branded props for nothing' loophole is blurring what is supposed to be a clear distinction between television programming and advertising.
In addition to soap operas and game shows where prizes are handed out, popular magazine and comedy programmes, including Absolutely Fabulous, have also been targeted.
The business, worth an estimated £20m a year, is allowed under broadcasting rules so long as programme makers are not influenced by their acceptance of the free props whose value can run into tens of thousands of pounds.
Paradoxically however, almost all prop houses (as they are [euphemistically] known on the television side of the industry) or product placement companies - none of whom is subject to broadcasting regulations - offer their clients a guarantee that their products will not be shown in a negative light. Many say they see the scripts of programmes before agreeing to hand over valuable props entrusted to them by their clients.
Sunday Times reporters posing as businessmen approached several product-placement agents or prop houses last week. They were told that their bogus products - a wide range of household goods - could be placed on a variety of primetime BBC and ITV programmes without difficulty.
"We work on all the soaps, we supply products to all of them, " said John Parker, an executive with New Media Group, a product placement company with clients including Cadbury, Heinz and Whitbread.
"We would not guarantee that we could get specific products into all those programmes but we would certainly have a relationship with all of them."
The average cost of a small consumer product such as a can of beer appearing briefly in a prime time television programme such as Coronation Street stands at about £1,000. Fixed annual fees start at about £15,000 depending on the range and type of products being placed.
Claire Davidson, a director of Rogers & Cowan, an agent with international clients, said her firm operated a "points system" under which clients were charged on a sliding scale ranging from one to five. A product which appeared only briefly in the programme would be given a one-point rating. If it was handled positively by a "known star" then it would achieve five points.
The investigation revealed that programmes targeted by product placement firms include:
"Television and film props are normally rented out to production companies at 10% of their capital value," said one industry source last week. "What the agents say is, 'You can have this for nothing but the brand name must be seen and this - a packet of crisps, for example - must be seen sitting next to it."
In many cases, agents will seek and be given guarantees that their clients' products will not appear in a 'negative light'. Yvonne Hulton, a director of Autoprop Services, said: "It is pretty standard practice for car suppliers to be shown the scripts in advance, because they do not want their products shown in a bad light. For example, even if the character in the show has got plenty of money, if they are from the wrong background the car company might not be happy."
Both the BBC and the Independent Television Commission have strict rules forbidding broadcasters taking inducements from companies to feature products or giving them editorial influence.
Michael Fabricant, Tory MP and member of the Commons Select Committee on culture said he wanted an investigation into the trade to clarify that rules were not being blurred by practices such as the pre-screening of scripts. "Product placement does not belong on British television. The ITC should commence an investigation and I will be calling on the BBC board of governors to do the same," he said.
All the prop companies approached last week said they acted within the television industry's guidelines, although several pointed out that it was the programme makers who are regulated, not the agents.
A spokeswoman for Whitbread said product placement was used to a limited extent, although in the case of Men Behaving Badly, when actor Martin Clunes sips from a can of Whitbread product Stella Artois, the product was 'placed' by the producers rather than Whitbread.
Both the BBC and ITC said they were vigilant about abuse of the existing rules.