When is product placement forbidden?

Before 2007, there were no legal guidelines for product placement. Therefore, the European Union established guidelines for audiovisual media services. According to this European Directive [4], product placement is defined as: “Any form of audiovisual commercial communication consisting of the inclusion of, or reference to a product, a service or the trade mark within the framework of a program, in return for payment or for similar compensation”.

 

In countries of the European Union, product placement is allowed, unless it does not meet the conditions of the European Directive, which are [1] : 

1. “The content, and in the case of television broadcasting, their scheduling shall never be affected in a way that the responsibility and editorial independence of the media service provider will be affected”;  
2. “Not directly should be encouraged to purchase or rental of goods and services, in particular by making special promotional references to those products or services”;
3. “The product concerned may not get excessive attention”;  
4. “Viewers must clearly be made aware of the existence of product placement. Program’s that contain product placement must be made aware of the product placement at the beginning and end of the program, and when a program resumes after an advertising break, appropriately marked as such to avoid confusion in the viewer.”.

In case a product placement does not meet one of above conditions, it is called ‘sluikreclame’ (Dutch), which is forbidden because of its negative effects on consumers. According to the European Directive, the definition of ‘sluikreclame’ or forbidden product placement is: mentioning or displaying goods, products, services, names, trademarks or activities of a corporation in media entertainment, when the media service provider therefore seeks advertising and the public may be misled. This occasionally happens when a corporation pays for the product placement.

 

Reference

[1] Backer de, H. (2011). Product Placement op Vlaamse televisie: kenmerken, ontwikkeling en Toepassing (Master thesis, University of Gent, Belgium). Retrieved from http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/790/059/RUG01-001790059_2012_0001_AC.pdf