The Role of Consumer Narrative Enjoyment and Persuasion Awareness in Product Placement Advertising

Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that consumers respond to commercial messages based on the advertising techniques through which they are delivered. One growing technique is product placement advertising, generally defined as the inclusion of products and brands in media designed with a similar form and appearance to nonadvertising content. Importantly, consumer opinions of product placement as an advertising technique have gone relatively unexamined. A model is therefore proposed to outline factors that influence consumers’ attitudes toward product placement advertising. Results across two studies indicate (a) product placements play a role in consumers’ narrative enjoyment, which positively influences attitudes toward product placement advertising, (b) consumers’ awareness of the persuasive intent of product placement negatively influences attitudes toward product placements, and (c) perceptions of product placements along these narrative enjoyment and persuasion awareness dimensions affect brand evaluations of placed products. Managerial implications, theoretical contributions, and directions for future research are discussed.