The Hidden History of Product Placement

Product placements now saturate motion pictures and television, but the practice began long before E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial followed a trail of Reese's Pieces out of the woods. Using internal documents from motion picture studios, advertising agencies, television networks, and public relations firms, this study traces the development of product placement from its beginnings in the Lumiere films of the 1890s through the 1982 success of E.T. and Reese's Pieces. The developmental differences between product placement in motion pictures and television, and the repercussions of those differences on current practice, are discussed.