Advertiser's Anonymous: Product placement in music videos

Hi All,

Originally this post was going to be a general overview on product placement and music videos however, I have decided to narrow it down to one product that has been heavily featured in countless popular music videos, that product is Beats by Dre.

Whenever I tune into a music channel and watch a top 40 countdown, the majority of the music videos featured contain some kind of product placement, and Beats by Dre is one of the only products that is consistently advertised in these videos. The main products featured are the Beats by Dre headphone and the Beats Pill which is a wireless speaker.

au.beatsbydre.com

Artists who have featured Beats by Dre include: Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Robin Thicke, Jessie J, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Lily Allen and many more. Several of these artists are repeat offenders, placing Beats by Dre in their videos more than once.

Many people have argued that we are being brainwashed into buying this product. Beats by Dre seems to be the ‘King’ of all headphones and by owning one of their products your are on a par with the artists who feature them in their videos.

In many of these videos the product seems to fit in and does not look too obvious, like in Justin Bieber’s music video ‘Somebody to Love’. However, there are some videos where the product just appears out of nowhere and is completely out of context like in Nicki Minaj’s video for her song ‘Pills N Potions’.

Personally, I do not think much of this sort of advertising. I think we are exposed to it so much that we become desensitized to it. When I see Beats by Dre products advertised in music videos it flies under my radar and I do not think twice about it.