Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 357, Issue 9249, 6 January 2001, Pages 29-32
The Lancet

Articles
Brand appearances in contemporary cinema films and contribution to global marketing of cigarettes

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(00)03568-6Get rights and content

Summary

Background

The appearance of a cigarette brand in a cinema film gives the brand a certain distinction through its association with the characters and general tone of the film. Through the worldwide distribution of films, brands are promoted globally. We assessed the tobacco-brand appearances in a 10-year sample of contemporary films.

Methods

We viewed the contents of the top 25 US box-office films for each year of release, from 1988 to 1997 (250 films in total). We compared the prevalence of brand appearances for films produced before a voluntary ban on paid product placement by the tobacco industry (1988–90) with films produced after the ban (1991–97). Tobacco-brand appearance was defined as the screen appearance of a brand name, logo, or identifiable trademark on products or product packaging, billboards, store-front advertising, or tobacco promotional items. We defined actor endorsement of a brand as the display of a brand while being handled or used by an actor.

Findings

More than 85% of the films contained tobacco use. Tobacco brands appeared in 70 (28%) films. Brand appearances were as common in films suitable for adolescent audiences as they were in films for adult audiences (32 vs 35%), and were also present in 20% of those rated for children. Prevalence of brand appearance did not change overall in relation to the ban. However, there was a striking increase in the type of brand appearance depicted, with actor endorsement increasing from 1% of films before the ban to 11% after. Four US cigarette brands accounted for 80% of brand appearances. Revenues outside the USA accounted for 49% of total revenues for these films, indicating a large international audience.

Interpretation

Tobacco-brand appearances are common in films and are becoming increasingly endorsed by actors. The most highly advertised US cigarette brands account for most brand appearances, which suggests an advertising motive to this practice.

Introduction

The visual presentation of brands in cinema films is generally thought of as a form of advertising,1, 2 which is pursued by companies because it influences people to purchase or use a product. Brand placement in films has become a preferred method for companies to raise brand awareness and develop favourable associations with their products for an international audience. Case reports suggest that this practice can be effective in promoting sales.3, 4 Increasingly, brand placement in films is part of an integrated international marketing plan for corporate products, such as the deal between beer, spirits, car, and mobile-phone manufacturers, plus a credit-card company in the film Tomorrow Never Dies. In total, these companies spent almost US$98 million worldwide in advertisements associated with the release of this movie, which also featured their products.

Although there have been several studies of tobacco use in films,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 we identified only one mention of tobacco-brand appearances in films. Stockwell and Glantz10 assessed a random sample of five of the top 20 box-office hits for each year from 1985 to 1995, and noted that brand appearances declined after 1990, although these findings were not supported by any data. Moreover, if brand appearances are fairly uncommon, trend analysis by sampling only five movies per year would be difficult.

We investigated the frequency of tobacco-brand appearances in the top 25 US box-office hits per year for 10 years (1988–97). We aimed to assess trends in relation to a tobacco-industry ban on payments for brand placement in films, and to estimate the size of the international audience for films with cigarette-brand appearances.

Section snippets

Film sample

We selected the top 25 box-office hits in the USA for every year from 1988 to 1997 (250 in total) obtained from the website www.worldwideboxoffice.com on March 1, 1998 (accessed on Dec 14, 2000). We analysed the content to assess the association between exposure to tobacco use in films and smoking behaviour in a sample of US adolescents.

In addition to describing brand appearances, we assessed whether the frequency and type of brand appearance had changed since the tobacco industry incorporated

Results

Only a few films in this sample were rated for general audiences, the rest had parental guidance warnings (US PG, PG—13 film code) or were restricted to audiences aged 17 years or older (US R film code). The films represented several genres, mainly comedies, dramas, and action adventure. Most of the films were set in the contemporary period (from 1990 to present, table).

217 (87%) films contained at least one occurrence of tobacco use; 70 (28%) contained at least one brand appearance and 33 of

Discussion

Cigarette-brand appearances are common in popular films. The brands that appear most frequently are also the most highly advertised in the USA, which suggests a concordance between the advertising goals of the tobacco industry and the actions of the film industry. Whether or not a financial exchange takes place between the industries, the result is the same: US cigarettes are being marketed to a global audience through cinema films.

Tobacco companies publicly ended direct financial payments for

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