Developing entertainment media can be quite an expensive process and there is always the risk that the media in question may end up losing money. Therefore, any attempt that can be made to guarantee revenue before the uncertain consumer spending comes into the picture can be incredibly important. I recently talked about the relationship between anime and sponsorships and I thought it might be fascinating to take a look at product placement in anime.
Firstly, I should explain what product placement is in general. When it comes to entertainment mediums such as movies or TV shows, product placement refers to any situation where a company that develops a product pays the creators of the movie/show to display the product in an overt fashion. This could be as simple as having the characters mention the brand in a sentence, having the brand appear in the background or it could show the characters using the product in question.
One of the most famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) examples of product placement within an anime is the fascinating and brilliant Code Geass. When I first started watching the series on my UK DVD/Blu-rays, I noticed that a lot of the characters ate an unusually large amount of pizza, particularly the character of C.C. The boxes these pizzas were delivered in were blank so it wasn’t until much later that I found out that Pizza Hut Japan had payed a large amount of money for their products and mascot to be featured prominently in the series. Western releases of Code Geass had the Pizza Hut logos removed from the show although Cheese-kun, the Pizza Hut Japan mascot, still features prominently.
Other shows owe their entire existence to product placement. A particularly notable example is the OVA series Freedom which was produced as part of the 35th anniversary celebrations for Nissin Cup Noodles. Despite being set in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic society which has fled to the moon, Cup Noodles is frequently seen being consumed by the characters as they discuss what they’re going to do next. Nonetheless, Freedom is a great series and it’s amazing to consider that the show was merely produced to sell Nissin Cup Noodles.
One thing that may cause confusion when it comes to detecting product placement within shows are the use of fictional brands that are highly similar but legally distinct from real world brands. One of the more notable examples of this occurred when I was watching the Death Note anime and saw that a TV that was airing the news was branded “Fanasonic”. As you might imagine, this raises the eyebrow of many people who see this who immediately think of the company “Panasonic”. However, it is important to note that this indicates that the original company made no financial contributions to the show and may even have blocked permission to use their brand. This technique of using familiar brands to enhance the world of the show while avoiding legal problems with trademarks is known as “Product Displacement“.
This is surprisingly common within anime with a particularly notable example being the consistent flipping of the McDonalds logo so that the trademark M becomes a W. While these can be quite amusing, I can’t help but think of the lost opportunity for revenue. If you’re going to include the product within the show in a butchered form, you may as well try to get money and include the actual product instead. Perhaps people will disagree with me on this but knowing how difficult it can be to make a profit on anime, I think it’s important to try to make as much reliable income as possible.
Let me know your thoughts on why product placement in anime is so fascinating, what product placement or product displacement you’ve noticed as you’ve watched anime, whether you think more companies should pursue product placement or whether they should stick to product displacement and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!