dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle’s blog

We’re heading into summer blockbuster season, and there will be plenty of talk about product placement. It’s all the rage in movies and TV, placing national brands into the story line, and being paid by those companies for the exposure. As is so often the case, I’m interested in the other side of that coin. Walgreens may well pay a producer to have a touching love interest sparked in their prescription aisle, but are they just as willing to sue a producer (or threaten to sue them) if something bad happens inside their store? Is there also product “displacement” going on? If so, then good things will happen when it’s connected to national brands (ka-ching), but bad things will always happen in mom-and-pop unbranded stores. Doesn’t this unfairly deepen the plight of unaffiliated stores and products?