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Product placement—strategically placing ads or buying space in movies, TV shows, comic books, and video games so they appear as part of a story’s set environment—is another persuasive strategy ad agencies use. For example, the 2010 movie Iron Man 2 features product placements from over sixty brands, almost triple the number shown in the original 2008 film, which itself included prominent use of brands like Burger King, Audi, and LG mobile. The NBC sitcom 30 Rock even makes fun of product placement, satirizing how widespread it has become. In one scene, the actors talk about how great Diet Snapple is. Then an actual commercial for Snapple appears.

Many critics argue that product placement has gotten out of hand. In 2005, watchdog organization Commercial Alert asked both the FTC and the FCC to mandate that consumers be warned about product placement in television shows. The FTC rejected the petition, and by 2008 the FCC had still made no formal response to the request. Most defenders of product placement argue there is little or no concrete evidence or research that this practice harms consumers. The 2011 documentary POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold takes a satirical look at product placement—and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock financed the film’s entire budget with that very process.