Sample Data
A content analysis was performed on one of the top grossing Hollywood movies from each decade from the 1920s to the 2000s as defined by box office gross. This information was obtained from the American Movie Classics’ Film Site and Lee’s Movie Info websites. Each film was chosen because it was one of the top ten grossing American films of its decade, it was not an animated film, it was not a film set in a time period other than the one during which it was filmed, and it was available to the coder for viewing. The following is the list of films:
Coding was done using a method combining elements of Ferraro and Avery’s (2000) study, LaFerle and Edwards’s (2006) study and DiSisto and Miller’s (2008) study (see Appendix A for the coding sheet). A total of 20.6 hours of film were analyzed for product placement. A placement occurred when a movie scene portrayed a brand or product either verbally, visually or both (Ferraro & Avery, 2000; DiSisto & Miller, 2008). The placement began when the product or brand was shown and ended when the scene changed (DiSisto & Miller, 2008). The brands fell into seven categories, including automotive, food & beverage, entertainment & news, hygiene, technology, clothing, and other. Coding categories included mode of appearance (visual, verbal, audiovisual), tone of placed product (positive, negative, neutral), prominence of placement (clear or unclear), other branded products in the scene (yes or no), relevance to the plot (high, some, low), and character interaction (yes or no). Then the data was analyzed.
