I’ve written about product placement in movies and novels, and today I am going to touch upon another interesting medium — songs.

Two marketing professors from US universities, Federico de Gregorio and Yongjun Sung, analyzed almost 4 000 songs that appeared in top 10 music charts from 1955 to 2002.¹

Photo by Cameron Cassan on Flickr

Their empirical study has concluded the following:

• there has been a significant growth in brand mentions in songs over decades
• a particularly big spike in brand mentions began around 1995
• alcohol, automotive and fashion brands are most common in songs
• consumers perceive brand mentions in songs less favorably than in movies, yet they are not overall very negative
• the most appropriate genres of music for brand placement are hip-hop and rap.

Brand mentions are not a totally  new phenomenon. Listen to this song, Budweiser’s a friend of mine, that came out back in 1905:

Most of brand mentions in songs happen organically, with nobody paying for their appearance. However, there are some agencies that specialize in brand placement in songs, targeting almost exclusively hip hop and rap artists.

It’s clear that brands are becoming part of popular culture, and their increasing appearance in songs is a good proof of this interesting phenomenon.

What songs with brand mentions do you know?

1. Giving a shout out to Seagram’s Gin: extent of and attitudes towards brands in popular songs. F. de Gregorio and Y. Sung, Journal of Brand Management (2009) 17, 218–235 [↩]

Related posts:

1. Product placement on TV
2. Product placement in movies and novels
3. Reverse product placements
4. Celebrating European Entrepreneurship: Funky Brands at Plugg 2009
5. Design thinking & funky brands