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Abstract:
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With the rise in product placement and integration on television in recent years , much of the popular press has discussed it as being a new phenomenon , one that has come about as a result of shifts in how audiences view television . As audiences change their viewing practices due to modern technologies such as DVRs and online streaming , product placement has increased in the industry's attempts at still reaching audiences with commercial messages . This thesis seeks to prove that instead of the common current assumption that this increase in product placement on television is a new phenomenon , this surge in blurring the line between advertising and entertainment is actually part of a long history of doing so in American commercial television . Historically , it was very common in the 1950s to have fictional television characters promoting products or to have the product featured as part of the story line in an episode . In fact , I believe the instances are common enough to establish generic expectations from audiences and industry alike . By understanding product placement and other forms of television advertising as part of a genre , it allows for shows like 30 Rock to employ parodic techniques that make their instances of product integration obvious to their viewers . Both the history of advertainment and its generic conventions create a base for current shows to riff off of , thus allowing them to combine entertainment and advertising to please the networks , but acknowledging to their viewers what they are doing and parodying it so as not to alienate them . |