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EXAM
A licence to sell
Modern films and TV shows often feel like long advertisements thanks to product placement. This
advertising technique involves using a product in a film or TV programme as if it were part of the story.
Product placement owes its success to the invention of the video recorder, as owners fast‐forwarded
when adverts appeared in the middle of recorded programmes. Video recorders were a problem for
advertisers; product placement was the solution.
Today, advertisers receive scripts from producers and then look for products that fit ‘naturally’ with
the
story. For example, a studio making a film about a teenager at university might ask for clothes, a
laptop
computer and a mobile phone for her. The camera could easily focus on all of these objects
without
greatly damaging the story. The problems begin when nobody worries about the story.
Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond novels, gave his hero a ‘licence to kill’. Many people say the
Bond films have given him a new licence: a licence to sell. When Bond isn’t using the latest mobile
phones, GPS devices or handheld tablets, he is driving sports cars and flying with airlines that have all
been placed in the films for enormous amounts of money. Companies paid $45 million for their
products to appear in the last Bond film. Many Bond fans think there is too much product placement
and not enough plot.
It seems that product placement is here to stay. Nevertheless, many critics feel that if TV programmes
and films just become vehicles for advertising, audiences will soon look for alternative forms of
entertainment.
1. Say whether the following sentences are TRUE or FALSE according to the text. COPY the
evidence from the text. No marks will be given without evidence. (1.5 points)
a) TV and film producers send scripts to advertising companies so they can find suitable
products to go with the story.
b) Product placement contributes to increasing the film production costs.
c) In the future, audiences might consider product placement a reason for finding different
types of entertainment.
PRUEBA/PROVA: A LICENCE TO SELL
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