Observations: Unpaid product placement: the elephant in the room in UK TV’s new paid-for product placement market
Chris Hackley
Royal Holloway University of London
Rungpaka Amy Hackley née Tiwsakul
Queen Mary University of London
Introduction
On 28 February 2011 the UK media regulator Ofcom changed its rules to allow paid-for product placement on domestically produced commercial TV for the first time in UK broadcasting history. Now, a small but distinctive P logo appears very briefly in the corner of the TV screen alerting the viewer to the presence in the show of some paid-for placements. The new rules were expected...