Digital Product Placement, the Ad Industry, & Kenney's Truth in Advertising

From Monday's BBC article "Digital product placement creates adverts out of thin air:"

[P]roduct placement isn't new...  Recently Heineken scored a coup by persuading James Bond to choose its beer over a vodka martini in Skyfall.

However, digital placement is fundamentally different in that the product you see on screen was never there in the first place. Editors can drop whatever they like, wherever they like, into programmes or films during the post-production process....

"These are not just logos, they can be video, signage and products, even cars," explains Mark Popkiewicz..."For example beverages are placed as open cans or bottles with glasses containing the beverage alongside - that way they look like they are being consumed... The technology is capable of placing or replacing moving objects and even replacing products being handled by actors like mobile phones... Early trials show almost double the engagements of traditional campaigns... This is because when a consumer watches a show they are not 'defensive' against advertising as they might be with advertising online or commercials on TV - they are in 'receive mode' and are not blocking."...

For a novel about the ad industry, try Truth in Advertising by John Kenney:

Finbar Dolan is lost and lonely. Except he doesn’t know it. Despite escaping his blue-collar Boston upbringing to carve out a mildly successful career at a Madison Avenue ad agency, he’s a bit of a mess and closing in on forty. He’s recently called off a wedding. Now, a few days before Christmas, he’s forced to cancel a long-postponed vacation in order to write, produce, and edit a Super Bowl commercial for his diaper account in record time.

Fortunately, it gets worse. Fin learns that his long-estranged and once-abusive father has fallen ill. And that neither of his brothers or his sister intend to visit. It’s a wake-up call for Fin to reevaluate the choices he’s made, admit that he’s falling for his coworker Phoebe, question the importance of diapers in his life, and finally tell the truth about his past.