Are Products More Real on Reality Shows? An Exploratory Study of Product Placement in Reality Television Programming

The integration of products and brands into movies and television has been around since the early days of these media; however, to date limited research has examined product placement in reality shows. The purpose of this exploratory study is to empirically assess attitudes and behaviors toward a product placement in a reality program, as well as to examine the concepts of perceived realism and skepticism. Using an example of unique product placement featured in the reality show The Biggest Loser, we propose and test a series of nine hypotheses through structural equation modeling. Full or partial support was found for seven of the nine hypotheses advancing the concept of product placements in reality shows. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

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