From Movie Theater to the For You Page : A Qualitative Interview Study of the Perception of Product Placement in Different Media

This study explores how product placement is perceived by young adults in Västernorrland across different media platforms, focusing on the similarities and differences between traditional media, such as film and television and TikTok, a growing social media platform. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model and Adorno and Horkheimer’s concept of pseudo-individualism, the study examines how commercial messages are being perceived by audiences in varying media contexts. Using a qualitative method with focus group interviews, the study examines how aware participants are of product placement and how the media format influences their understanding. The findings show that product placement on TikTok can be harder to spot due to the app’s interactive and fast-paced nature. This study sheds light on how marketing strategies adapt to different media and how audiences engage with them in today’s digital world.