Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students' perceptions of celebrity endorsement and product placement within music videos

It has become conventional to use product placement in music videos. Big brands have started marketing themselves through product placement, for example, brands such as BMW, VitaminWater and Virgin Mobile. Placing products in music videos could be perceived as the brands linking themselves with celebrities. This product placement could either have a positive or negative effect on the celebrity and/or the brand. This research study aimed to provide the world of brands with insights into 18-28-year-olds’ perception of product placement in music videos, and whether placing their product in a music video where the audience is not partial to the celebrity, could be detrimental or not. This research study aimed to determine the selected sample’s (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students) perceptions of the product placement of three specific brands (VitaminWater, BMW and Virgin) in three specific music videos, namely:  Jessie J and David Guetta “Laserlight” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syxd2n8S4AE  JLo’s “Get on the Floor” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4H_Zoh7G5A  Lady Gaga and Beyoncé “Telephone” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY An electronic survey questionnaire was concluded with both closed and open-ended questions relating to the use of product placement in these three music videos. The survey questionnaire helped to determine what the selected sample’s perceptions were of each brand and celebrity, what they were after the respondents and seen the relationship between the brand and celebrity and finally, of product placement in general. A semiotic analysis of screen shots from each music video was conducted to determine what kind of nature the product placement occurred in in each music vide