Income

Again, music videos are essentially adverts, but not always for the artsist and the song. Product placement is a recent phenomenon but has taken to music videos like a storm. Usually the product is only shown for a matter of seconds but some even go on for half a minute. In Avril Lavigne's 'Rock N Roll' the newest Sony phone dominates the first half minute of the video.

Though Lady GaGa and Beyonce's song 'Telephone' has an abundance of short product placements throughout the video.

LAdy GaGa's brand of headphones were shown for 3 seconds and was the first piece of product placement in the video. These earphones are hard to see and at first glance you wouldn't see them, but strong fans would and it encourages them to go out and buy them as they appeared in Lady GaGa's video.

In the next scene we see Lady GaGa in a communal jail cell with Diet Cola cans in her hair. This is a lot more subtle product placement than some sections but it does stick out to the consumer as they already know the brand.

The same phone makes a reccurance throughout the video and the same signal company is present on the home screen each time which is 'Virgin'. Having a product that appears more than once in a music video isn't typical and this could hold further connotations that this music video wants to be unique.

There is also an abudance of branded food throughout the whole sequence, like the wonder bread and whippy marshmallow bread. Not only is this feeding them extra income but it is also making the video look very American, which would appeal to their US audience and help them identify with the artists if they have ever eaten that food also.

What was very strange during this music video was that half way through the 'pussy wagon' from the 'Kill Bill' film was used as the getaway vehicle and featured at length. This is interesting as this music video has no direct link with 'Kill Bill' yet it includes the legendary truck at a key section of the music video.

These aspects will heighten the production budget for the music video and could also drip feed money into the artist's pockets depending on what contract was used.