| This dissertation extends Psychological Reactance to branded product placement in entertainment media by investigating the relationships between Psychological Reactance, saturation levels of branded products within a television program, profit goals of the brand's source, recall, branded product placement attitudes, and purchase intention.; Psychological Reactance says that individuals may act counter to the intended effects of communication messages because audiences are motivated to restore any threats made to their freedom to control their own behaviors (Brehm 1966; Brehm & Brehm, 1981). The theory has been applied to several mass media and communication contexts such as the censorship of mass media messages (Bushman & Stack, 1996) and consumer responses to product scarcity (Glee & Wicklund, 1980), but it has not been applied to branded product placement in entertainment media.; The cost of producing entertainment media is often not inexpensive and requires creative fundraising from marketing departments. Branded product placement partnerships have been one way for producers to fund media projects, while marketers gain consumer awareness or generate potential sales. Quinn and Kivijarv (2005) estimated that branded product placement spending reached {dollar}3.46 billion in 2004 and project it to reach {dollar}6.94 billion in 2009. The overabundance of placements has had positive and negative effects: while audiences become aware of brands, their overt presentation may trigger Psychological Reactance.; As a captive audience member, one does not have the freedom of choosing the content of entertainment media that he is exposed to or the advertisers who sponsor the programming. Unlike traditional television commercials, brands placed within the content of entertainment programming cannot be fast-forwarded through. Thus, the audience's freedom to skip through advertising messages cannot be avoided and risks the types of audience backlash as predicted by Psychological Reactance.; This dissertation seeks to understand how the relationship between Psychological Reactance, saturation levels of branded product placements within a television program, and the profit goal of the branded product placement source might influence audience attitudes. A conceptual model was proposed to test the effects of Psychological Reactance, saturation, and the profit goal of the placement source on brand recall, participant attitudes, and purchase intention of the inserted brand.; Using an undergraduate student sample (N = 498), this study employed a 3 X 6 independent-groups quasi-experimental study that varied the profit goal of the source and the saturation level of the branded products digitally inserted within a television program. The results of a hierarchical regression technique found that there were significant effects between levels of branded product placement saturation, participant knowledge about the source's profit goal, and brand recall. While some attitudes were impacted by the interaction between saturation levels and profit goals, Psychological Reactance was only significant at step one, suggesting moderating effects. The three way interaction was found to positively affect participants' intention to purchase the branded product.; Implications for the theory of Psychological Reactance and the industry, as well as suggestions for future research are discussed. |
