Public Health Issue Placements in Entertainment Media

Product placement is a commonly understood occurrence in entertainment programming. Corporations pay significant dollars for their products to be strategically placed, used, or discussed in primetime programming. Issue placement, however, is a less commonly known by the public. However, issue placement, or entertainment-education, in the entertainment media has gained increasing attention from health communication practitioners and academic scholars. Issue placement refers to the inclusion of particular storylines, prosocial issues or products (e.g. condoms, eating healthily, correct medical diagnosis and treatment). Using Social Exchange Theory as the conceptual framework, this study sought to understand the process through which prosocial issues, particularly health issues, become embedded within entertainment programming. Though in-depth interviews with high-ranking executives from government agencies, advocacy organizations, and the entertainment industry, three primary processes were identified to explain issue placement: (1) serendipitous placements; (2) opportunistic placements; and (3) planned placements. The result of this study is a practical and theoretical examination of the relationships between entities rarely associated with one another, and a practice of which much of the public is unaware.