The Impacts of Product Placements in a TV Format Adaptation

This study examines the presence of product placements in the Vietnamese version of the TV format "2 Days 1 Night" and aims to understand the ways in which product placements impact the production of cultural content. The author observes various types of product placements within the show, ranging from subtle branding to explicit displays of branded products. This extensive presence of advertising sparks the author's interest in exploring product placement as a marketing strategy integrated into TV formats. These dimensions from Peterson and Anand’s (2004) production of culture shape the creative fields and determine how cultural products are established, distributed, evaluated, taught, and preserved. However, the role of advertising and marketing is overlooked and should be included in the culture production. Additionally, as scholars define product placement differently from one another, it is important for this study to understand the concept, hence apply it to this study. With that being said, the research question of this study is “How does product placement impact the Vietnamese adaptation of the Korean series 2 Days 1 Night?”. To answer such question, a comparative analysis between the original South Korean version of "2 Days 1 Night" without product placement and the Vietnamese adaptation with product placements was conducted using multimodal critical discourse analysis as the main approach. The analysis was completed after the application of a strict procedure of data collection. 24 particular scenes were chosen from 20 episodes for the analysis. The findings showed that product placements play an influential part in the contents of the Vietnamese adaptation of “2 Days 1 Night”. Specifically, the presence of product placements leads to alterations in certain selected scenes, yet the program’s main contents remain the same, revealing the adapted version as a hard format. In conclusion, the findings also reveal that product placements in the Vietnamese version were subtle, then becoming more prominent over time. Although the placements did not overshadow the program, they provide additional exposure for brands at the expense of the original version's personal touch. Such finding shows brands’ greediness through the ways in which overconsumption was encouraged using the practice of product placement and raises questions regarding the show’s ethics and intentions. Lastly, this study includes limitations that are relating to the identification of product placements, as well as cultural barriers, and suggests that future research should pay more attention to production teams’ and audiences’ perspectives.