Despite the 1998 ban on paid product placement by the tobacco industry, branded tobacco products continue to appear in media. Using the popular streaming series Stranger Things as a case study, our recently published paper identifies reasons why content producers may include branded cigarettes in their work by analyzing how these products function in the narrative.
Verisimilitude is the most frequently mentioned justification for the use of branded products in general by filmmakers. Hollywood places great value on having a story, character, and mise-en-scène that appear true to real life. Since we are surrounded by brands in real life--so goes the argument--if the representation wants to be "faithful," it must contain brands as well. To put it simply, if every product is branded in filmed entertainment, cigarettes will be branded too.
Filmmakers often exploit the well-established "personalities" of cigarette brands for character development. In our society, almost every commodity is associated and promoted with a set of easily identifiable, symbolic properties--a brand personality that may be eerily similar to the people who buy them. When a filmmaker makes one of their characters smoke a certain brand, they can assume that the audience will conflate the personality of the brand with that of the character who smokes it.
Smoking are often used as acting aid. This is a performing art tradition as old as cigarettes themselves. When, how often, and how an actor smokes a cigarette is meant to reveal their particular frame of mind of the moment.
The term “action prop” refers to when an object is used in filmed entertainment propelling the story forward. These are often branded products--the most famous example is Reese's Pieces in Steven Spielberg's 1982 movie ET the Extraterrestrial, in which the child hero, Elliott builds a trail of candy to lure the alien out of hiding and into his bedroom. Cigarettes, handy and ubiquitous, are very well-suited to be used as action props.
This detailed compendium of images includes illustrations of some additional concepts. A close up on striking a match, the burning ember lighting up the face of the smoker, a smoke-filled, back-lit room all have inherent visual beauty. Hence, directors often use smoking for aesthetic reasons. The explanation may lie in the fact that humans have been fascinated with controlled (and sometimes, uncontrolled) fire for at least a million years. Some anthropologists posit that gathering around a fire promoted complex social interaction, cooperation, and early language development. The depiction of smoking at the beginning and end of Season 1 also illustrate narrative bookends, signaling a return to normalcy at the end of the story arc.
Screenshots of the tobacco depictions and explanation of their contexts can be found in the depictions of branded tobacco products in each season of Stranger Things linked below.
