When most people settle into their couch to stream a new show or sink into a movie theater seat with popcorn in hand, they’re looking for one thing: entertainment. It’s a chance to unwind — and, maybe, to momentarily escape the constant stream of ads that fill our digital lives.

But the advertising hasn’t disappeared, it's just gotten smarter.

With ad-blockers, ad-free subscriptions, and a big skip button in the corner of your screen, traditional advertising is becoming less and less powerful. Marketers aren’t giving up; instead, they’re evolving.

Brands are now moving to embed themselves directly into content audiences are actually choosing to watch. If this sounds familiar, it should. Product placement has been around for decades — from Reese’s Pieces in “E.T.” to Nike in “Back to the Future.” But the practice is having a resurgence. 

In 2023, global product placement spending jumped 12.3%, hitting $29.63 billion, according to research from PQ Media. 

“You're having a declining number of people actually watching traditional platforms that cater to advertising,” explained Stacy Jones, founder CEO of Hollywood Branded. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2025, 83% of Americans watch streaming services. Only 36% currently subscribe to cable or satellite TV at home.

“There's all these platforms now where you don’t have a traditional ad model, like with a lot of streaming platforms,” Jones said. “Because as consumers we've said, ‘wait, wait, wait, we don't want so much advertising.’ We don't want to sit there necessarily and watch a 30-second ad, but we want our free content.”

So the ads aren’t disappearing, they’re just going undercover.

Adapting to a shifting media landscape

This shift in thinking is also reactive from the behavior of the entertainment industry itself. Over recent years, the budgets within the entertainment industry have shifted. Now, streaming companies are looking to focus less on scripting original content and are instead looking at options they view as a bit safer, like live sports and events. According to Ampere Analysis, global streaming players reduced commissions of scripted TV shows by 24% in the first half of 2025.

However, there is still a demand for new content. That tension — between shrinking budgets and a still-demanding release schedule — has opened the door for more brand partnerships. With traditional funding harder to secure, some productions are increasingly looking to product placement and brand integration not just as creative tools, but as financial lifelines. 

“Brands are increasingly partnering with content creators from the earliest stages — helping finance scripts and integrating into the story itself,” Jones said. “Whether that story is helped by a brand coming in and bringing to life a set, if you have a kitchen, you have a concert scene, you have a school setting, whatever that is, it's set up to look like real life. Well, in real life, all of those items in that set are actual, real products.”

Realism is key. When done well, product placement doesn’t distract the viewer from the story — it helps reinforce the world that the story is trying to build. 

“So the first level of ways brands actually have always helped productions is by offsetting costs,” said Jones. “So that's going through trade, product placement opportunities, making sure the prop masters, the set decorators, the transportation coordinators, the costume and stylists on set have access to brands.”

Think about it, a character using an iPhone to call someone, or someone grabbing a Starbucks coffee on the way to work isn't just advertising — it’s a mirror to how people actually live. It’s subtle, sure — but that’s the point. If a character you admire drinks the soda, wears the shoes, and drives the car, maybe you will too.

When brands hit the big screen

A recent example of this was with the Formula 1 movie starring Brad Pitt, where Stacy Jones and her agency, Hollywood Branded, led the charge on brand partnerships.

“They built a fictional world inside ‘F1,’ which is a fictional world that lives off of brands,” Jones said. “Like, you actually could not build a world with fake brands or it would look strange.” 

Brands like Expensify, a software company, didn’t just appear in a scene or two; they became central to the film’s fictional racing universe. Expensify was embedded as the title sponsor of the fictional APXGP team, with branding featured across race suits, helmets, and even race-day commentary.

After the teaser for the movie dropped, there was an immediate impact.

“Normally they [Expensify] traded under 560,000 stocks a day. That day went over 17.7 million,” Jones said. “That’s real money. That’s market capitalization. That is something that has not really happened before in the history of movie making.”

That kind of reaction is rare. Whether it's a sign of creative marketing genius or of just how tightly brands and entertainment are now linked, it does demand attention.

Again, this kind of integration — while much more refined and data driven — isn’t entirely new. In fact, one of the best examples of this happened over 30 years ago, in “Forrest Gump.”

“He’s riding his tractor, talking about how he invested in ‘some kind of fruit company,’ and then he opens his mailbox and pulls out a letter from Apple,” said Jon Holtzman, founder of Eclipse Worldwide. “That was it — it was funny, it was memorable, and it basically said, ‘buy stock in this company, you’ll be a billionaire.’ But no one ever said, ‘how much did Apple pay for that?’ That’s got to be the best product placement I’ve ever seen.”

Striking a delicate balance

That all being said, in-content product placement isn't a silver bullet when it comes to advertising. It is a delicate balance between a successful ad and an abrasive one. 

“As soon as something takes you out of the story, I think it backfires,” said Holtzman. “So people have to be really careful.”

What counts as “real” and quality placement can vary. One person’s authentic detail might feel to another like a commercial in disguise.

Not all placements land smoothly. Viewers can be swift to mock awkward or “cringy” integrations. But when done well, most audiences will welcome it — or won’t notice it at all.

One thing is clear. The future of product placement is not just sliding a soda can into view. It's about trying to create partnerships that complement and add to the overall story. 

“There's more and more of that happening, particularly on the smaller scale in order to fund these shows,” said Holtzman. “They can get a little bit, maybe 10-20% of their budget, through product integration. So that I think will happen more and more, I think that's a big strong thing.”

It’s a strategy that’s working — and one consumers are likely to see a lot more of. As production budgets grow and attention spans shrink, product placement isn’t just a marketing tool. It’s becoming part of the business model.