Sitcoms Make You Laugh and Recycle

Abstract

Social marketing and product placement are two common marketing practices. Consumers are seeing the merging of these two concepts through television programming's behavior placements, which are the incorporation of social behaviors into television program storylines to sway viewers to adopt these actions. A major television network has adapted this concept by incorporating environmentally themed messages into its programming. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the concept of “behavior placements” and discuss the effect of these embedded messages on consumers' green attitudes and intentions. Through an example featured in the television sitcom The Office, the research supports the advancement of the behavior placement concept. Implications and future research directions are presented.