This thesis is a study about subliminal messages and consumer attitudes

towards the use of product placement as subliminal advertising and their

behaviors afterwards. The effects of subliminal advertising have been

ambiguous and controversial for a long time. Therefore this thesis was

designed to understand consumer attitudes towards the way companies use

product placement in movies or TV shows and how it may affect their

behaviors by using focus group interviews, and the previous study about

consumer attitudes towards product placement were also studied.

As for the interviews, the samples from Karlstad University were divided into

three groups: the Swedish group, the French group, and the German group; so

that the results can be compared in order to see if people from different

cultural backgrounds have different points of view. The results showed that

most of the participants have the same idea that subliminal advertising is

interesting, and as long as the product placement does not ruin the

entertainment that they are supposed to get from watching a movie, then the

attitude is still positive. The behaviors that can happen the most are talking

with friends and looking up for information about products or brands, but the

possibility of them to buy those brands are less since it also depends on other

factors, such as brand preferences, center of interests, and purchasing power.