Could the hairy chest be back? Stranger Things have happened.

When Stranger Things 4 aired in 2022, viewers watched wimpy, babysitting fop Steve Harrington transform into a warrior, and he gained a lot of young fans, who surely couldn’t have missed his hairy chest.

Lucas: “When’d Steve get so hairy?”
Dustin: “Right? I keep telling him he needs to tame that jungle, but he claims the ladies dig it.”

And with that, Max snatched the binoculars and had a reaaallly long look.

Personally, I thought it was about time. I’m not suggesting we bring back the Tom Selleck style wilderness, but the plastic pre-pubescent chests of Calvin Klein ads of the 90s, and more recently Love Island, were surely reaching saturation point? In the 80s, hairy chests were a sign of virility and manliness; our heroes were hairy. Then along came Steve. Skinny jeans were out and mullets were in, as all things 80s and 90s came back. Harry Styles had already been seen sporting a smattering of chest hair at Coachella 2022. As trends go… stranger things have happened.

Does that mean the hairy chest is making a comeback? Perhaps. Razor brands needn’t panic just yet. What interests us is how easily a detail from a show people love can move into everyday conversation.

Nobody placed Steve’s chest hair in the series to promote a product. But the reaction shows the power of the setting: viewers notice what belongs to a character and a world they care about. Product placement works with that same attention. Put the right brand into the right story, and it can become part of what people remember and discuss.

When a product belongs in the story

The world of Stranger Things is full of familiar 1980s details, including the clothes, games, music and products its characters use. Those details make Hawkins feel like a place, rather than a backdrop assembled for the camera.

A brand appearing on screen isn’t automatically a paid product placement. Sometimes it’s there because it fits the period. Coca‑Cola’s collaboration with Netflix around season three, however, is a clear example of a deliberate partnership. With the story set in 1985, the two brought New Coke into the show’s world and revived it for a limited promotion beyond the screen.

That connection gave the product a reason to be there. New Coke was part of the real cultural moment the series was recreating, so its appearance could add to the scene while giving Coca‑Cola a place in the conversation around it.

Why brands want to be part of the picture

An advert asks us to stop what we’re doing and pay attention. Product placement reaches us while we’re already paying attention to something else. We see what a character picks up, wears or uses as the story unfolds.

For a brand, that creates an opportunity to be seen in context. A product can show up where its audience already spends time and, if the fit is right, benefit from the feeling people have for the programme. A memorable scene may also keep finding viewers long after its first release.

Visibility alone isn’t the goal, though. A logo in the background might be seen and forgotten. A product that feels forced into a scene can pull viewers out of it. The stronger placements give the brand a believable role without making the story pause to sell it.

A skillful product placement taps into the positive emotions a consumer has for a TV or film franchise, and transfers them to a product. If a brand shares a consumer’s passion, they’ll appear relatable, they’ll capture consumers’ attention, ride a zeitgeist, and reap the rewards.

Who wants to watch adverts any more?

Product placement has become more prevalent with the advent of streaming services. Traditional advertisements are becoming less effective, because people don’t want to spend their time sitting through them. Now viewers can filter them, fast-forward and even block adverts completely. So today, brands have to be more clever about how they get their products out to their audiences. A well-placed product reaches consumers in a way that adverts can’t. Some products, like CBD, can still be shown in TV and film even though they’ve been banned in advertisements.

Product placement is organic and influential, because people pay attention to the TV shows and movies they love.

It’s why back in 1999, BMW chose to launch their latest Z8 on the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. Knowing the audiences it would reach and the attention it would garner. It featured for a full 14 minutes before being chopped in half by a helicopter. And brands continue to go to great lengths to feature their products on platforms as big as Bond, as it can be a much more effective form of marketing.

There are other benefits too:

• It can show how a product can be enjoyed in real life which boosts a brand’s authenticity.
• It can create loyalty, through association.
• It can live on for a long time, with a potentially unlimited audience.
• It can speak to the unconscious, influencing us to think more positively about a brand.
• It can become viral, especially on social media.

Product placement can be utilised in gaming, film, tv, social media, music, and endorsed by actors, models and influencers, but it can be expensive and it’s hard to measure efficiency.

Would product placement work for your brand?

Start with the audience and the story, then think about the product. Who do you want to reach? What would you want them to remember? Is there a natural reason for your brand to appear in that setting?

It’s also worth deciding how you’ll judge success before investing. Attention around a show can be exciting, but it doesn’t tell you on its own whether people noticed your brand or felt differently about it. Brand recall, search interest and changes in perception may give you a clearer picture.

Steve Harrington’s chest hair may or may not start a grooming trend. It has certainly shown how a small detail can catch on when it appears in a story people are invested in. For brands considering product placement, that’s the lesson: find a place where you belong, and give people something worth noticing.

Want to explore ways to put your brand in front of the right audience? Get in touch with us.