The practice of product placement, the embedding of goods and services within media, has experienced a resurgence of interest in recent years both from the stand point of the practitioner seeking additional avenues by which to reach the elusive consumer, and by scholars seeking to better understand the influence that media have on the consumptive practices of the audience. Many practitioners, and some scholars, have taken the stance that the practice of product placement may currently be the most influential form of advertising and persuasion. By moving the analysis of product placement effects beyond simple persuasion and incorporating theories addressing the role others, both real and imagined, play in the persuasive process and incorporating individual predispositions toward group-oriented behavior, this dissertation provides a more fully described model for understanding the effects observed from product placements. It also applies more developed survey methodologies to existing measures of parasocial connections, allowing for the disentangling of this key concept. An initial study (Study 1) was conducted to validate the development of an altered parasocial connection measure, one that disentangles the relationship with the actor from that with the character. Results of this study demonstrate that the revised scale accurately taps into the parasocial relationships in question, and supports the theorized mental division between the actor and character when determining social connections. The results of an experiment (Study 2) incorporating this scale in conjunction with measures of purchase intention, perceptions of others' exposure and product desire, and individual predispositions toward self-monitoring behavior demonstrated the complex nature of the persuasive process engendered by exposure to product placements. The change in purchase desire was found to be moderated both by our perceptions of our close social group and by our parasocial connections to the character interacting with the product. Additionally, individual levels of self-monitoring mediated the effect of the social group, and significant differences were observed between the impact of the actor and the character. These results have wide-ranging implications for researchers and practitioners.