Tracking product placement

A Canadian professor has set up a website to highlight commercial product placement in films, saying the industry has reached a point where movies are being written specifically with certain products in mind. "It's escalating to a point where more and more movies are conceived or adapted to allow for placements in scenes and dialogues to work as advertising vehicles," he recently told CBC, adding that product placement is worth around $3.6 billion U.S. per year. Readers can search by film, actor, product or production company on the site (Brand Hype) to find which products appear in which movies. This picture shows placement of the Marlboro brand in last year's Closer.