With The Help holding on to the top spot again, there is little to be said about Hollywood product placement at the US box office (click here to read our product placement overview of The Help). So let's look to Bollywood, where the film Bodyguard just set domestic records for opening day.

The Indian film also happens to be packed with loads of non-Indian product placement.Continue reading...

Levi's has taken an unusual action that demonstrates the importance of the international market to the very American maker of jeans.

The denim giant is expanding its Asia-only brand, dENiZEN, with a countrywide push in India. Aaron Boey, president of Levi Strauss & Co. Asia-Pacific, told the Times of India that the company "started test marketing the brand in India and China simultaneously last year and now India is the first market where the brand is going national."

The dENiZEN brand was introduced last August in China, India, Korea (which has been running a dENiZEN dance contest), Pakistan and Singapore. Now ready for primetime in Asia with a serious marketing push by Levi Strauss, dENiZEN will replace the company's Signature denim brand internationally, although Signature will remain in the US market.Continue reading...

Love product placement? Live in New York? Coming soon, the Big Apple is one of a handful of cities that will screen Morgan Spurlock's documentary, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Curiously, and probably to Pom Wonderful's dismay, the deal Spurlock struck with the pomegranate-based brand to name the film Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold has not translated, so far, to theater promotions.

Does this somehow void the deal? Who knows. Maybe Spurlock will fill us in when we finally get that interview he promised us.

In the meantime, what's new in product placement in the US and beyond?Continue reading...

• Anne may Hathaway with acting, but could the agent who told the Oscars co-host the above skit is funny please take it back before Sunday?

• Viral experiment of the week? @wkwardprice lets "advertisers catch the attention of the public by paying crazy money for common and worthless items sold on Ebay." Uh, no thanks.Continue reading...

Bubbly is boiling hot in India, with 500,000 users signing up in the first four weeks after launch. The cell phone service enables users to "broadcast" voice messages to a mass audience of followers.

A user signs up to follow family, friends, brands, or a celebrity. Following and posting messages is free. But when a new message is recorded and dispatched, the user receives an alert and can opt to listen for a fee. Average messages are shorter than 30 seconds, and the present cap is one minute.

Bubble Motion, the company behind the Bubbly service, has a revenue sharing business model with resident telecoms, in India, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel. Bubble Motion takes a slice of the airtime used for message listening.Continue reading...