The Doritos Crash the Super Bowl user-created ad contest is back for the seventh consecutive year, this time around with a big Hollywood ending — the chance to work with director Michael Bay on the next installment of the Transformers movie franchise.

The pitch: "The great Super Bowl ad-venture is back. This year, if you make a DORITOS ad you might see it air on the Super Bowl and win not just $1 Million but a prize that's twice as explosive: a gig with high-octane Hollywood hit-maker Michael Bay on Transformers 4," which opens June 27, 2014. Submissions open on Oct. 8; more details in PepsiCo's press release and on Facebook.

Proof that video game trailers are as big a deal as a new movie opening? The trailer above, promoting EA's Need for Speed game (in stores Nov. 15), is seen "through the eyes of Michael Bay." EA tapped the Hollywood action director's special way with SFX to amp up the buzz for the new game, and — from the sound effects, to the cinematography to the close-ups to the visual effects — Bay delivers everything an action fan, movie or gaming, would want in a movie trailer.

But even bigger is the video game launching at midnight tonight, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which brings out some other entertainment big guns: Avatar star Sam Worthington, comedy actor Jonah Hill, and even the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard. The trailer, which you can watch below, features Jonah and Sam in a live action version of the game.Continue reading...

New movies opening over the weekend didn't stand a chance against Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

The Michael Bay blow 'em up about a "a peaceful race of intelligent mechanical beings" regained top spot at the domestic box office yet again, earning over $645 million so far worldwide. Maybe audiences were chased away from Zookeeper as a result of the perceived glut of product placement — even though, as we confirmed, T.G.I. Friday's did not pay for its inclusion.

We have already catalogued the identifiable products and brands in Transformers 3. That doesn't mean there aren't a few more notable points, such as how Chinese brands are failing to capitalize on their placements, even while Hasbro is capitalizing on everything it owns.Continue reading...

Nobody does product placement quite like director Michael Bay. Above, the Chevy Camaro-Transformers 3 hybrid Super Bowl ad, which features the tagline "Chevy Runs Deep." It's part of a major push for Chevrolet at the Super Bowl, where GM is spending millions on five commercials just for Chevy, plus three other spots.

While the Camaro will be a 2011 placement, go to our survey to vote for the most memorable product placements in movies of 2010 in anticipation of the annual Brandcameo Product Placement Awards in later February.

The Victoria's Secret holiday ad is fast becoming a December tradition. More epic than its rest-of-the-year relatives, its holiday campaign strives to define and differentiate the Victoria's Secret brand as the leader in its segment.

The brains and talent behind these ads is an organization called, no kidding, "The Institute For The Development Of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness."

While a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot was released (above), we spoke with "The Institute" CEO, Scott Gardenhour about the brand, the babes, and blowing things up — the stock in trade of his partner and Institute co-owner, the slo-mo-loving, action director superstar Michael Bay, who once again directed the VS holiday campaign.Continue reading...

Well, that was fast. Yesterday, NASA announced a new toxic (arsenic-based) lifeform; Purell's response, above. More fun with Brand Bites, after the jump.Continue reading...