Brandchannel's product placement tracker Brandcameo fails to see any new blood this week as Shrek Forever After maintains its stranglehold on the U.S. box office, and entertainment-exasperated parents' pocketbooks. This reality does not mean however that the week provided no product placement news of note.

Finishing third at the U.S. box office for its opening weekend, Killers proved that Ashton Kutcher may now have more Twitter followers than God, but, it appears, he is no longer a guaranteed superstar onscreen.

Another performer from the film Killers that does remain an onscreen staple? The Desert Eagle. Magnum Research's pistol is probably the most distinctive-looking gun of its kind.Continue reading...

Shrek Forever After took the top spot at the US box office (again) over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, meaning no official for Brandchannel's product placement tracking feature, Brandcameo. But that doesn't mean we're going to pass up commenting on Sex and the City 2, even if it only took third place.

The Sex and the City movies are product placement outliers, packed with opportunity but confusing, sometimes cluttered and, in the latest sequel's case, fraught with disastrous execution on HP's part. First, the brand count.

Last week Brandchannel wondered if the sequel would "outbrand" its predecessor. With 94 visible brands in the original, the answer is yes. But just how much it outbranded the first film is almost impossible to determine.Continue reading...

Shrek Forever After, which debuted at #1 at the U.S. box office over the weekend, marks a departure from earlier installments in the series, with spoofed well-known brands with its version of ogrely product placements: Old Knavry, Versarchery, Farbucks, Abercrombie & Witch, Baskin Robinhood, and so on. Brandchannel's resident product placement expert, Abe Sauer, says the lack of even mock brands in the latest and last Shrek is in keeping with Hollywood's recent move away from brand mentions in children's films. Find out more in Abe's latest Brandcameo.

As everyone expected, Iron Man 2 dominated at the domestic box office this weekend and, also as expected, it brought the product placements. Over 50 of them, from Rolls Royce to Everlast to LG and Dick's. See the whole list and analysis at Brandcameo.

But first, we're faced with a dilemma involving Apple's non-placement. An extended scene in Iron Man 2 features the late artist DJ AM. Except, the Apple Macbook and its glowing logo that DJ AM was so well known for using appeared in the film covered, creatively, with an Iron Man head logo.

Despite Iron Man 2's producers going to lengths to obscure the Apple logo, should it still be considered an Apple product placement in the movie? We're going with yes, as the white notebook is instantly recognizable and as much a part of the Apple brand as its logo.