Big Break

Product placement in TV shows and movies is nothing new, but thelatest marketing trend-product integration-goes beyond displaying acan of Miller Lite in the background of a scene. Now products areactually part of the script. Consider the movie Cast Away,where the main character's job as a FedEx exec is essential tothe plot (as are a logo-bearing FedEx plane and envelopes). On TV,The Drew Carey Show transported Drew and company inside the videogame SimCity, and the Survivor II cast competed for a box ofgoodies marked with the Target bull's-eye.

"Marketers are running out of ways to sell theirproducts," says Ritchie Lucas, president of CreatAbility, aMiami-based PR and marketing firm. "First we had celebrityendorsements, then product placement, and now marketers arerealizing that the payoff isn't in the consumer just seeingit-the payoff is seeing someone actually using it. You haveopportunities to be associated with movies that get heavy promotionand stars like Tom Hanks. But you're also able to be anintegral part of the story."