Product placement is really more PR than marketing. It’s getting your product visible in TV shows, movies, catalog photos – anywhere it can be seen as simply being in use as part of the environment.
In case you think this is a new idea, it goes back to at least 1919 for movies and the 1800’s for books.
The film The Island features at least 35 individual products including cars, bottled water, shoes, credit cards, beer and ice cream.
Here’s some mind-blowing numbers to get an idea of how big a deal this is:

Jeep paid more than $10 million to appear in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.
Toyota: Over $10 million for Terminator 3.
Mitsubishi: $25 million for 2 Fast 2 Furious.