by John Lui

What started as a trickle in Hollywood films a few decades ago has turned into a tidal wave. There were nearly 40 product placements in Iron Man (2008). The Dark Knight (2008) had 15.

But in Sex And The City, it hit a new high (or low, depending on how you see it): Close to 100 brands of products were seen or mentioned, according to the website of brand consultants Interbrand. That is about one product every 90 seconds of screen time.

The practice is also becoming more widespread in Singapore film.

Money No Enough 2's eight-brand sightings is most likely a new record for a local full-length feature.

In Kallang Roar, a local film out this week, characters mention, or partake of, drinks from corporate sponsor Milo.

Even the works of edgier film-makers shill for well-known brands. Look hard enough at Eric Khoo's movies and you will spot characters enjoying a refreshing Tiger beer or two.

As more TV viewers record their programmes and skip commercials or turn to online on-demand entertainment, marketers are finding that there is no better place to be than being embedded in a movie or TV show.

In Money No Enough 2, there is a scene inside a branch of OCBC Bank where the lower-income characters are told about the benefits of a savings plan.

Ms Ng Li Lian, head of the bank's marketing services, consumer financial services, says: 'Product placement allows the audience to experience and relate to a brand while they are being entertained.

'It is a different and softer approach compared to conventional advertising.'

In Gone Shopping, a 2007 dramedy by local film-maker Wee Li Lin, characters use Samsung mobile phones.

Ms Irene Ng, director of strategic marketing at Samsung Asia, says: 'Movie product placements are certainly more subliminal compared to TV commercials as they showcase how the product integrates into and enhances the character's lifestyle in a subtle way.

'As a result, our experience is that consumers tend to be more receptive to product placements because they can relate to the user or the situations.'

Like the other directors Life! spoke to, Wee's script was written first, without specific products named. Then, as sponsors were found, their brands were worked in.

Samsung's Ms Ng says she trusted the film-maker to exercise both good judgment and taste. 'We took part based on a story brief. We did not vet the film after it was shot. They are professionals. They know what to do.'

Marketers like what films do for the brand. Producers and directors like what placement can do for their budgets.

In Singapore, some sponsors offer cash but, more often, they give products to the film-makers, helping to defray catering, prop and wardrobe costs.

They may also feature the film in their own product advertising campaigns, which help promote awareness of the movie.

Jack Neo, writer/director of Money No Enough 2, says that films soak up whatever money is available because directors tend to stretch the limits of their art.

'Audiences expect international standards but investors will give only so much because of the risk. Product placement helps us make better films,' he says.

Without sponsor messages, he could not have afforded the computer graphics seen in the movie, he says.

But for many, the number of products featured is not so much the issue as how they are featured.

As director Kelvin Tong tells Life!, an intrusive placement can 'knock the viewer out of the world of the movie'.

As Wee describes it, unless a director is clever about using brands in the story, intelligent viewers will smell a rat right away.

'You can't have characters eating hamburgers in a jungle movie,' she says.

In her movie Gone Shopping, it was natural for characters to be eating film sponsor Carl's Jr hamburgers in a mall.

They were also not talking about their cellphones but using them to send text messages. But when viewers see the text message, the Samsung logo is visible.

Intrusiveness is the issue many fans have with Hollywood films. Iron Man placements enraged fans who complained in online forums.

In one scene, for example, billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), having just been rescued from Afghanistan and brought back to the United States, demands a cheeseburger and gets a Burger King product.

It is a choice completely out of character for such a wealthy man, howled Web critics.

There is also an overlong scene, added unhappy punters, where Stark's nemesis tries to tempt him into revealing the secret armour suit with Famous Ray's Pizza, a sponsored product.

The same charges of intrusive messaging have surfaced about Money No Enough 2. A Lianhe Zaobao reviewer called it 'blatant' while the reviewer from My Paper said it was 'rampant'.

Mr Lim Teck, general manager of Scorpio East Pictures and one of Money 2's producers, says film-makers here are probing the limits of acceptability because they do what pioneers in a young industry tend to do: experiment.

'One day, we will be able to deal with sponsors on more equal terms,' he says.

Sponsors today tell him they get more exposure from placing products in TV shows compared with local films, for example. But he is quick to clarify that despite the unequal power relationship, rules still apply.

Sponsors are given only briefs on how their products will appear and do not have the right to interfere on set or ask for reshoots.

Ms Anna Wong, 34, a sales executive, has seen both the first and second Money films and does not think the placements are any more obvious than what you might find in a typical Hollywood comedy. 'The products looked as if they belonged there, in the HDB world,' she says.

Director Khoo shares the same view. 'The placement should work with the story. In Money No Enough 2, I actually enjoyed it. It fits well. I'm a big fan of Neo.'

That there can be a spectrum of views indicates that sensitivity to brand placement is a matter of taste, says Tong. He thinks factors such as culture and genre matter.

'There's a so-called Hollywood standard where placement needs to be used in a subtle or witty way. But Asian audiences are more tolerant, especially for comedies,' he says.

'Neo's films could be a barometer for tolerance.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 20, 2008.