Product placement is hardly a new phenomenon among Hollywood films. Producers of consumer goods from sparkling wine to cell phones benefit by using films as vehicles in which to showcase their wares, and movie productions benefit by cutting their costs with the financial consideration product placement affords. Product placement can be as subtle as dialogue exchanged in front of a Burger King billboard, or as overt as a tie-in product mentioned (repeatedly) by its brand name and reinforced in the mind of the viewer with yet another stratum of promotion (for instance, a print ad exhorting movie fans to wear the same wristwatch Pierce Brosnan wore in the latest James Bond movie.)

By and large, product placement is becoming more and more common, up to and including changing a movie's plotline to accomodate a product-placement opportunity. After all, can it have just been plain good luck for the Coca-Cola Corporation that a key shoot-out scene in this week's National Security happens to take place in a Coca-Cola warehouse? No. No, it cannot. And that's just as far as film product placement goes today. In the future, manufacturers and movie studios will have taken synergy to even more shameless heights. Observe:

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
Release date: August 2003

Judy Blume's classic story of a young girl's coming of age finally comes to the big screen. However, all those scenes you might recall from the book -- revolving around the trauma of learning how to use a bulky, unattractive sanitary-napkin belt -- have been excised in order to bring the story in line with the new millennium: now, when Margaret (Mae Whitman) finally gets her period, she addresses her menstrual needs effectively and neatly with the new Tampax Pearl tampon. As each of Margaret's closest friends -- Janie (Yvonne Zima), Gretchen (Mika Boorem), and Nancy (Evan Rachel Wood) -- gets her period, she learns first-hand how convenient, discreet, and easy-to-use the Tampax Pearl really is. None of the boys that Margaret and her friends are just starting to discover need know anything about the girls' new adventures with menstruation. With Tampax Pearl on her side, Margaret ventures forth into adolescence, and into her ongoing questing about God and the nature of faith, with the confidence that her period will remain a closely guarded secret.

License to Drive II
Release date: October 2003

A straight-to-video (and long-overdue!) sequel to the 1988 hit film starring the beloved Coreys, License to Drive II finds Corey Haim still testing the limits of what he can do on the open road -- only this time, it's as a delivery driver for Faygo soda. One day on his delivery rounds, Les Anderson (Haim) is unloading a case of Faygo Redpop at a 7-11 when he overhears the news that his ex-girlfriend Mercedes (Marley Shelton) is throwing a huge party to celebrate her engagement to Dirk (Kelly Donovan), a rival Faygo driver and Les's sworn enemy. Sure, Les and Mercedes haven't spoken in months, but Les still knows hey're meant to be together; he has to get to Mercedes's party and convince her that she shouldn't marry Dirk. But how can he get there on time when he still has so many Faygo deliveries to make? Follow Les through a particularly crazy work day, involving convenience-store arson, a rear-ended Humvee driven by an irate personal-injury lawyer, and the threat of Les's eviction from his apartment. Fortunately, Les has access to all the Faygo he can drink (at a generous employees-only discount) to help get him through.

The Jared Fogle Story
Release date: January 2004

You've gotten glimpses of the moving story of Jared Fogle from the series of Subway spots in which he's starred, but aren't you curious about the rest of the story? In this sweeping biopic, you'll meet a young Jared Fogle (played by Grant Rosenmeyer during Jared's childhood years, and Fred Savage, initially in a fat suit created by Rick Baker), watch as he spends painful years struggling with his weight, and thrill as he discovers that changing his diet to nothing but Subway sandwiches can help him to drop pounds more easily than he could have ever imagined. Six Grams of Separation also dramatizes Jared's overnight celebrity as a result of his association with Subway, including his participation at a huge picnic, to which other Subway dieters are also invited; you will melt as you watch Jared fall in love with Sally (Rachael Leigh Cook), a lovely young woman who lost over 120 pounds by eating nothing but turkey subs and Diet Coke for nearly seventeen months.

Clean Sweep
Release date: April 2004

Young housewife Janet Kirby (Lecy Goransen) is dissatisfied with her life. Sure, when she married Jeff (Jason Biggs) straight out of college and became a full-time homemaker, it seemed like she had everything she could possibly want. But now that seven years have passed and her daughter Bella (Dakota Fanning) has started school, Janet is bored, and is starting to wonder whether she could have more. If only it didn't take so much time to keep up her house -- if there were more hours in the day, she could resume her first love and dearest dream: pottery. In a moment of weakness, Janet shares her secret heartbreak with her Grandma Mary (Gena Rowland), only for Mary to offer a solution that will change her life: a cleaning tool known as the Swiffer. Janet is skeptical, but when she takes the Swiffer home, she finds it saves her so much time that her creative spirit is set free. She throws dozens of pots, the likes of which staid old Sherman Oaks has never seen before, and gets herself included in a group show at the local women's art space. But Jeff is threatened by Janet's new artistic career, and bitter that she only has enough time to make five gourmet meals for him each week. Janet learns that, as phenomenal as the Swiffer is, it can't solve all her problems. Will Jeff come around to the fact that his wife is growing as a woman, and grow with her? Or will Janet pack up her Swiffer and embark on a whole new life?