It's amazing how nowadays we're surrounded by brand names everywhere we go. It's practically impossible to walk down the street today without seeing a product name somewhere, be it a car, an item of clothing, a poster, whatever. It's far from surprising really, given the fact that all these companies are pretty much running the show today; for instance, where would the F.A. Premiership be without Barclays? But here in Brazil it's been taken to the next level.

It's festival season here at the moment and there have been quite a few in São Paulo already. Anyone who's been to a music festival will know how you'll see advertising and product placement absolutely everywhere you go: Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK are sponsored by Carling, Benicassim in Spain is sponspored by Heineken, Exit Festival in Serbia is sponsored by Tuborg, the list goes on. But what I find amazing here is that not only are the festivals sponsored by the companies but they're named after them as well: there's TIM Festival (a mobile phone network company), Skol Beats (named after the beer Skol), or Planeta Terra Festival (a Yahoo!-type website). Ironically, TIM Festival used to be called the Free Jazz Festival, but only because it was sponsored by the Brazilian tobacco company Free. And it's not only festivals that demonstrate this blatant product placement. In the past month there's been the Häagen-Dazs Mix Music and the Nokia Trends Jam, two pretty big clubnights with all-star international lineups. Admittedly, these were one-offs and aren't typical of the club scene in general, but it's still pretty telling of the attitude towards advertising here. There's even a famous DJ from Rio called DJ Marlboro. One wonders whether he receives truck loads of cigarettes on a daily basis.

Product placement isn't exactly new though, there've been examples of it dating back to the 19th century. Even Jules Verne got in on the action apparently. Nowadays, it's rife in the entertainment industry, especially in films. Funnily enough I've not seen it too much in Brazilian cinema but maybe it's just because I haven't been looking hard enough. Even so, it can't compare to the kind of product placement you find in Hollywood, from Will Smith's love of his All-Stars in 'I Am Robot' to the character in Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell's action movie 'S.W.A.T.' whose sole purpose is to drink Dr. Pepper. The site below lists some of the most shameless examples of product placement Hollywood has been prone to.

http://www.cracked.com/article_16574_10-most-shameless-product-placements-in-movie-history.html

My favourite one has to be from 'Mac and Me', a complete rip-off of E.T. from the late 80s that was entirely backed by McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Just watch what happens, this has to be among the most ludricous scenes ever to be produced in the history of cinema.

Hmm, all this talk of product placement has made me sort of thirsty. Think I'm going to go and have a Coke.

This post was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Always Coca-Cola.