A small wrinkled alien is lured inside a suburban house with a trail of sweets, leading to a warm, loving relationship with the human occupants.
Twenty-five years on, the candy trail in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial remains the classic example of product placement, which is the placement of a sponsored product or brand into entertainment content. E.T.'s favourite food, Reese's Pieces, enjoyed an estimated 60 percent surge in sales following the release of the movie, showing the power of a canny product placement.
Unlike traditional television commercials, product placement advertisements can't be avoided by channel surfing or technology that skips or filters out commercial breaks. As a result, it has been described as surreptitious, covert and deceptive. It is actually illegal in many European countries. Even in the United States, where product placement advertising is permitted, it must be disclosed if money changed hands. In contrast, product placement advertising in Australia is
