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I don't mind product placement in an entertainment as long as it's not obvious or blatant. Then it distracts from the story. If I'm thinking, "Hey Chevrolet paid for exposure here," then they've blown it.
I don't mind coming attractions in the theaters, but I do mind actual ads. The Regal chain recently bought our big theater downtown, and if you come early, before the coming attractions, they play a continuous stream of ads and promotional films with the lights half dimmed. Guess who doesn't show up early anymore. This is just another reason that theater admissions are dropping. You don't want to pay nine bucks to see an ad.
It's true that, these days, any sort of spare bandwidth is being sold for commercial space. You know the rubber/plastic bars that you use at the supermarket checkout counter to separate your groceries from the next guy's? At one chain around here, they've actually put advertisements on all four sides of them. And there are little TV monitors at each checkout station endlessly playing ads to the people waiting helplessly in line. That's way over the line, as far as I'm concerned. Because if you want to get your groceries, you have to stand next to this mini-tv that's shouting ads at you.
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