That Morgan Freeman story is funny. In Looney Tunes Back in Action they advertised Walmart as part of the plot(characters rescued form the desert by a walmart).

On ET-I heard that the makers of M&Ms said no-so they used Reece's pieces instead.

On Star Wars tie ins-it isnt really a big leap given the popularity of the toys at the time but what i find irritating is when a filmmaker constantly references his own work or that of a friend--Spielberg and Lucas did it a few times, especially in the 80s.

It isnt so bad when Joe Dante did it with older obscure movies but in Gremlins the references to Indiana Jones was a bit distracting. A billboard at the start wasnt enough, they had to have a character wear a fedora and use a line or two from the movie.
Message seemed to be-"in summer 1984, dont forget to check out Temple of Doom playing in the theater next door."

I actually quite like that kind of stuff. I suppose in a way it could be interpreted as being somewhat elitist ('Oh did you spot the reference?' - 'Oh no, well I did.'), but it's something I've always enjoyed in books particularly by authors like Ballard, Will Self and Bret Easton Ellis.
It's a sort of nudge and wink to themselves, but also the readers and viewers and more obviously the fans/geeks.

In a book maybe its more subtle. In a movie its so blatant.
They even filmed a Harrison Ford cameo for ET but cut it as being too distracting.
I hope he wasnt wearing a fedora.
lol

Yeh, I s'pose.

Although one wouldn't claim Spielberg and Lucas to be the most subtle of film makers

How about fake product placement??

Was it Daper Dans hair cream in O'Brother Where Art Thou? Always kinda liked that.

An interesting short video clip with some examples of product placement in films.

http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2011/01/mas ... -placement

I still like that scene from Wayne's World. The Wizard one looks funny - anyone here seen that film. Demolition Man scene seems really sleazy.

But if you watch the scene in question (it's on YouTube), you'll see it was shot so as to obscure Ford's face - which was in keeping with the approach to adults in the film (i.e. shot out of frame, or from the shoulders down, to emphasize a child's viewpoint akin to the old Looney Tunes cartoons).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmucnTf8XLg

I think Spielberg dropped the scene not because of Ford, but because it just doesn't work. Ford's mannerisms are too stagey, and the blocking draws attention to itself in a way that is out of step with the rest of the film.

Spider-man trilogy has advertisments in nearly every frame. One I can remember is where Peter Parker tests out his web shooting skills on a Dr. Pepper, everything else he fails to catch, apart from his Dr. P.

Just eating a box of Ritz crackers reminded me of them being used in Regarding Henry with Harrison Ford - also a big plug for the hotel.