PLACEMENT ADVERTISING
Those 30 second advertising spots which occasionally amuse but mostly annoy television watchers are becoming less and less effective (Thank you TiVo). So there is an industry shift toward placement advertising. Companies pay to have their product visibly placed within a show. For example, that box of crackers sitting on the counter and visible behind an actor is paid advertising.

One of the interesting angles on this is that more and more so the products are not actually sitting there during the filming but are being digitally placed into the scene afterward.

Is it all too subtle to satisfy advertisers? Is mere visibility enough for building a product image and increasing sales? The jury is out. But I'm guessing not. Yes there will be more placements but placement will likely be used in conjunction with some new, yet undeveloped, more overt form of electronic persuasion -- for better and worse.