Historically, product-placement has usually meant a newspaper or magazine strategically placed in a movie shot to give the title some airtime. Or a TV star or studio artfully used as a prop.
In both cases, it is big media (movies) pushing smaller media (print or electronic).
With the new Ranbir Kapoor flick Barfi, product-placement comes full circle, with the film’s hero pushing the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak owned by the India Today group.
IJR 