Made in China, loved everywhere

Product placement has long been ubiquitous in Hollywood movies. Everyone who watched the 1981 blockbuster E.T. remembers ET croaking out "Reese's pieces" while happily munching down the trail Elliot has left for him. In his later film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg made sure to include the Mercedes Benz logo in the close up shots of the SUV that Jeff Goldblum and his team use to explore the park.

But the latest Transformers movie, Transformers 3: The Dark Side of the Moon, which opened in China in late July, breaks new ground in the product placement department by featuring four famous Chinese brands.

A TCL flatscreen TV makes a brief appearance in the film, while the spiky haired robot, Brains, transforms itself out of a Lenovo Edge Computer. The protagonist of the film, Sam, sports a T-shirt from Meters/Bonwe, a mid-level Chinese retailer with a large follower among hip, younger clothes buyers in China. And in one scene, a scientist says he needs to quickly finish his Yili Shuhua low-lactose milk first.