In a battle near the end of box-office smash Iron Man, the villain is stomping on the hero when an Audi R8 smashes into the bad guy, knocking him off balance and allowing Iron Man to escape.
For Audi, the scene was a dream, a chance for its new sports car to shine in a protagonist's role.
Unfortunately, it ended up on the cutting room floor, and since Audi had signed on to spend big bucks promoting the movie with advertising and a website - not to mention lending the production many of cars (including two R8s that were wrecked) - something had to be done to keep the Germans happy.
The solution: run a drawn-out shot of an Audi Q7 SUV being saved by Iron Man himself, complete with a sustained full-frontal of Audi's four-ring logo.
Arden Doss, managing director of Propaganda, a product placement firm that co-ordinates Audi's film and TV deals, said: "They agreed to make us comfortable with what we were getting."
Movies and TV shows are packed with product placements, from soap to soda, but the tango between car companies and Hollywood is increasingly intimate.
Many big films these days, from Wanted (Chrysler) to The Dark Knight (Lamborghini) have significant car placements, and television shows build similar relationships on shows such as Weeds (Toyota) and Damages (General Motors).
Nearly all car makers have their own product-placement firms, keep fleets of cars available for productions that need them (GM has nearly 400 on hand), and wine and dine directors and producers in hopes of convincing them that their model is perfect, as it's known in the biz, for the "hero car" role.
"Car deals are big money," said LeeAnne Stables, head of worldwide marketing partnerships for Paramount, which co-produced Iron Man with Marvel Films.
Surprisingly, very little money ever changes hands.
Instead of cutting checks, the auto industry has learned to help with production costs, as studios borrow cars for use on-camera, for transportation and, as was the case for Iron Man, for chauffeured rides to the premiere party.
And, more importantly, Hollywood leans on car makers to help with marketing.
Frank Zazza, founder and chief executive of iTVX, which measures and rates product placement, said: "It's no longer, 'Here's $50,000, get my car in a background shot.' Now, you negotiate a package of advertising, marketing, space on your website, and in exchange, the product is in the picture."
Carefully selecting the cars in movies is nothing new.
In the 1930s, Warner Brothers had a deal with Buick to put its cars in movies such as the Busby Berkeley musical Gold Diggers.
But it was more recent integrations, such as The Rookie (1990), in which Clint Eastwood crashes a Mercedes 500SL through a window and then spits out the slogan, "Engineered like no other car in the world," that gave placements a bad name.
"Sometimes they backfire," said Jason Squire, film professor at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, pointing out that the audience can be turned off both movie and product if the placement is heavy-handed.
"It's a real judgement call."
Mercedes hopes it judged right in New Line's Sex and the City, which brought in $56 million in its opening weekend.
In exchange for a shot of Mr Big riding in an S-Class sedan and Samantha climbing into an as-yet unreleased GLK compact SUV, Mercedes-Benz undertook the costly task of recreating New York's fashion week, which it sponsors in real life, for a single scene.
Although some TV placements, such as a slot under Adrian Grenier's posterior on Entourage, can't be bought at any price - HBO doesn't take payment for product placement and doesn't have any marketing deals with car makers - many are highly negotiable.
When NBC decided to revive Knight Rider, several companies were contacted about providing the vehicle that would be Knight Industries Three Thousand.
Though Kitt was a Pontiac Trans Am in the original series, it was Ford that offered the sweetest deal this time.
Not only would Ford make several custom Mustangs, at significant cost, but it would use its significant budget allocation for network advertising to scratch NBC's back.
"Was there a major financial moment ? There had to be," said Bob Witter, global brand entertainment manager for Ford, explaining that Ford traded its media buy for screen presence. "Knight Rider is the ultimate role. That's hero plus, plus, plus." - Ken Bensinger
