Branded cigarettes have made far fewer appearances on screen since tobacco product placement on TV and in movies was banned in 1998:
Alyssa suspects that alcohol would be more resilient:
Even if cigarettes became a model, and all of the vice industries were banned from paying for product placement in entertainment, I suspect the relatively heavy inclusion of alcohol in movies would continue, if only as a way to signal the characters are adults, and as real men, they drink beer, or as real women, they drink some sort of lady-approved cocktail (or, if cool, brown liquor). The social capital of alcohol remains high enough for it to be a useful signifier. And maybe instead of wanting to get all product placement out, we should be more concerned with getting certain kinds in more prominently. I could stand to see Trojan get some free advertising, for example, if movies could be persuaded that it’s as important to show couples using birth control once they get in to bed as it is to show them drinking to prove their grown-up and gender bona fides on their way to the bedroom.
Ah, yes, what every movie-goer really wants: more condom visuals.
The Dish 