You had to know this was coming, right? The old axiom of "advertisers will go wherever there's capacity" hasn't let us down before and this is just another example. Taking product placement to a whole new level, Progressive Insurance has created a whole new feature for the HD-DVD release of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. When viewers select to see it, a tally of the cost of the damage done to the cars in the film branded by Progressive will appear. This is likely just the first instance of the capacity available on HD-DVD opening up such possibilities. Progressive has created a special micro-site for the promotion.

I guess I don't have a big problem with this because it is something the viewer has to select, but I'm seeing that option as not lasting long. Once studios realize how much money can be made with after-the-fact product placement or branding opportunities then we'll likely see more of this. I actually think this could turn DVDs into something similar to what baseball games have become. Each feature on the disc will be brought to you by a different company, whose ad you'll have to watch in order to get to the content just like everything in a baseball broadcast is now sponsored.