That cracking noise you’ve been hearing lately is the sound of film and TV producers trying to squeeze blood from fewer and fewer stones – B.C. Film funding dropped 83% in 2002; last spring, the U.K. hobbled coproduction by restricting sale-and-leaseback program; many of all but the biggest players have been left out in the cold by the Telefilm performance envelopes; and few people even seem to understand the CTF’s Broadcaster Priorities system.

‘Times are really tough,’ says producer Gavin Wilding. ‘Everyone is trying everything from the Rich Uncle Theory to maxing out their credit cards. But what’s really interesting is this new generation of product placement.’

Bankrolling a film with a few strategically placed logos – a Molson billboard in the background or an HMV T-shirt on the female lead – is no longer a card played only in Hollywood. Canadian producers are turning in greater numbers to alternate sources of funding, including product placement and its more integrated cousin, branded content.

Case in point: Wilding (Suddenly Naked) will shoot the golf comedy Foursome with director Anne Wheeler (Suddenly Naked) this fall and plans to raise half of the $4 million budget with pay-for-place deals and other marketing tie-ins through sports equipment, beverage and car sponsors, to be brokered by U.S.-based linksman and promoter Peter Jacobson. The movie will play theatres but will also be aggressively marketed on home video through sports and golf pro shops.

‘We’re creating not just a movie product but a golf product,’ says Wilding. ‘That way, we’ve got two kicks at the can.

‘If you can create a piece of entertainment that has some inherent product identification it can be a win-win for everybody. The key is to make it so that it’s not crass or blatant,’ he says, citing the presence of Federal Express in Cast Away and of The Gap in Minority Report as good examples.

Cast Away reached for the branded-content Holy Grail – a brand so inextricably linked to the story that without the presence of FedEx or Wilson, the volleyball, the film would not have been the same.

‘They weaved it into the films expertly. When you see the big guys doing it you can definitely see [the industry] is going in that direction,’ says Wilding.

Others are getting into the game, as well. The animated series Odd Job Jack, after lingering in development hell for years, will make it to air next month on The Comedy Network with help from Molson; Bruce McDonald’s next movie, Maximum Rock n Roll, is looking at beer and tobacco sponsorship; The Sean Cullen Show cut a deal with Toronto clothier Tom’s Place; the Quebec box-office smash Seraphin danced with the Metro grocery chain to the tune of $500,000; and the latest project at Montreal’s Cite-Amerique, Nez Rouge, traded background and teaser placement for $100,000 from Desjardins General Insurance.

Such funding is all the more important considering the at-best thin margins of Canadian productions. Sponsorship dollars are not equity investment and don’t require a cash return.

Some use traditional product placement whereas others, usually TV shows, run brief ads or ‘bumpers’ immediately before commercials or the end credits. The producers of Odd Job Jack had a deal to place beer in the show – a rare move for a cartoon – but Comedy Network executives objected. Molson instead gets two 10-second bumpers per show, three spots per airing plus another 300 across Comedy Network, and will be tagged all over the Odd Job Jack website.

Producer Jonas Diamond pitched the brewer personally, rather than go through a media buyer. ‘I just wanted to display our enthusiasm for the show,’ he says. ‘We made it, we should be pitching it.’

Vince Grittani hopes at least three major sponsors and several secondaries will sign up for The Weekend Guy, his lifestyle series about la dolce vita in cottage country, due to shoot this spring in Muskoka and air by summer on Prime and mentv.

As Foursome is custom-built for the high-income golf crowd, The Weekend Guy seeks to attract sponsors with the promise of affluent, spend-happy viewers. Grittani is also selling the show himself and is reportedly closing in on deals with a carmaker and a home renovation company.

‘Media companies take a large percentage,’ he says. ‘You can’t afford to give them that much and still put production value into your show.’ Each episode of Weekend Guy is expected to cost roughly $30,000.

Branded content is doubly attractive for TV advertisers. Unlike traditional spots, placed products cannot be fast-forwarded or otherwise skipped by VCR and PVR viewers, nor can they be removed by broadcasters when the show is re-aired or sold in other markets. A little money buys a lot of reach.

Your product here

Memorable, regrettable or just plain greedy – here are just a few key moments from recent product placement history.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Sales of Reece’s Pieces jumped some 60% after they lured the title alien out of hiding and into movie history. Makers of M&Ms turned down the same deal, and could be heard kicking themselves for many years to come.

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Nora Ephron’s romantic comedy broke new ground by selling not just ample screen time and dialogue but even, yes, the title to America Online. AOL’s trademarked slogan hit marquees via a gloriously shameless deal guessed to be worth some US$3 million to US$6 million.

Back to the Future (1985)

It is surely no coincidence that, upon arriving in the 1950s, Michael J. Fox’s character goes by the nom de time travel ‘Calvin Klein.’ Nor shall we chalk it up to chance that he always calls his car ‘the DeLorean.’

Blade Runner (1980)

Fans often speak of the Blade Runner Curse – a run of bankruptcy and bad luck that dogged sponsors Atari, Bell, Coca-Cola, Pan Am, TDK and Cuisinart. Only Budwesier and Bulova survived unscathed.

Raising Arizona (1987)

Perhaps the funniest chase scene in movie history follows a two-bit crook, Nicolas Cage, trying to get away with a stolen box of Huggies.

Honorable mention: Seinfeld (Junior Mints), Wayne’s World (Pizza Hut), Independence Day (Apple Computers), Tomorrow Never Dies (BMW, Ericsson, Omega, Smirnoff, et. al.), Men in Black (Ray Ban).