Widely credited with starting the modern wave of product placement. ET is shown croaking the name of the peanut butter and chocolate sweet as he munches along a trail of the sweets left by little Elliot. Sales rose 65% giving makers Hershey's – them again – a pretty sweet return.

The largest corporate product placement deal in history came in the 18th Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. Deals with eight major sponsors including Visa, Ericsson, BMW and Smirnoff, raised over $100m. Bond is also responsible for possibly the most gratuitous piece of product-placement dialogue. In Casino Royale, love interest Vespa Lynd looks at a watch Bond is wearing and says: "Beautiful watch. Rolex?" Bond replies: "No, Omega."

That dialogue has nothing on the scene in which the character played by Will Smith gives his grandmother a full brand description when explaining his fascination with the footwear. Another entire scene is devoted to Smith carefully opening a shoebox containing Converse trainers.

In 1985 the cola wars were in full, er, flow. When Marty McFly goes into the 1955 café he orders a Pespi Free, the brand's diet drink. The soda jerk responds that if he wants a Pepsi he's going to have to pay for it. How we laughed.

Clever and funny is a difficult combination to pull off, but one classic scene managed to. Wayne and Garth are trying to resist the terms of their corporate sponsorship and in one scene Wayne says: "Contract or no, I will not bow to any sponsor." As he does so, he opens a giant Pizza Hut box, slowly takes out a slice and holds it beside his face while looking directly at the camera. A classic moment.