Not being a fan of action films -- if I want to watch people get blown to bits, I can turn on CNN -- I decided to play a game while slowly going deaf during the new James Bond spectacle, Die Another Day.

It's called I Spy the Product Placement.

Over the course of the roughly two-hour movie, I spied: a Samsonite suitcase, Omega wrist watch, Omega stop watch, Philips heart rate monitor, Bollinger champagne, Norelco shaver, Heineken beer, Sony security camera, Sony Ericsson cellphone, Sony Vaio laptop, Sony TV camera, British Airways passenger jet, Macallan scotch and several Bombardier Ski-Doos.

Then there were the cars. Pierce Brosnan drove a $228,000 (U.S.) Aston Martin Vanquish, co-star Halle Berry's ride was a Ford Thunderbird and one of the villains gave chase in a Jaguar XKR -- all Ford products. During a scene in a London subway station, there was a Ford ad on the wall.

One of the most prominent product placements was a person, pop star Madonna. Playing a fencing instructor, she briefly traded sophomoric double entendres with the star. What better way to plug her new single, also called Die Another Day, which happens to be the movie's theme song?

That's when I realized Die Another Day isn't a movie. It's an infomercial with explosions.

Product placement has been around for decades, but the new Bond film, which opens to the public today, takes marketing tie-ins to a new level.

Ford, which gets more exposure than any other company in the movie, reportedly paid $35-million to replace BMW as Agent 007's official automobile maker.

It is one of 24 major promotional partners worldwide spending a total of more than $120-million on marketing campaigns tied to the film -- the most in the franchise's 40-year history, according to Variety magazine.

"Our support on this film is almost double what has been done in the past," said Mary Goss-Robino, senior vice-president of worldwide promotions with MGM.

Not all companies pay directly for product exposure. Some agree to promote the film in their own ad campaigns in exchange for seeing their products on the screen.

Other brand names don't appear in the movie at all. Revlon, for instance, used its association to launch a line of cosmetics called the 007 Color Collection, which is being promoted by Ms. Berry. It's a quid pro quo: Revlon benefits by using James Bond imagery in its ads, and the ads in turn raise awareness about the film.

Similarly, Philips, whose new electric razor appears only briefly in the movie, is launching a global Bond-themed campaign for the new Norelco 8894XL Spectra James Bond shaver. Other partners include Finlandia vodka (it replaced Smirnoff, Mr. Bond's vodka of choice for 40 years), Visa, Best Buy, Circuit City, Swatch and video game maker Electronic Arts.

That's a lot of companies vying for a piece of Mr. Bond. And it raises a troubling question for advertisers: Has product placement -- ubiquitous in movies and TV shows and now sneaking into theatre productions -- become a victim of its own success?

When it was still in its infancy -- think Reese's Pieces in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial -- it was a novel way to stand out. But as more brands climb aboard the product placement bandwagon, the technique risks becoming commonplace and uninteresting -- or, worse, annoying.

"When it's done occasionally, I think it can cut through. When it becomes a staple vehicle in all our television and films, it ceases to have an impact. It just blends into the background," says Ian MacLean, vice-president with iTVLab, part of media buying firm Media Experts in Montreal.

Others worry that, with studios under pressure to defray rising production costs, marketers are beginning to exert too much influence over films. After watching Die Another Day, one has to wonder how many scenes were inserted solely for the purpose of showcasing a brand or product.

"This is the direction that the movie industry is going in, which is towards movie as infomercial, and that's sad," says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, an organization based in Portland, Ore., and founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

"People don't pay eight or 10 bucks to see a movie and then get hammered with ads.

"It's disrespectful to moviegoers."

If the trend continues, advertisers and movie studios could face a backlash, he adds.

"After landing roles in and around major movie properties, it's only a matter of time before advertisers start fully financing pics," Variety predicted.

If you think Agent 007 has a licence to shill now, just wait.