Welcome to this week's News Shopper Tuesday entertainment column. Read our opinion article and join the debate by adding your comments.

A BLACKBERRY is stylish, Orange is cheapest and Apples will make you popular. But I'm not talking about fruit.

This is the message from advertisers who bombard our senses every day with snazzy logos, glossy images and catchy slogans to persuade us their product is the secret to happiness.

Once restricted to billboards and TV commercial breaks, there now seems no end to advertisers' cunning, and a recession-hit Hollywood has fallen helplessly into their grimy hands.

With movies looking increasingly like extended adverts, a trip to the cinema is becoming more an exercise in capitalist re-education than entertainment or art.

Even high-brow and acclaimed directors such as Roman Polanski have fallen for the tantalising financial carrot held out by advertising big cheeses.

I counted at least five plugs for various products or commercial companies in his latest thriller The Ghost.

However, it did nothing to make me want to go out and buy the products. If anything it gave me an urge to run out of the cinema and firebomb one of the offending corporations.

Some films are now so saturated by advertising it's become impossible to tell when the hard sell has begun and finished.

A prime example of this form of aggressive agenda pushing will almost certainly be found in the up-coming Sex and the City sequel, where virtually everything the glamorous girls will wear, drink and probably breathe will be available to buy in the gift shop on the way out.

All could be forgiven if these movies were actually any good, but it seems as a general rule the more product placement, the worse the film.

Of course, money is tight and for films to get that extra finance product placement is a necessary evil.

But if you think I'm going to buy the latest smart phone or waste my credit-crunched cash on a pair of designer sunglasses just because some over-paid movie stars are selling them, you're sorely mistaken.

This column in no way reflects the official position of News Shopper or its parent company.

What do you think? Do you reckon advertising in movies is too rife? Would you mind product placement in TV shows? Add your comments below.

Check News Shopper's website every lunchtime for a new daily opinion column. Wednesday is a reader's rant, Thursday will cover a moral issue. Friday is sport, and Monday is back to the Shopper Rant on a topical news story. Be sure to have your say if you agree or disagree with what you read.