Kudos to Nike for taking advantage of their pop culture status to help the Michael J. Fox Foundation. It makes me curious about whether a brand is looked on more favorably or not when the product placement is more in line with how the story is told and not just for show. Back to the Future uses it to show time passing and fads/clothing design changing. It's quite a clever use, really. But take Aston Martin and James Bond. Over the last few movies the car had nothing to do with the movie's script itself...it was just there for show. And before the movie even came out I'm watching clips of the car sliding on ice and spinning out and being told that if I buy it I'll be just like an agent of the British Intelligence. [Insert countless other tie-in campaigns that are only for show here: Toy Story / Burger King, etc.]

It's hard to imagine a pitch for product placement where you say "we'll find a script that can tie in your brand and not just your product, wait 10 years, and then come up with a campaign that ties it all together." But it would make for some pretty clever ideas, I'd think.