With every big new release comes a slew of cross-promotional gimmicks. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull is no exception. The Terminal proved that Steven Spielberg is practically a choreographer when it comes to product placement, but the jury's still out on whether he has managed to work Dr. Pepper into his latest film. Either way, the soda's in on the game. Dr. Pepper has a ton of contests going on now tied to the upcoming release: Any given can might take you on a vacation to Egypt, India, Jordan or Peru. You might also win a t-shirt or an iPod nano (there are twenty-three of them secretly buried in Dr. Pepper cans as you read this, like carbonated golden tickets). Chances are, the prizes won't give Indy fans the same the thrill as hearing John Williams' classic score and watching Harrison Ford duke it out all over again, so consider the possibility of a free vacation as a cinematic bonus point. Or just ignore the whole thing.

The real question isn't whether or not commercial campaigns tied to blockbusters are exploitative or asinine. What you're surely wondering is: Wouldn't Indy prefer Coca-Cola? As a matter of fact, if you go back to 1982, you'll see that was probably the case. But I suppose time changes people.

I've seen some pretty wild movie promotions in my lifetime, but this one has to be one of the more elaborate and fun (if you're a die hard Simpsons fan). As part of the "most massive and complex" monthlong promotion, a dozen 7-Eleven convenience stores across the United States and Canada have undergone a facelift, and have now officially become a Kwik-E-Mart -- based on the popular location featured in The Simpsons TV show. Those stores with exterior changes are located in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Burbank, CA., Los Angeles, New York City, Las Vegas, Buena Vista, Fla., Seattle, Mountain View, CA., Bladensburg MD., and Coquitlam, B.C., Canada. Why they didn't transform a 7-Eleven located in one of the many Springfields across the country, I have no idea. Nevertheless, the promotion will run through the film's release on July 27, and come down at the end of the month.

Ah, but a change of name is only the beginning. Over one thousand customized in-store displays and signs have also been created, along with actual products featured in the TV show. Among those items you can currently purchase in all 6,400 stores are KrustyO's frosted cereal and Buzz Cola. Those famous 7-Eleven Slurpee machines have also been re-invented as the Kwik-E-Mart Squishee, featuring the WooHoo! Blue Vanilla Squishees from the show. Additionally (and this is something I'm definitely picking up), Matt Groening's Bongo Entertainment Group has created an original 32-page Radioactive Man comic book, numbered 711. It comes wrapped in plastic and will be sold exclusively at 7-Eleven for $3.99. The one item not on the shelves, unfortunately, will be Duff Beer, because it doesn't jive with the film's PG-13 rating. Bummer. Same goes for the character Snake -- his thieving ways aren't exactly PG-13 friendly ... even if he is just a cartoon character. So make sure to stop by your local 7-Eleven, and definitely let us know what else there is to snatch up. Oh, and I could not find the exact locations for those dozen stores dressed up as Kwik-E-Marts, so if you know where they are, let everyone know in the comments section below. The Simpsons Movie hits theaters on July 27.

As Posterwire.com points out, it's a promotional stunt worthy of exploitation film pioneer William Castle. The producers of the Saw films have organized blood drives to promote the release of each installment of the franchise. Posters promoting the Saw 3 blood drive, however, required some retooling at the request of the American Red Cross. The posters originally showed creepy goth nurses whose uniforms displayed the well known Red Cross symbol. While the symbol may be commonly thought to be in the public domain, it is in fact a registered trademark and has been removed from the posters (here's a before and after). Interestingly, this is not the first time the Saw franchise has needed to rethink it's posters, as the MPAA took issue with the original design for the Saw II poster, resulting in a less graphic print being used.

While some might consider this a tongue-in-cheek form of self-promotion, it's hard to argue with the results. For the 2004 1st Annual Saw Halloween Blood Drive, 4,200 pints of blood were collected, and the 2005 2nd Annual Saw II Blood Drive upped the ante to 10,000 liters of blood. Needless to say, hopes are running high for the 3rd Annual Saw 3 Blood Drive to exceed both its predecessors. For more information on this year's blood drive, click on over to Saw 3's official site.

Though Amazon.com has yet to initiate its widely-anticipated foray into the movie rental business (currently expected to be launching next month), it has today announced its intention to get into production. The company recently acquired the rights to The Stolen Child, the best-selling debut novel by Keith Donohue, and is now in the process of tracking down a screenwriter and director. The book actually sounds really disturbing -- it tells the story of "a 7-year-old [who] is kidnapped by forest-dwelling changelings, who replace him with a look-alike." The kid ends up "[roaming] the woods with a pack of feral children" while his replacement tries to fit in with his new family. YIKES.

Interestingly, Amazon's main role in the film will be in advertising. Sort of like Starbucks recently did with Akeelah and the Bee, Amazon will use its website to promote the hell out of the movie when release time comes. While this is sure to be incredibly annoying (I'm envisioning a movie-related version of ESPN's endless, odious shilling of their crappy cell phones), it'll be sure to get the film a massive amount of exposure, since everyone and their brother uses Amazon for, well, everything. And, if you click on the book title above, you'll get an idea of what they have in store -- for some reason, Amazon's been pimping the hell out of the novel for a while.

Sorry, dear readers, but the folks at Fox Searchlight asked us to take down the photo we previously had up for this Caption This! Therefore, we are starting the contest over beginning right now -- 1:48PM EDT. Captions entered previously will not be counted and are being deleted so as not to give too much about the film away. Sorry about that, y'all had some good ones, too. - Ed.

In celebration of the upcoming release of Little Miss Sunshine -- one of the year's favorites for at least two of our writers -- we're dusting off the Caption This! game. This time, though, you get more than our respect and a lousy Cinematical tshirt. Instead, the winner will walk away with a prize pack including such glories as a Little Miss Sunshine poster and tshirt, in addition to other things so cool we can't even mention them in print. So, do you your worst: The deadline for entries (put them in the comments, please) is 5pm eastern time, Wednesday.

Starbucks is seeking to expand into movies and books with the help of the William Morris agency. The alliance allows the influential talent agency to find music, film and book projects for Starbucks to consider for marketing in its stores. As we reported earlier, Starbucks started promoting their first movie venture, Lionsgate’s Akeelah and the Bee, by advertising the attraction on coffee sleeves and putting up words of the day on its chalkboard menus. The New York Times quotes Starbucks’ founder Howard Schultz as saying “We want to see our name associated with the kind of music, literature and movies that [will make] people say, ‘I’m glad Starbucks brought this to the marketplace.’”

Starbucks' music venture has been a success, so it’s no wonder they want to expand their brand’s scope even further. I’m no knee-jerk Starbucks hater, but I’m getting a little weary of these endless tie-ins. Enough of Starbucks as a “lifestyle” destination; I’d just like a cup of coffee please.

Karina reported a while back that Starbucks had gotten into the movie industry (and not just in the form of Tom Hanks movies with the word "Starbucks" in the title) with a production credit for Lionsgate and 2929's Akeelah and the Bee. And, now that the film's release is imminent, Starbucks is initiating phase two of its involvement: beating customers over the head with the movie. Woo hoo! So, starting Tuesday, expect to see a whole lot of Akeelah and the Bee-related stuff going on at your local Starbucks. Don't worry, though: according to company executives, the marketing will be "much classier and more upscale than the average fast-food chain movie promotion." (This is a good thing? I was counting on a Laurence Fishburne toy with my latte, dammit.)

Apart from dissing fast food-style promotions, however, the people at Starbucks aren't offering many details about what their classy technique will entail. Basically, all we know that words from the movie (the "bee" in the title, by the way, refers to a spelling bee, not the buzzing kind) will show up on cups, and those oh-it's-too-hot sleeves. Oh, and that when you go to get coffee tomorrow, you "will be invited to step inside Akeelah's journey." Oh boy, a journey! Thanks, Starbucks.

First it was "leaked" stills on the internets, and those quickly turned into "unofficial" and "behind-the-scenes" footage from all the movies that the kids really want to see. Now, however, the whole viral marketing thing is officially out of control: Paramount has released a trailer promoting the iTunes release of behind-the-scenes footage, which in turn is promoting the theatrical release of Jack Black and Jared Hess's Nacho Libre. Got all that?

Starting March 15, a series of "confessionals" recorded by Black during the filming of Nacho Libre will become available at iTunes; each week for two and a half months, a pair of installments will be released. Based on the trailer and knowing Black, the confessionals are sure to be both completely useless and incredibly funny, not to mention packed with shots of him clad only in tights. So, if you're into that sort of thing (I know I am), get fired up: only six more days until the first one drops.

Remember New Line's "edgy" promo game for Running Scared? The one where you got to play the back of Paul Walker's head, and orally pleasure his wife? Well, it's gone. Sad, I know. New Line offered no explanation to the dozens of teenage boys heartbroken by the game's departure, but there are a handful of possible reasons for their action (some more likely than others). For one thing, the movie's out - maybe they think promotion isn't necessary any more. That said, however, the TV is still packed with ads for Brokeback Mountain, so there's no way that's it. Another option is that, after repeated complaints from public interest groups such as the National Institute on Media and the Family, New Line was just sick of listening to the whining. But you know they loved the internet buzz, which had to have brought them way more attention than the isolated complaints, so, again, probably not the real reason the game was pulled.

The most likely reason is very simple: the movie bombed, which makes New Line suits much less interested in both buzz and dealing with complaints - if, however, Running Scared had made $30 million last weekend, it'd be impossible to shut them up about the power of their racy promotion. Actually, it's probably just as well that it didn't make tons of money because if it had, the web would be overrun by cunnilingus promos, which would be deeply unsettling.

A tiny bit of Hoodwinked, the animated retelling of Little Red Riding Hood that the Weinstein Brothers will be revealing to us all on Friday, will be offered to eager Nickelodeon viewers tomorrow night. The clip - which consists of the film's opening five minutes and will air at 8PM - follows in the rather distinguished footsteps of Wallace and Gromit, whose The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was previewed on the channel last fall. Though the quality of two movies is, shall we say, not comparable, it's nevertheless likely that Nick's target audience (2-11 year olds, apparently) will find Hoodwinked really appealing. Since they'll then refuse to go to bed until mom and dad promise a weekend visit to the multiplex, this is probably (yet another) very good move by the Weinsteins.

For those of you currently thinking of taking in a little revisionist fairy tale this weekend, our review will be up tomorrow.