No Mr Bond - I expect you to sell...

Following the decision to allow "product placement" on commercial television, there was an article in my paper the other day pointing out that product placement was commonplace in all the James Bond films, and detailing many examples. Now the point is that I have watched all the James Bond films - many of them more than once - and (perhaps with the exception of the make of car he drove) have never been aware of all these commercial brand names which apparently were there being flaunted right under my nose. Which raises the question - does product placement actually work? Does it actually increase sales? I suppose it must do otherwise companies would not pay serious money to get their product prominently displayed in this way. So perhaps it's just me??