Austin Powers lives in a bachelor pad with highly desirable boy's toys, including six Flat TVs. The pad itself is located above a Philips electronics store with prominent advertisements for HDTVs. That doesn't mean getting one TV set into a lot of different films, but clusters of products in a high quality movie. This means getting electronics involved in the plot, rather than merely using them as props and decoration. Getting corporate sponsors involved in the screenwriting process is nothing new in Hollywood.
Product placement is a mature business aspect of film financing.
They read the script of Austin Powers and identified opportunities for Philips. Then they went to talk to set decorators and prop departments. Our goal was to get multi-exposure. For instance, having Austin Powers use a cell phone might not have much impact because you would never see the logo properly. The electronics store provides much more significant exposure for the brand.