Imagine you're a huge automobile manufacturing company. (Imagine harder! You're a complex of buildings, factories, offices and... Oh, never mind. Bad metaphor.)
OK, specifically: Imagine you're a marketing exec at GM. Now imagine the ginormous year-end bonus you're going to get as a result of your collaboration with Paramount Pictures and toy-maker Hasbro on this summer's Transformers movie. Are you imagining swimming in cash? Good job.
All of the Autobots--the "good guy" Transformers battling to keep humans safe from the "bad guy" Decepticons--are robots that turn into vehicles manufactured by General Motors. It's not hard to imagine the toy people, the car people and the movie people all toasting each other's success this summer, as they co-brand cars, toys and related products.
Check out our slide show of vehicles "starring" in the film from this spring's promo event hosted by GM and Paramount. Like any other movie stars, they got their own red carpet treatment.