Remember when we used to complain about the blatant advertisement of products and brands in TV shows and movies? These days, you’d be hard pressed to make it through a 30-minute sitcom without spotting a Diet Coke or some piece of popular gadgetry. In other words, it’s happening all the time. And nowadays, we don’t seem to mind so much.

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While the concept of product placement has blown up in recent years, it’s actually been around for a very long time. In fact, you may be surprised to hear that it can be traced all the way back to the early 1900s. According to Wikipedia, Red Crown gasoline appeared in the film The Garage (1919), which was directed by and co-starred Fatty Arbuckle.

These days, you’re more likely to spot some brand of soda or some ultra-cool device, like an Apple iPhone. In fact, this week much was made of the fact that Apple products get a LOT of love in Hollywood. According to Branchchannel, Apple products were featured in 30 percent of the U.S. box office’s number one films in 2010.

At first this seemed like a pretty big number to me. That was before I started doing my research. What I found is that you can spy a Mac or an iPhone or even an iPod in countless TV shows and movies. I’ve rounded up 30 instances of an obvious Apple product placement, and this is just a small sampling, I’m sure. Have you seen that infamous Apple logo elsewhere? Tell me about it in the comments section.

Now, lights, camera, action…