Total Plugfest

Lots of product plugs muscled their way into Tri-Star Pictures’ just-out “Total Recall”--including the first official Pepsi-Cola placement since the film company was sold by . . . Coca-Cola.

In fact, at film’s end, more than two dozen products get a “thank you” in the credits. Most of them get screen time--sometimes cleverly. Such as when star Arnold Schwarzenegger takes the Northwest Airlines shuttle to Mars. Or reaches into a survival kit to find--among other things--an American Express card.

“We’ve tried to make everything reality-based,” says Marvin Cohen, whose firm, Marvin Cohen & Associates, handled the placements. With a nod to one of the film’s settings--the red-light Martian district called Venusville--he adds, “The idea was to make the backgrounds as real as possible. Which means a lot of signs.”

Like the gigantic Times Square-ish sign for Pepsi, which looms over a fight with the bad guys.

Other plugs: Armstrong Tires on some futuristic vehicles, Miller and Coors beers (“in the assorted Venusville watering holes,” Cohen says), Hilton Hotels, U.S. Sprint/Network 2000 (check out the special phone Arnie uses), Sharper Image Stores and USA Today--which puts in a special appearance as . . . Mars Today.

But, a prominently placed bottle of Evian “was an accident,” Cohen said.

The official placements brought in a “seven-figure” sum, which should help offset the film’s ultra-costly budget, reportedly in the $70-million realm.