George R. Simkowski is the president of Prime Time Marketing, Inc. of Norridge, Illinois, the second largest product-placement company in the nation.
Simkowski graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1953, after starring on the university football team. Following a stint in professional football with the St. Louis Cardinals, Simkowski went to work for Bell & Howell as vice president of its consumer products company. During the 1960s, he first became involved with product placement in motion pictures when he placed Bell & Howell tape recorders in The Music Man. Later he conceived a promotional campaign with extensive advertising tie-ins of Bell & Howell and Canon products in the motion picture The Candidate. The success of this campaign eventually led to the formation of Simkowski's own company.
By 1991, Simkowski had represented companies such as Jim Beam, Budget Rent-a-Car, Canon, Toshiba, and TWA in motion pictures such as Back to the Future, Home Alone, JFK, Bull Durham, Terminator 2, and Thelma and Louise.
