At first glance, it looks to be the most elaborate product-placement deal since Madison Avenue was a dirt road. During the 10 parts of Band of Brothers, the World War II mini-series that began running last night on HBO, there are so many scenes featuring the vehicles now sold under the Jeep brand name by the Chrysler Group division of Daimler Chrysler that no one from HBO or Chrysler seems to have an exact count.

However many there are estimates range from 600 to more than 1,000 none, it turns out, are the result of product placement. The Jeeps are there for historical verisimilitude in that they represent the myriad vehicles built in the 1940's by Willys-Overland for the Allied war effort. 

But the serendipitous timing of HBO’s wanting to promote a mini-series filled with Jeeps just as Chrysler wants to promote the 60th anniversary of the military Jeep united the two for a deal centered on what is the first commercial sponsorship ever for HBO.

The partnership is emblematic of the increasing role being played by entertainment in advertising and vice versa as marketers and media conglomerates seek nontraditional methods to draw attention to their products and programming.

People are looking for ideas and not ads, said Peter Arnell, chairman and chief executive at the Arnell Group in New York, an Omnicom Group agency, who brought together Daimler Chrysler, the largest Omnicom client, and HBO. That is particularly true now, he added when the clients are asking “Is this the best way to spent my money?”

HBO is spending more than $10 million on a promotional campaign for Band of Brothers, which includes television, print and outdoor advertising and displays the Jeep logo next to this sentence: The Jeep brand is honored to celebrate the men of Easy Company, the soldiers whose battles are depicted in the miniseries and all those who served in WWII.

The legacy of the product is perfectly linked up with the series, said Eric Kessler, executive vice president for marketing at HBO in New York, part of AOL Time Warner, because Jeep is organic to the story, an integral part of the war. If it didn’t fit, he added, it wouldn’t have made sense for either of us.

Chrysler is reciprocating by spending $5 million to $15 million on a campaign for Jeep based on Band of Brothers, including six commercials to run on broadcast TV networks as the mini-series appears on HBO. The spots, produced by Arnell with Tony To, co-executive producer of Band of Brothers, mention the mini-series by name along with HBO.

One spot, which begins running tonight, recreates D-Day on the Utah Beach in Normandy, France, and was even shot there; the other five excerpt scenes from episodes of Band of Brothers’ in which Jeeps play prominent roles.

“This is more of a touchstone to our brand values and heritage than it is to try to sell Jeeps,” said Jeff Bell, vice president for marketing communications at Chrysler Group in Auburn Hills, Mich.

That attitude helped allay concerns at HBO about over commercializing the presence of Jeep in the mini-series, he added, as did the decision to have Mr. To direct the commercials. Also, the plans for the spots were reviewed and approved by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, the executive producers of Band of Brothers.

“All of us who worked on this feel protective of it and its integrity,” Mr. To said, so for us this was the right approach. If we weren’t comfortable with Jeep and Peter, we would not have done it, he added. There was a lot of trust involved.

Mr. Kessler at HBO described Mr. To’s involvement as essential, adding: “Everything is in the execution. And here we think the execution works very well. Still, critics of commercialism may raise eyebrows at some elements of the partnership. For instance, the first commercial begins with the sequences recreating D-Day on Utah Beach, dissolves to an empty beach and ends with three present day Jeeps parked on the same patch of beach.”

“We discussed it quite a bit,” Mr. Bell said of the ending, and concluded that it conveyed an appropriate message that Jeep was here then and is still here. The plans for the remaining five spots do not include shots on contemporary Jeeps. Though I’m sure there might be some skeptics’ dismayed about the first spot, Mr. Arnell said, “I don’t think celebrating is commercialization.”

“Nobody is dancing around the fact everybody involved is involved in commerce,” he added, but the campaign is intended in part to celebrate the power of commerce back here on the home front to help the Allies win the war.

And mention of the victors of course brings to mind the vanquished, particularly Germany, whose battles against the Allies in 1944-45 compose the story line for Band of Brothers. Though the formation of Daimler Chrysler in 1998 was portrayed as a merger of the American automaker Chrysler, which owned Jeep, and German automaker Daimler-Benz, the company has its headquarters in Germany and the top executives who run it are based or come from there.

So was Jeep’s decision to become associated with a mini-series about World War II like a decision by Cunard to sponsor a telecast of Titanic?

“We absolutely discussed it very openly,” Mr. Bell said of Chrysler Group executives who included Dieter Zetsche, the new chief executive dispatched from Germany to run the division, and James C. Schroer, who heads sales and marketing.

“If we weren’t to participate when Jeep appears one thousand times in 10 hours, it would look stranger,” he added, “like we felt we had something to hide.”

Mr. Arnell said: “I don’t know if it’s relevant. That was then and this is now. Things change in the world; it’s now one world. It’s Jeep in war, and now in peace."