The long-awaited Transformers movie premieres tonight. If you're in your late-20s or early 30s, and watched the Transformers cartoons as a kid, you probably have a desire to see this "PG-13" action extravaganza.

But beware: According to Susan Linn, a psychologist who co-founded the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Transformers is being marketed towards children. Brooks Barnes of the New York Times said in an article this morning that the live-action film is packed with cars and planes that turn into "blood-thirsty alien robots." In a PG-13 fight between good and evil, do you expect anything less?

The problem, according to Linn, is that Dreamworks and Hasbro, Inc (NYSE: HAS) are going after preschoolers with their "widespread and irresponsible" marketing of the movie. "Movie studios have been using toys to market movies in unfair ways for a long time," says Linn. "But this is a movie that was designed from the beginning to sell toys and that makes this case particularly egregious."

I didn't complain when John Kerry appeared on the $20 bill (stop and take a look; I'll wait), but 20th Century Fox (Owned by NewsCorp, NYSE:NWS) has taken the misuse of American money to a new low by altering 40,000 U.S. mint quarters with an advertisement for their latest Fantastic Four movie. The Franklin Mint altered the image on the back of California quarters to show the Silver Surfer character from the upcoming film, "Rise of the Silver Surfer," probably to tempt people like me to write stories like this, confident that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

According to a story on Superheroflix.com, the quarters will be distributed across the country in especially outfitted silver armored cars and dumped into general circulation. Those lucky enough to find such a quarter can then register for prizes including a chance to win a trip to the world premiere in London.

The U.S. Mint has already informed Fox that such use of American tender for advertising purposes is illegal. Duh. I strongly suspect this comes as no surprise, but that they believe any penalty will be more than offset by the press received.

If this works, look for 20th Century Fox ads on our twenty dollar bills, Tenneco (NYSE:TEN) ads on tens, ads for T-Mobile's Fav5 on fives, Dollar General (NYSE:DG) logos on dollars, and casino ads on Sacagawea dollar coins.