Is there existing plugins to “Click-to-Launch” embedded Flash / SWF content?

You can use something like this:

Embed this script: http://jquery.lukelutman.com/plugins/flash/jquery.flash.js

Then in your functions.js

    (function($) {
    $(document).ready(function (){
        $(".flash").click(function(e) {
            $(this).parent().empty().flash({ 
                src: $(this).attr('href')
            });
            e.preventDefault();
        });
    });
    })(jQuery);

Your markup would be something like:

<div class="flash-container">
    <a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/40287/flash.swf"><img src="placeholder.jpg"></a>
</div>

For more info check http://jquery.lukelutman.com/plugins/flash/

i hope this makes some sense 🙂 Btw: this isn’t a WordPress question, so maybe you get a faster and or better answer @ stackoverflow.com