In the season premier of The Office, Pam heads off to art school with what appears to be a new MacBook. Back in Scranton, Jim has a MacBook Pro so the two love birds can chat. Of course, Michael has to get in on the fun (“Put me down, Michael. Take me back to Jim.”)
Pretty good product placement. But no better than what we saw in the season premier of HBO’s Entourage (I would have sworn I posted on this but can’t find it), when Johnny Drama carried on an LA/Paris relationship via his MacBook Pro.
I’m sure PC users assume this is just Hollywood horse shit but it really is that easy to video chat on the Mac.
We’re not talking about a bottle of Budweiser on the kitchen table. In both instances, the Mac’s were written prominently into the story line. Would love to know how much Apple paid for these two placements? [via Cult of Mac]
I’ve been doing a little research on computer product placement in movies and television and happened to run into this old blog entry of yours.
In the world of film and media, product placement has always been the number one culprit in devaluing the price of admission. Many believe that with millions of dollars in revenue already being generated by ads and prod placing, there is no reason why anybody should be paying ten dollars for a movie ticket. This is hardly the case. Product placement (for the most part) runs on a type of bartering system in Hollywood. With a simple trade off of products and services, a brand is easily brandished in front of cameras for a glimpse of a few seconds. In the case of Apple, they have been working hard in the industry for decades, and has become the product of choice for many film makers and television producers.
It’s a fair trade. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of production and editing equipment for a few minutes of seeing a discreet fruit logo on screen. In some cases, sometimes the writers and directors believe the characters would use the products in question. For example, Sarah Jessica Parker used an Apple iBook in Sex And The City because the writers believed that is what a trendy New York columnist would use to write her articles on. In other cases sometimes it is blatant exchange for cash.
You will notice that in the newer seasons of 24, CTU agents use HP computers while earlier seasons depicted CTU using Apple computers. This changed for two reasons. The first being suspension of disbelief. It’s hard to believe that an International anti-terrorism group uses computers that are usually reserved for graphic designers and film makers. The second is being a big honkin’ suitcase of money. Hewlit Packard approached Fox with an undisclosed amount of money to display HP computers exclusively whenever showing scenes of the CTU interior. However, you’ll notice that Jack Bauer will find a MacBook or iMac from time to time when in dire need of an Internet connection in the field.
So you see, it’s all about scratching backs in the industry, and with products such as MacPro and Final Cut being in such high demand in film and media, nobody does it better than Apple.