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Apple And The Boob Tube

Posted by Zonk on Sat Apr 15, 2006 01:39 PM
from the writing-this-on-a-powerbook dept.
Businesses Media Television Apple
Rick Zeman writes "The Washington Post talks about Apple's success in product placement in television shows. While 'Apple said it does not pay for product placement and would not discuss how its products make their way into television and films' television viewers are treated to the view and use of Apple products in such shows as 24, Sex and the City, and this year's biggie, The Office. Also from the article: '"Apple is the brand of people who are creative," said Lucian James, president of Agenda Inc., a brand consulting firm. "Where they are using Apple is sort of suggesting artistic-ness."'"
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  • Obviously for the benefit of the masses (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bombula (670389) on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:43PM (#15136091)
    I wouldn't say film and television uses Apple to suggest "artistic-ness" so much as intelligence and sophistication.

    Which of course means that what they should be using are hacked XBOX 360s running Linux...

  • From TFA (Score:5, Funny)

    by Space cowboy (13680) * on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:46PM (#15136099) Journal
    Indeed, actors on [The Office]'s drab workplace set do not use snazzy Apple computers, but rather black, generic desktop PCs.
    Of course, for Apple, that works too...

    Simon.

  • Free product (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nacturation (646836) <nacturation@NOspAM.gmail.com> on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:47PM (#15136100) Journal
    Sure, maybe not *paying* for product placement but a truckload of notebooks and Cinema displays loaned to the studio for the season could be expected to find their way into scenes now and again?
     

    • Re:Free product (Score:4, Interesting)

      by moosesocks (264553) on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:54PM (#15136129) Homepage
      This is pretty normal operating procedure from what I understand.

      Everybody wins. The studio gets free props, and Apple gets free advertising. If anything, it works out better for apple, as they get free advertising.

      That said, I think that apple products get chosen by the set designers simply because they're the most stylish/fashionible. If you want a futuristic, high-tech set (ie. 24), Apple's the way to go. It's their job to make the set look good.
      • Watch carefully. There's a trend, too, in HOW Apple products are used in comparaison to other manufacturers.

        When Apple products are used, it's typically by "the good guys". The baddies in the same movie would be using some cheapo white box manufacturer running Windows.

        I always find that hilarious.

        This link [brandchannel.com] is amusing for checking out all product placements in movies.
    • Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.

      How would a Middle Eastern dip made with chickpeas and sesame help my posts?

  • MovieOS (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheSHAD0W (258774) on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:48PM (#15136104) Homepage
    I bet they have coders all set up to make their computers display what they need to, as props; while if the studios used X86 they'd have to hire their own coders. It's important for the computers to be able to blink "PASSWORD DENIED" in red, and then "password accepted!" followed by the super-secret information fuzzing in with neat video effects.

    • Re:MovieOS (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gEvil (beta) (945888)
      Speaking of, has anyone ever created some version of MovieOS that we can use to wow our non-technical friends and family? I'm talking about all the "Password Denied" and "Accepted" messages, along with the slight tick-tick-tick as each character is printed to the screen. And then throw an image zoom function in there, too. Have it load up a really really hi-res image, but display it at like 200x300 and really fuzzy. As you zoom in, it just magically keeps on getting crisper and crisper, giving that MovieOS
    • Just watch Jurassic Park. It's blatently advertised in it. Apparently it can be learned without much difficulty by 13 year old girls and has a very pretty 3D graphical interface. Here's the line:

      "This is a UNIX system. I know this."

      How I wish this intuitive GUI and OS were available to the masses. [everything2.com] I hear that Apple is using some kind of clone as the basis for OSX, but I have yet to find confirmation about it.

    • Re:MovieOS (Score:4, Funny)

      by Bogtha (906264) on Sunday April 16 2006, @06:33AM (#15137626)

      Don't forget if you are searching for something, it needs to flash up each and every record in the database until it finds the one you want.

      I can't wait until Google supports this killer feature.

  • Set dressing (Score:5, Informative)

    by vought (160908) on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:52PM (#15136117)
    I'm lucky enough to have known a couple of set dressers for popular television shows introduced over the past decade. We never spoke specifically about Apple products, but she (both of them) had iBooks, a cube at home, etc.

    Decorating a TV set is pretty complicated. You don't show brand names unless they're paying for it (and you must hide those brands from all camera angles), but you want to encourage a feeling of familiarity for the viewer, so you end up with stuff like a half-turned Coke(TM) can that has a malformed "ribbon device" to avoid the trademark police. Regardless, you always display products that the viewer will find familiar - hence the avocado-green washer and dryer on That 70's show. That godawful combo isn't there because it's pretty, but it is a clear indicator of when the show occurs, and a nod to the life and times the show is set in.

    Apple is pretty unique in that they don't have to pay, but you'll notice that rarely is the Apple logo shown on TV shows that place Apple products. Apple knows that their industrial design is enough to get them placed in shows that want to show progressive, forward-thinking office environments or creative, flip characters.

    You see racks of Dell servers on "24", but you never see the word Dell, either - and I'd bet you my neck on a block it's because XServes just don't have big enough blue LEDs and blinky lights - and because Dell's servers are, oddly enough, among their best looking products.

    Apple products just look better on camera, full of artful, swooping designs that are utilitarian enough for everyday use, but futuristic enough for TV's trendsetting set dressers.

    • Apple is pretty unique in that they don't have to pay, but you'll notice that rarely is the Apple logo shown on TV shows that place Apple products. Apple knows that their industrial design is enough to get them placed in shows that want to show progressive, forward-thinking office environments or creative, flip characters.

      In the first season of Seinfeld [amazon.com] Jerry's apartment had a Macintosh SE in the corner. If I recall, it was later upgraded to a Mac TV. Too far away to notice a logo, but everyone knew Jer

    • You didn't come out and say it, but a big part of this phenomenon is that Apple computers tend to be distinctive and noticeable, going all the way back to the form factor of the original Macintosh. Whereas, it's hard to tell the difference between a Dell or an HP or what have you.

      Also, while Apple doesn't pay, they don't always insist that the prop computers get returned. =) I know a few producers who have negotiated for computer systems* for themselves in return for product placement, as well. It's time h
    • FWIW, Dell is definitely getting its name onscreen in this season of 24. Just like Cayce in Pattern Recognition I'm really starting to notice branding because of my negative reaction to it. Dell's logo appears on the back of every flat panel display, and each keyboard shot. I think the only reason you haven't noticed a name on the racks is they haven't zoomed in close enough to show the badge 'buttons'. Also prominently displayed: Cisco, Avaya, Ford, Treo. I've noticed the powerbooks and Macs (Henderson's h

    • Re:Set dressing (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 1u3hr (530656)
      You don't show brand names unless they're paying for it (and you must hide those brands from all camera angles), but you want to encourage a feeling of familiarity for the viewer, so you end up with stuff like a half-turned Coke(TM) can that has a malformed "ribbon device" to avoid the trademark police.

      I'm sure this is a common policy, just to avoid hassle, but it has little basis in law. How on earth could Coca-cola complain about a character drinking a can of coke? The trademark is firmly attached to t

    • ... I'd bet you my neck on a block it's because XServes just don't have big enough blue LEDs and blinky lights - and because Dell's servers are, oddly enough, among their best looking products.

      Have you ever seen an Xserve? They account for about 90% of the LED's in the server room where I work (:

      Front view [apple.com] (27 LED's)
      Rear view [apple.com] (7 LED's .. I think)

      The front LED's in the dark [quakeconpics.com] (:

  • Computers Used by Movie Editors (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yintercept (517362) on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:54PM (#15136126) Homepage Journal
    One explanation is that Apple might simply be the computer used by movie editors. If I were making a movie; I would be inclined to use the computer equipment I use in my business life on screen. If I use an Apple computer to edit the films, I would be apt to place an Apple in the film.

    Apple could get placement simply by making sure that people in the movie industry have Apples ... either through gifting product and service or extremely low prices.
    • It's an interesting idea, but not quite on for a few reasons. Most editors are using Avid systems, which was formerly Windows only software so there are probably many, many editing systems out there that are not Apple.

      Also, editors are not responsible for what gets shot, only how it gets put together. So if all they're given is footage with Macs in it they don't have much choice.

      Possibly one of the biggest reasons that Apple products seems to appear so often, especially in low budget movies and still pho

  • What? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ScrewMaster (602015) on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:54PM (#15136131)
    Apple is the brand of people who are creative.

    Baloney. I'm not knocking Apple products ... but from a marketing perspective Apple is the brand for people that are willing to pay a premium for their personal computers in order to suggest that they, themselves, have some degree of "artistic-ness", or at least style. Yes yes, many Mac users are artists or graphic designers or what-have-you, but people such as that purchased their equipment on its merits and have no need to impress anyone with "hey, look at me I have a Mac so I must be artistic!" For me, a computer is a box that sits on the floor and should remain as inconspicuous as possible, since I'm not trying to make any kind of statement with my choice of computer system. I make that statement with the quality of my work, regardless of the platform I happen to be working on at any given time.
    • For me, a computer is a box that sits on the floor and should remain as inconspicuous as possible

      The whole reason I bought my Mac Mini is because it's totally inconspicuous. A giant G5 box on my desk is one thing, but the Mini is great if you want to save desk space. I don't worry about my computer as such, I just have a system that works and I do what I need to do.

    • Re:What? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by shmlco (594907) on Saturday April 15 2006, @09:19PM (#15136226) Homepage
      "Yes yes, many Mac users are artists or graphic designers or what-have-you, but people such as that purchased their equipment on its merits and have no need to impress anyone..."

      To quote, "Baloney." Keep in mind that artists and graphic designers happen to be the exact same types who'd appreciate Apple's elegant lines and strong industrial design.

      I have an Apple Powerbook, and I bought it not because it makes a statement to others, but because it works, works well, and I enjoy using it. I love solid well crafted tools, and I hate the flimsy creaky cheap plastic crap that other manufacturers pass off as "design".

      I work better on my Mac. It's a synergistic effect.

      Characterizing Apple owners as mere status-seekers is as simplistic as my characterizing Linux-types as people too cheap to pay for software. Sure, some might qualify as such, but it would be unfair, unwise, and, well... stupid for me to tar all of them with the same brush.

      • Re:What? (Score:3, Funny)

        by DaveCBio (659840)
        And characterizing all laptops and computers other than Apple as "flimsy creaky cheap plastic crap" is just the sort of attitude he is talking about. "I work better on my Mac. It's a synergistic effect." is another line of bullshit. You are the cliche that you try to deny. A computer is a tool and that's all. If there is something that sets the computer apart like ergonomics or the software on a certain OS is better for your work flow then that's great for you. However, don't try and tell me that the case c

        • Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by geniusj (140174)
          Could it have anything to do with the fact that it runs a completely different operating system too? Nah..
        • "However, don't try and tell me that the case colour and design have anything to do with "working better"."

          If you don't get then it you don't get it. That's okay. Some people don't care about such things. Just keep in mind that others do.
            • FACT: It has great industrial design. FACT: I appreciate well-designed tools. FACT: I enjoy using it, and even look forward to using it. FACT: I take it with me more places, and use it more often, than I did the Dell. FACT: My frustration level is lower. FACT: My productivity on it as opposed to my Dell is higher.

              FACT: There are people who appreciate design, many of whom are designers. Lack of design grates upon their senses.

              Like I said, if you can't understand that, then you can't. But if your sense of sup

      • Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Achromatic1978 (916097)
        I appreciate elegant lines and strong industrial design. I also have no artistic talent. I like a lot of Apple's laptops. But not all. The others, I hate. Those all white models look like "flimsy creaky cheap plastic crap", too, whether they are or not. My laptop, not an Apple, uses dark slate gray /metal/, and is well designed.

        You say it's a synergistic effect. What is? "I work better on my Mac because it works well" is /not/ a synergy. If you work because something works, that's not a synergy, that's cau

    • Weird (Score:2)

      by LKM (227954)

      Apple is the brand for people that are willing to pay a premium for their personal computers in order to suggest that they, themselves, have some degree of "artistic-ness", or at least style.

      That's pretty arrogant.

      People who work with their computers buy what's best for the job. For some people, it's Macs, for others, it's PCs. So you buy PCs. Good for you. Others buy Macs. That doesn't make them better or worse than you, it just means they need a different OS to "make that statement with the quality of

      • Hardly arrogant, just observant. And you're right: it doesn't make them any better or worse than me ... the difference is, unlike me, they think they are better.

        Now, I thought I had made it clear: I'm not knocking Apple products, I happen to like them. I wasn't bitching about their pricing. I'm slamming attitudes, not hardware. Nor am I slamming all Apple users, just the irritating ones traditionally called "Mac bigots". That's actually a fairly significant subset of the Mac using population, large enoug
      • Ah, see, your problem is that you need a mattress on the floor of your office and maybe a blanket to pull over your head when you're on a deadline, and don't want to be disturbed.
      • No, it's because for me, as a software developer, it's what's on the screen that counts. And like I said, I think Apple has great products and I'm not being critical of them. I am criticizing a certain subset of the people that buy them.
  • Pretty much any time a laptop is shown on TV, you see the Apple logo on the back of the screen. I'm not sure, but I think it has to do with the tendency of producers/writers to want to avoid "generic" stuff in their work. An Apple branded piece of hardware stands out visually more so than your garden variety PC notebook, or at least they believe that to be the case.

  • Comic strips also (Score:3, Insightful)

    by azpenguin (589022) on Saturday April 15 2006, @01:58PM (#15136144)
    I don't know exactly how much Apple actually works to get its products out there on TV. If you want to follow the creative/graphics angle though, look in your newspaper comics. Almost every single time you see a computer it looks like an Apple product. I doubt Apple is pushing this placement; rather, it's just what the artist uses (and most likely prefers.)

  • 24 and bad guys (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dionysus (12737) on Saturday April 15 2006, @02:01PM (#15136157) Homepage
    Didn't the bad guys on the first season of 24 use PCs? All the good guys (CTU) used Apple [wired.com]
  • Apple doesn't pay for product placement. Apple does pay marketing and advertising companies, and if some of the money Apple pays them ultimately ends up paying for product placement.... well, that's another story, isn't it?

    Of course, truckloads of free product probably have some effect. But I noticed that on the last Veronica Mars, the logo on her laptop was covered up... it isn't usually. Did someone stop paying?
  • I'll admit it, I watch quite a few TV shows, all downloaded, all while I work alone at home (the quiet tends to drive me crazy after a while). Over the past year or so, I have been more or less actively noticing the computers they use in TV shows and they are almost all Apple. The thing I find funniest, is how they cover up the Apple logo. I'm setting up a website to document this phenomenon, and have records of everything from stickers (the most obvious), to post-its (center bottom on ACD monitors) and str

  • This is a pet peeve of mine. In seemingly every TV show or movie, they have an Apple computer. Even in corporations where the bean-counters are not going to pay 50% more for a computer. The Whitehouse staff on "The West Wing" all had Powerbooks. I have no problem if the character is a writer, photographer, graphic artist or reasonably successful musician. Those people are in the 5% of the population that will pay the "Mac Tax". The rest of the population uses Windows boxes (Slashdot readers possibly excepte

  • Apple is the brand of people who are creative

    I am really getting sick of this cliche. I have used Macs on occasion, but in my 7 years of sound design for videogames my primary tools have all been on Windows and PCs. A computer and the software that it runs are just tools and tools are only creative forces in the hands of people that are skilled enough to use them. Not once did I feel limited in my work because I was on a PC. Not once did I feel less creative because I was running Sound Forge and nuendo
    • but in my 7 years of sound design for videogames my primary tools have all been on Windows and PCs.

      I work in print publishing. I personally use a PC, but am in a tiny minority amongst the Mac users. Actually, if my boss hadn't been such a cheap bastard back when I started I'd probably be using a Mac too, but I got comfortable with my old-school DOS software and find it hard to change. But I do lust after OSX and may "switch" sometime.

    • I have used Macs on occasion, but in my 7 years of sound design for videogames my primary tools have all been on Windows and PCs.

      Gah, I hate the cliché that you need a Porsche to drive fast. Sure, Porsches are fast, but I've been doing street races with my hummer for seven years now!

      Anyway, there are lots of Windows users doing creative stuff, and lots of Mac users doing non-creative stuff. That doesn't change the fact that Apple is disproportionally strong in the creative market.

  • I'm sure folks have noticed that Cisco IP Phones [cisco.com] also get placed into quite a few shows that have a high-tech slant to them bordering on sci-fi (think Alias). Sure, it's not something that a typical consumer is going to run out and buy, but I can imagine those people working in large corporations that can afford Cisco IP telephony products [cisco.com] wondering how they can cool phones like that.

  • In 1995, in "Under Siege 2," Steven Segal saves America by faxing critical data using an Apple Newton. He secretly taps into into a satellite communication system while hiding from approaching bad guys on a moving train. The camera cuts back and forth from the surroundings to an extreme closeup of the snot-green Newton screen which happens to say "Newton Fax" on it in huge letters, and its slow-moving progess bar, creeping, creeping toward completion as we become aware of the bad guys approaching closer, cl

    • No offense, but I've found that description true of almost everybody.

      Very few people are truly wise enough to understand their own limits, and bigots even less so.
    • in the business world when they refer to the "creative people" they do not mean just people who think outside the box, but generally the creative department is the people that do the graphic design work etc. they said "artistic" as well.

      maybe the reason a lot of artistic people use Macs is that they are flat out easier and less maintenance. they use the machine as a tool for their work, instead of spending tons of time learning manuals and procedures and how to keep things secure and bla bla bla. i realize
    • Question is though - why does it say that? I've never heard TV referred to as the "boob tube" before? "The Tube" sure. I thought the "boob tube" was a peice of awful looking clothing from the eighties.

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