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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

iProduct Placement: Supernatural-ly Memorable

The most memorable product placement on US network TV in the last month was for the iPod, which appeared in the Sept. 18 episode of “Supernatural.”

Quick recap: in the show, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester travel the country investigating paranormal escapades in a 1967 black Chevy Impala.

In the product placement scene, Dean asks Sam about the Apple iPod hooked up to a jack in their car.

Dean is not impressed with the iPod (”you were supposed to take care of her (the car), not douche her up”) and chucks it into the back seat.

Nielson says it was the most recalled product placement in a broadcast network scripted series for the period between September 15 and October 12.

They gauge the number of views who can remember a product placement 24 hours after seeing the show.

The other top two memorable product placements were Tupperware (Cold Case) and Playboy (Two and a Half Men). There’s a joke in there somewhere, don’t disappoint me.

Via TV by Numbers

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek, and since 1999 on her site, Zoomata. If you're so inclined, friend her on Facebook or connect on Linked in.

Email the author | Read more posts by Nicole Martinelli.

5 comments

    Someone (AC Nielsen) needs to reconsider their methodology, Last I checked Product Placement (movie, book, video game…). There is NO way that Apple paid to have their product referred to as “douching up” anything.

    Unless some nefarious marketeer paid to slime the iPod (or the writer has stock in Sansa), this doesn’t really qualify.

    Whoops. I think I overwrote my own message: [ Product Placement is paying to have your product used in a TV show (movie... ]

    actually sometimes companies will in fact allow negative placement. because even paired with an insult, it is showing the product. the point isn’t that Dean hates the Ipod, but that Sam loves it enough to jack it into the car. just like they didn’t mind when Sex and the City crashed a computer because the viewers could see how important the computer is to Carrie, how her world was destroyed when it crashed. and then got to see a new computer at the end. double placement.

    [...] like the most-remembered iPod scene in TV show “Supernatural,” where Apple’s mp3 player was accused of [...]

    [...] like the most-remembered iPod scene in TV show “Supernatural,” where Apple’s mp3 player was accused of [...]

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