Apple products are a natural for high falutin’ teen drama “Gossip Girl,” where just about everything the upper East Siders use has a recognizable brand name.
Gossip Girl, however, is sponsored by Verizon. To keep them happy, producers artfully block the Apple logos from getting into shots, but as a result Apple’s presence is almost more consipicous than it would be otherwise. The shot on the left reminds me of the trick directors use to hide pregnant actesses by placing plants and furniture to hit just mid-tummy.
A nice slide show non-Apple Apple product placement on Gossip Girl at Geek Sugar settles an ongoing argument I’ve been having with a friend over whether Dan’s laptop is a Mac or not…
Photos courtesy of The CW
12 responses to “iProduct Placement: Verizion Blacks Out Apple on “Gossip Girl””
Also in the shot on the left you see the Apple logo hidden by… a bunch of apples! :-)
Funny that the Apple logo in first image is hidden behind… Apples !
Ok, I guess I’m a bit dense today — why would Verizon care about the brand of computers used in the show? They aren’t competitors …
a bowl of apples to hide an apple laptop. nice job to the props people. way to flip it to the bosses.
as for the other shot, a colored laptop case would have done a better job than that sticker since we all know where the Apple logo is on their laptops.
and why does Verizon care anyway. they don’t make computers. and it’s not like the characters are all using iPhones. well not anymore, theory on that is that Verizon signed on after the pilot. a theory that is probably true.
perhaps the issue is that Verizon paid to have their ‘sponsorship’ and the Apple products are the result of the old school ‘give the studios stuff and see if they happen to use it’ method that came from the days when it was deemed faux pas to pay for placement (to the point that for a while it was actually forbidden in tv shows)
Uhm…perhaps they don’t want to remind anyone that you can’t (normally) use an ->APPLE<- iPhone on Verizon? Can’t even buy one there… or maybe they have a lot of stock in E-Machine!!! 8-O
These kinds of things are usually recognized and laughed at, anyway. Who cares? ;-)
I’m noticing more shows hiding the logo than showing it lately. But each time I see it, the fact that it’s hidden makes it all the more conspicuous. Consider the episode of Mythbusters where they test viral internet videos — they use a piece of gaffa tape to mask it which doesn’t even fully cover the logo!