You won’t find a Mac sitting on the desk of 30 percent of Americans, or an iPhone in the pockets of 30 percent of movie-goers, but in the world of Hollywoodland, Apple products rule the roost, appearing in almost thirty percent of all top movies at the YU.S. box office in 2010.
Apple products popped up in a surprising number of movies last year, including Iron Man 2,Toy Story 3, The Other Guys and the utterly execrable Kick Ass. All together, Apple soundly managed to beat out Chevrolet, Ford and Nike on the list of top product-placing companies.
I know some really get annoyed by product placement, but while I have to laugh that such a disproportionate number of film’s protagonists and television’s quirky characters use Apple products, I think it’s fascinating that Apple products are seen by set-designers, writers and producers as a shorthand for showing that a character is cool and with it. Want to make sure everyone knows this guy’s not supposed to be a loser? Give him a Mac.
It might not be realistic, but as an Apple user, I’m also glad to see Apple product placement on the rise… if only because it stops television or film producers from having a character use a MacBook Pro on-screen, but slapping some stupid sticker over the logo so they don’t have to pay out. Petty, I know, but that pet peeve, once triggered, always has me wanting to rip off limbs.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
17 responses to “30% of 2010’s Box Office Blockbusters Pimped Apple Products”
More than a few TV shows, too. E.g., “House.” Really, all the cool, edgy guys use Macs.
Brownlee, I’m sorry, but you mixed up the utterly execrable “The Other Guys” with the utterly excellent “Kick-Ass.” Or perhaps your spell-check inserted “execrable” where you intended to write “enjoyable” or “entertaining.” Or perhaps you just have terrible taste in movies.
John Brownlee speaks the truth. Whenever I see something slapped over an Apple logo, as in the pic above, I go nuts. (My wife hates this, of course.) Just last week, we were watching Fairly Legal, and it seemed to me that they’d digitally erased the Apple logo on Kate’s iMac in a shot. Made no sense to me, and I went on and on about it. Turned out it must have been lost in the glare of the set lighting, as the episode prominently featured Apple products and their logos in all their glory thereafter. And, yes, the Apple logo has become visual shorthand for “this person is cool” — as are all of us here, of course.
I find it funny that on Big Bang Theory one of the running jokes is to make fun of Apple Genius’ and on many episodes, the characters are using a MacBook Pro for video chats.
hmm got a question. if lets say a movie character uses a MacBook on screen.
Is there any payment involved? for advertising etc.
Does the producer pay Apple?
Does Apple pay the producer?
I liked when the first season of 24 all the good guys had Macs. There was one good guy who had a PC laptop, but that character turned out to be a double-agent…
As far as other placements go, my favorite was the NeXT cube in “Flatliners”…
Interesting and useful post
These are some great blogs! Thanks for the compilation!