Apple might not really own Hollywood yet, but Apple products do appear in many Hollywood movies. So much so that in 2014 the company regained the top spot in overall product placement as calculated by BrandChannel.
It seems like any movie, regardless of genre, features an Apple product. Whether the movie is an action-packed thriller, an animated feature, or an anti-corporate flick, Apple products will make an appearance.
There are a couple of reasons for this:1. Apple is an iconic brand known for its unique designs. Is everyone stealing Apple's designs? [Opinion] Is everyone stealing Apple's designs? [Opinion] All Apple products have a certain aspect to them. Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive wouldn't have it any other way. The question is if everyone is ripping off Apple designs right now... Read More 2. Apple products are sold in the United States, China, South Korea, Europe, and throughout Africa. Essentially anywhere you can imagine, Apple already has a presence.
There may be a correlation between Apple's design and being modern, smart, or cutting-edge. We're not sure, but there have certainly been a few movies based on Apple's elegant design principles (I robot comes to mind).
What is certain is that Apple products are everywhere in the movies How James Bond Made Me Buy an Apple Watch How James Bond Made Me Buy an Apple Watch Bond has always had a thing for watches. In fact, some of the best gadgets Bond has ever worn have been watches. Which means he would buy an Apple Watch. How will I. Read more. As we are about to explore.
You could say the whole Wall-e The Pixar-produced film was made to promote Apple, which wouldn't be too difficult.
At the beginning of the movie, Wall-E can be seen recharging itself with a solar panel and starting up with the iconic Apple startup sound. Also Breathe New Life iPod Into Your Old Classic iPod With These Top Tips Breathe New Life Into Your Old Classic iPod With These Top Tips We've all done it. You buy a shiny new kit at an exorbitant price, and two years later, it finds itself in the back of a dusty drawer, along with your old iPod. Read More
The Wall-E robot falls in love with Eve, who also appears to be completely designed by Apple. She is perfect, shiny and new, just like her favorite Apple products. Although this is more of a stretch, it is very plausible. And there may be a reason for all this product placement.
In 1986, Steve Jobs became a major shareholder in Pixar. Under his direction, the computer animation studio became a multi-billion dollar success. He had bought the movie company for about $5 million in the mid-'80s and sold it many years later for about $7.4 billion. During that time, the company produced many successful movies, most of which featured Apple product locations.
Even a vampire slayer can be seen wearing an Apple product.
Jessica Biel's character Abigail can be seen loading her playlist onto her iPod before killing some vampires, which is obviously a necessity when fighting vampires, and a clear case of Product placement. Never mind that she would have no way of hearing those bloodsucking vampires trailing behind her. What matters here is that she needs to look good and listen to some tunes. We suspect you'd love Apple Music Getting Started With Apple Music - What You Need To Know Getting Started With Apple Music - What You Need To Know After buying Beats last year, Apple finally launched its streaming music service to the world. Read more.
And she doesn't stop there. Every time Biel's character is seen wearing those iconic headphones, the viewer thinks of Apple, whether she wants it or not. This movie is a clear guide to Apple's product placement prowess.
During one particular scene from Captain America:The Winter Soldier, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson can be seen visiting an Apple store. The clip is over a minute long and shows the pair using a MacBook to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D. (Division of Intervention, Application and Logistics of the Homeland)..
This product placement is just one of many times that Apple was seen in the top-grossing movies in 2014. BrandChannel crunched the numbers to find that, “Apple products appeared in nine of the 35 top-grossing movies.” US weekend box office in 2014, or about a quarter of all #1s.”
Another great movie from 2014 that featured obvious Apple product placement was Transformers:Age of Extinction. .
You can clearly see Apple's Beats Pill speaker in one of the scenes. And you don't have to squint to find it. The portable Bluetooth speaker sits front and center, and is even talked about in a very lame way. This particular example even won the "worst product placement" award from BrandChannel. There's no attempt at subtlety here, and that's a shame.
The worst thing is that Age of extinction featured a total of 55 brands, which won the film the 2014 Award for Achievement in Product Placement in a Single Film Award from BrandChannel.
Even Fight Club Featured products from Apple and others. And while the movie has an anti-corporate sentiment and talks about fighting the system, the movie still uses product placement to pay the bills.
Granted, we all have to pay the bills somehow, but this still feels out of place.
The girl with the dragon tattoo , A clever movie with investigative journalists unraveling a mystery, shows how much investigation you can do with the right equipment.
Rooney Mara, who plays Lisbeth Salander, a smart but disturbed young woman, uses her investigative and hacking techniques to uncover information. It can be implied that she can only do this with the best gear, and you better believe that gear is an Apple product. Apple wouldn't have it any other way.
Independence Day employs a few product placements, but none is more important than the Macintosh PowerBook, shown as the Computer capable of shooting down aliens..
The PowerBook shows the alien attack countdown (with a small Apple logo present) and during the virus upload scene, which shows Jeff Goldblum's character uploading a virus (also fast) into the mothership via a PowerBook Macintosh 5300..
The success of this movie even inspired the company to do a commercial, which I must admit is pretty cool.
The Macintosh PowerBook also appears in Mission Impossible , even though Apple made a mistake with this movie..
The company paid around $15 million to have their product appear in the film, but what the company did not do was insist that the Apple logo appear. Quite possibly many people didn't even realize a PowerBook was used. Maybe that's why a commercial was made pointing out the fact.
Even Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park He jumped on the Apple bandwagon and showed that the Macintosh Quadra 700 is used as the main computer system. It could handle everything except a few dinosaurs.
The much more recent Jurassic world also jumped on the bandwagon, showing a few clips of Nick Robinson's character wearing Beats headphones, though it's possible that Samsung will overtake Apple by showing the most products (as seen in the clip below).
Sex tape is a comedy released in 2014, and Apple may have produced this entire movie. There are so many scenes with Apple products and comments about how great the company is that it ends up being funny (unlike the movie itself).
In Sex Tape , Jason Segel's character watches the titular sex tape that he and his girlfriend (played by Cameron Diaz) make. This allows them to mention in one scene that the iPad's camera is excellent, with the pair yelling, "The camera is amazing!"
It's also possible that the couple owns every Apple product ever made. They can be seen with a tax Apple MacBook:Why do Macs maintain their resale value? Apple tax:Why do Macs hold their resale value? You've probably heard it before:Macs may cost more, but they hold their value. Is this true, and if so why? Read More “understand the cloud.” What is the cloud? What is the cloud? Cloud. It is a term that is used a lot these days. What is the cloud, exactly? Read more
And that right there is the product placement... the whole product placement..
These are some of the more egregious examples of Apple's product placement, which together show just how much marketing clout the company has in Hollywood. What's really crazy though is that Apple doesn't even pay for product placement. There was a time when you had to pay, but that time has passed. Pay for advertising? Only fools like Samsung would do that.
As Gavin Polone, producer of HBO's. Curb your enthusiasm , pointed out, dealing with Apple is something of a graft situation. He explained, "Apple won't pay for their products to appear, but they are more than willing to give away an infinite number of computers, iPads, and iPhones." So give a production company free stuff and they'll include it in their movie for free.
What other Apple product placements in movies have you noticed? Can you think of more egregious examples than the ones listed here? Does this kind of corporate shilling bother you, or do you love seeing Apple products in just about every movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
