“When it comes to placing products in shows, Apple is slowly moving from relying on surprising cameos to taking credited roles,” Brian Steinberg reports for Variety. “For years, the popular consumer-electronics giant quietly supplied its favorite showrunners and their production staffs with plenty of gear. Fans of Ryan Murphy series like ‘Glee,’ ‘Scream Queens’ and ‘American Horror Story’ are likely to notice Apple products quietly surfacing in various scenes.”
“Fox’s “’9-1-1′ is a show about rescues, however, not mysteries. And that’s appropriate, because there’s no question about Apple’s role in the program. The ‘9-1-1”’ characters are constantly using the company’s smartphones to keep in touch,” Steinberg reports. “Apple’s role in the show has been spelled out each week in the closing credits, where viewers are alerted to a ‘promotional consideration sponsored by Apple.'”
“Having that fact disclosed in obvious manner on screen, however, hasn’t always been Apple’s norm. Consider the case of ‘Modern Family.’ In 2010, Apple managed to get its iPad into a storyline on the program – just days before the device was scheduled for its first release. Apple didn’t pay a cent for the appearance – quite a bargain! One ‘Modern Family’ character, Phil Dunphy, clutched an iPad in the episode’s key scenes,” Steinberg reports. “In 2015, the series featured an episode with the action displayed entirely on Apple device screens. Again, no paid product placement.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Paid or not, it’s simply smart business.
SEE ALSO:
Apple-centric Modern Family episode captivated Twitter last month – March 16, 2015
Modern Family’s all-Apple episode airs tonight – February 25, 2015
‘Modern Family’ episode shot entirely on Apple iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Pros – February 17, 2015
Apple tops feature film product placement list – March 4, 2015
Apple tops movie product placement charts – February 22, 2011
Entire episode of ABC’s ‘Modern Family’ centered on Apple iPad (with video) – April 1, 2010
Apple awarded Brandcameo Lifetime Achievement Award for Product Placement – February 22, 2005
Apple’s best product placement ever was “Seinfeld.”
Hey botvinnik-
This is off topic but I want to ask you a serious question since you are such an ardent Trump supporter.
Do you think Trump would like to be our permanent president and that he would work, or is working, toward eliminating elections and democracy in general?
And whether or not you think Trump is inclined to attempt authoritarian rule, would you be okay with that?
I seriously want to know your position on this without being blasted with insults.
When botty refrains from posting politicrap, then he should be given positive reinforcement. Please do not provoke his partisan political alter ego.
I just want to know.
… some of the dumbest questions I’ve ever seen. Trump would probably like to be Emperor Of The World, and that is probably more possible than him “eliminating elections and democracy in general.”
The guy can’t even keep his own administration in one piece or get most of his own party to agree with him on many issues, so how the hell do you think he could “attempt authoritarian rule”?
Apple abandoned pros, and now the pros that used to put apple gear in placements for free out of love, well they have now abandoned apple right back. Sad and deserved.
Apparently Macs and iPhones are a standard for S.H.I.E.L.D., if you can believe what you see on the show.
If Apple is paying it’s a sign of the Tim Cook’s Apple.
Perhaps it is a sign that Apple has grown large and powerful and TV producers saw an untapped source of additional revenue?
TV shows began masking out the Apple years ago. It isn’t that big a deal, and I seriously doubt that it represents a desire for retaliation from pro users. It is, once again, simply a matter of money. When you have many tens of billions of dollars in resources, people tend to refrain from giving you free stuff when they can make a few bucks from it, instead.
Under Steve Jobs 2.0 (and even during the dark days, IIRC) Apple flatly *refused* to pay for product placement in any TV show or movie. Thus the masked out Apple logos on everything from laptops to computers to monitors. Others, ranging from HP to Compaq to Dell to Gateway were willing to pay for specific product placement and actual mention in TV shows and movies.
Apple got a significant share of usage and even placement (despite its refusal to pay) simply because those in the industry preferred Apple’s products. Yes, there were secondary reasons, but the primary one was simply because of those in the industry had a great deal of personal experience with Apple products.
Unfortunately, with several non Apple products garnering the technical and user interface equivalence (and in some cases lead) fewer in the industry are 100% sold on Apple. Thus unpaid product placement and mention has gone down which has resulted in Apple having to now pay for product placement like everyone else.
Apple needs to get back to its heyday of being able to bring down an entire invading alien force with a single PowerBook!
Must be because Apple is losing some reputation due to reported bugs, abandonment of the MacPro, the HomePod fiasco, etc., Hey people notice this pattern.
Yeah, but by paying, it’s devaluing its products and, secondly, it makes people think that it HAS TO pay because shows favor it much less. This devaluation is a devolution of Apple’s reputed prowess and so it looks badly.