For user Andy S, commenting at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), Apple’s exclusion was especially fortunate: “Thank God. Not only did the film perform poorly, it managed to score three Razzie Awards for “worst prequel, remake rip-off or sequel”, worst actress and worst ensemble. In hindsight, it wasn’t the most advantageous move for HP. A fairly aggressive product placement drive by Hewlett-Packard clearly meant enough to the financiers of the series’ second film franchise to have Carrie dump her Mac for an HP machine. I’m reminded of how Carrie Bradshaw closes so many episodes of Sex and the City typing reflectively on her Powerbook, and how that speaks so poignantly to a generation of modern career women looking for a reliable techno-friend to journey with them along the road of life and love in the city. And while an audience might only obliquely register Goldblum’s Powerbook as it boots up and saves the world, it makes for some fairly potent associations linking branded technology with ideas about collective survival and national patriotism. Everyone is involved in the event as the onscreen narrative unfolds. Think about how captive you are inside the cinema. Part of this power lies in the dynamics of the cinematic experience itself. When the movie came to theatres, Apple released a concurrent ad campaign tagged with the slogan, “What kind of laptop would you choose to save the world?” Apple maintains that it never pays for these placements, though the company has something of a reputation for keeping mum about its internal business practices and developments.įor aggressive marketeers, product placement in films can create deceptively powerful brand connections for a public audience. In the 1996 apocalyptic Independence Day, Jeff Goldblum’s character uses a prototype Apple Powerbook to upload a virus into an alien spacecraft that saves the planet. Looking back more broadly, BrandChannel notes that Apple-branded products have appeared in over one-third of all the top-grossing films at the US box office between 20, more than McDonalds and Nike combined. It beat out contenders Nike, Chevrolet and Ford (24%), and Sony, Dell, Land Rover and Glock (each of which appeared in 15% of top films). According to Brandchannel, an online exchange that tracks new directions in brand development, Apple topped the list of product placements in 2010, making an appearance in roughly one-third of the year’s top films. Essentially, it’s the insertion of brands into contexts that aren’t otherwise geared toward brand promotion (such as movies). In truth, strategic product placement saturates the film industry.
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