Apple: The King Of Movie Product Placements

Apple appeared in more box office hits than any other brand--but it's a mixed victory.

Apple products appeared in 30 percent of 2010's number one movies, according to brandchannel. That put it far ahead of second place brands Nike, Chevrolet and Ford, which each appeared in 24 percent of those movies.

Over the past decade--from 2001 to 2010--Apple ranks number two as far as product placements go, its products having appeared in 112 of the number one movies of the period. Ford, with 144 placements, beats them out.

But even though 30 percent gets them the number one slot for 2010, it's a big decline from 2009, when Apple appeared in 44 percent of number one films. Apple has slid from its peak in 2008, where Apple appeared in literally half of all the year's number one films.

See brandchannel's graph of Apple's history of movie placements below:

Comments

[shthar]

05:29 PM on 03/18/2011

I have to post in this week old story because every other article about product placement on huffpo has had comments closed.

Seems like some websites can dish it out, but they can't take it.

[hdohighdesertobserver]

01:17 AM on 02/25/2011

You don't think the Burroughs/Unisys B20's and 30's on Murphy Brown's desk wasn't the marketing coup of the 80's? On the other hand, it didn't save BTOS, did it?

[hagagaga]

12:02 AM on 02/25/2011

I didn't see Apple in the only 2010 movie I watched. That may have been because it was True Grit, but...

[Medude24]

09:10 PM on 02/24/2011

Except that the picture headlining the article shows more of a spoof of the Apple logo- looks like a pear.

[DRaymond]

12:58 PM on 02/24/2011

So what's the point?  That Apple products make a movie better?  That the directors of top movies 'like' Apple computers?  That Apple did a better job of picking the top movies?  I can assure you that if you took a similar set of data for box office duds and critical flops you will find that they too are dominated by appearances by Apple products.
 
If you haven't caught on here is the deal.  Anytime you see a recognizable product in a movie or TV show a payment has been made.  The entertainment industry has people whose whole job is to insure that the paid for products are properly displayed in the scene and that any product that has not been paid for has been genericized.  Apple dominates the product placement because they spend most freely and spend to have close relationships with the product placement agents.

[Daws]

10:38 AM on 02/24/2011

Oh, Alec.

/swoon

[pugzbarbq]

08:40 AM on 02/24/2011

Just to let you know, Apple doesn't shell out a dime for product placement, I know I work in film and have dealt with this issue. Apple will sell their products to a film for a discount price, that's it.

[Ytrus]

07:13 AM on 02/24/2011

Ever wonder what they did with that extra money you forked over to Apple when you could have gotten a cheaper PC?

[hagagaga]

12:04 AM on 02/25/2011

It obviously didn't go to making a better OS.

[Freddy Nightliker]

10:01 AM on 02/25/2011

well that's a silly comment.

[MIKEinNYC]

06:29 AM on 02/24/2011

Yet another reason why iHate Apple.

[Highball]

05:09 AM on 02/24/2011

My favorite product placement was a Ford one, from Alias. Sydney and Vaughan are running away from bad guys in a parking structure, and Sydney yells, "Get the Ford F150!" I literally laughed out loud. OTOH, Ford was sponsoring the episode commercial-free, so .... But still, it was hilarious.

Anyways, nothing surprising here, really. Apple does a lot of placement, in film and tv. For a while there, you couldn't see a smart-phone on a screen without it being an iPhone.

[Daws]

10:40 AM on 02/24/2011

Lol! I want to see that now.

[Highball]

12:41 PM on 02/24/2011

It's really funny.

If I remember correctly, it's a S3 episode called "Blowback." But it's been a while since I've seen it.

[AndrewTaws]

06:10 PM on 02/23/2011

I really dont think you had to write an article on this we already now. The number of times i have seen an apple logo in a movie,

http://talkinggadget.blogspot.com/

[canadian75]

08:52 PM on 02/23/2011

yet you commented to promote your blog