The iPhone in movies can only be used by good characters. But Apple does it a lot

According to a new study, Apple is more likely than others to place its products in movies and on television, even outside of its own Apple TV+ programs. Product placement — is when a company pays to have one of its products featured in a TV show. If a character says he has a Bing search, that means he’s been paid by Microsoft.

So if a character says he has a Bing search, then he’s been paid by Microsoft.

But that’s why in the TV series «Castle» Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) had a different phone every week. In the TV series «Community», Subway’s ads became a huge part of the plot, as well as the subject of jokes.

Once you see a particular product on the show, however, it doesn’t mean it was paid to appear. It may be because a character uses that particular product, or it may simply be because the writers and producers like it.

So it’s not just because it’s a product that the writers and producers use.

For example, in the first season of the show «In a Building Only Murders» Mabel wants to attack people with a knitting needle. In an early version of the script, written by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, it was an Apple Pencil. And you don’t want to know how Mabel describes Android phones in the voiceover.

And you don’t want to know how Mabel describes Android phones in the voiceover text.

No firm discloses what it pays for in product placements, but UK-based Merchant Machine took a list of 890 TV series and 2,227 movies posted on the Product Placement Blog and looked at what gets posted most often.

Merchant Machine.

The answer, by a wide margin, — is Apple.

«Apple is the most placed brand in both movies and television, appearing about three times as often as rival Dell, although Apple only recently overtook Dell in personal computer market share» — the researchers said. «In addition, Apple is 83.6 percent more likely than second-place Coca-Cola to appear in nearly one-third of the top-grossing movies at the U.S. box office since 2001».

Researchers note that in one episode, the character Ted Lasso even mentioned wanting to buy Apple stock. They also note that the Wall Street Journal did its own research and found that «in 74 episodes of Apple TV+, characters handled roughly 300 iPhones, 120 MacBooks and 40 pairs of AirPods».

Not to be left out, AppleInsider pointed out the almost ridiculous number of Apple devices used by characters on the show «The Afterparty». From a wedding DJ using AirPods Max to a murder victim who apparently runs a cryptocurrency business out of a Mac Studio, — Apple devices are everywhere in the show.

Apple devices are everywhere.

The Afterparty

Apple devices are everywhere.

Gotta hand it to Apple and the producers: if you weren’t someone who reads AppleInsider — or writes for it, — you wouldn’t have noticed them.

Or rather, you wouldn’t consciously register that Apple is everywhere, but probably subconsciously — it all helps to remember the company.