High Tech Product Placement
from the it's-everywhere dept
An old boss of mine had worked at Apple for many years, and said his job was to get Apple products on TV and in movies. He took credit for, among other things, the famous Independence Day Mac-virus-that-kills-the-aliens. It seems that other tech companies are picking up on his lead. SF Gate has an article about the recent rising trend towards high tech product placement. It mainly focuses on RSA and Sierra Wireless who have had their products appear in various movies. Both companies say they're doing so just to increase basic awareness of what their products do. RSA, not surprisingly, says they won't agree to a product placement in a movie where their security technology gets breached. The article points out that no one seems to have a problem when technology performs above and beyond the possible call of duty, such as the Macs in Independance Day. They also point out that some technology companies are getting product placement without even asking for it - with the prime example being Tivo. Apparently, a number of TV shows have been mentioning Tivo without any prompting by the company. Tivo says they're surprised whenever they see it - but luckily, thanks to their own devices, they've got it recorded so they can verify what was said.
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