Apple Tops Movie Product Placement Rankings for the First Time Since 2011

Branding website Brandchannel recently revealed the winners of the Brandcameo 2015 Product Placement Awards, which names the movies and brands with the most proliferation within Hollywood films over the past year. For the first time since 2011, Apple nabbed the 2014 Award for Overall Product Placement, appearing in 9 of the 35 films that topped the U.S. box office last year.

Brandchannel mentions the most influential Apple moments in films last year, perhaps the most popular of which is an extended scene in Marvel's blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which two of its protagonists use a MacBook Pro inside an Apple Store to hack into secretive S.H.I.E.L.D. data.

captain america apple store
A quick tangential reference to an iPod Shuffle in The Lego Movie also helped Apple reign over previous winners like Budweiser (2013) and Mercedes-Benz (2012), and just barely beat out the likes of Coca-Cola and Sony for the award.

Apple bested both Coca-Cola and Sony by a single appearance, for which Apple can thank "The Lego Movie." The Apple logo doesn't appear in the film but Lord Business does talk about his iPod Shuffle. Recent winners Budweiser (2013) and Mercedes-Benz (2012) showed up in a distant five and six times respectively.

Other appearances include in "Ride Along," "The Other Woman," "Neighbors," "The Fault in Our Stars," "Think Like a Man Too," "Gone Girl" and "Ouija."

The website mentions that while Apple's return to product placement dominance in 2014, appearing in just over 25 percent of the top box office films, is a step up from the last few years, the company's brand appearances still remain well below its peak performance years. The brand saw the most proliferation in its "golden age" of 2009, appearing in nearly 50 percent of all number 1 movies that year. It dropped to 42.5 percent in 2011 and to just 15 percent in 2013.

The newly Apple-owned brand Beats, unfortunately, won the 2014 Award for Worst Product Placement. The company's popular Bluetooth speaker, the Beats Pill, popped up in a scene in the critically-panned Transformers: Age of Extinction, wherein Stanley Tucci creates a Pill using his mind and the fictional "Transformium" material that pushes much of the film's plot into motion.

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Top Rated Comments

2499723 Avatar
135 months ago
So, we're now giving awards to companies who can spend the most on product placement? Ugh. I'm a product of its grip, but goodness capitalism is depressing sometimes.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nimrad Avatar
135 months ago
As long as it doesn't get as weird as Microsofts product placement in House of Cards season 3. The guy went "let me make that easier for you" and walks over to the TV and drags the picture out of the surface on to the TV. And the dialogue pauses when he's doing it. I got embarrassed watching it.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SpiderDude Avatar
135 months ago
Nostalgy

I still remember, more than 10 years ago, seeing a Mac on screen and thinking "Ooh. A Mac" and feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside.
Back when Apple was the underdog. :rolleyes:

Please bear in mind that I'm not from the states before (if) replying.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
OldSchoolMacGuy Avatar
135 months ago
The fact that someone watches all these movies and records every single product reference is sad.

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So, we're now giving awards to companies who can spend the most on product placement? Ugh. I'm a product of its grip, but goodness capitalism is depressing sometimes.
Apple has always claimed they do NOT pay for product placement. This is why it was so impressive that they'd beat big names as they didn't spend anything and were beating out those that spent millions. Much like Microsoft paying the NFL $400 million to use the Surface and the commentators are still caught using iPads instead.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KdParker Avatar
135 months ago
I have started to blank out the product placement in movies and TV. It's old hat by now.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iJandro Avatar
135 months ago
Still my favorite example of product placement:

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)