Apple pays for placement?

Tenacious: Do you also think that the "donations" made by lobbying groups and corporations to politicians don't affect the way they vote? Do you think that they remain unbiased and those "donations" only buy them face time? Technically these companies like Apple may just be buying insurance that the commentor talks about the product, but do you really think there isn't a conflict of interest that might lead to overly positive reviews given the desire by the commentor to keep these lucrative arrangements?

This is not unlike how ExxonMobil spends millions funding global warming skeptics (http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html). It's wrong. Apple should be ashamed as should NBC for calling their product News.

Tenacious: Do you also think that the "donations" made by lobbying groups and corporations to politicians don't affect the way they vote? Do you think that they remain unbiased and those "donations" only buy them face time? Technically these companies like Apple may just be buying insurance that the commentor talks about the product, but do you really think there isn't a conflict of interest that might lead to overly positive reviews given the desire by the commentor to keep these lucrative arrangements?

um, this is news? Cmon kids, this is America Inc. EVERYTHING you see, touch, hear or smell from the media is bought and sold - including your favorite color, tv show and the last amazon shipped you.

Guys, the bottom line is, everytime you see an Apple computer or Apple product on your television screen, it cost Apple a great deal to get it their. Now, this is not 100% of the time, the case (although it is if we are talking motion picture movies) yet the vast majority. As the NBC official said, it's just the way things are run. Hell, tell me who to contact about this stuff and I'll go onboard! Where can you make $15K in about 30 minutes other than this? Err.. You could be a drug dealer but thats illegal.

it makes me sad to see all the apple logos covered and them using some real fakey unix-like OS in Alias. i point out macs to my girlfriend whenever i see them, and Alias is chocked full of them, however they all have the apple logo covered with a big red dot.

I'm interpreting this as being that he gets paid to talk about the products in his tech report. What he says about them is his own opinion and hopefully not influenced by the money paid to him. Apple could be paying him to just mention the product, but he might not like the product which means he could easily just give it a negative review. Apple doesn't pay him to say nice things about their products, just to give them a mention, as he's suggesting. It's just product placement that's being paid for. The marketing (positive or negative) is free, regardless of whether he likes your product or not.

Paying for product placement is one thing- that I can understand. Its called advertising. Paying for a positive review in the media, is another. That would be like posting false product performances. Its not a fine line, but its worth examining the process by which a review is obtained and if the company is "sponsoring" good reviews.

I think it's the cost of doing business. I worked for a Fortune 1000 company a couple of years ago in the marketing dept. We paid ALL THE TIME for placement in movies. ALL THE TIME. In addition we bought spots on cable and prime time TV, radio, internet, etc. It's what BigCo, Inc. does. Why not let the free market determine what works and what doesn't? It may turn out that the Greenberg's of the world are the next iteration of the business model (and that's OK). If it works, it lives. If it doesn't, it mutates until it finds a suitable hold or expires.

I love how Apple of Japan had product placement in some 90s Godzilla movies. Take a look at Godzilla VS. Destroya and there are 90s Macs all over the place. I am just ashamed that Apple was in "Independance Day".