Carrie Bradshaw: a Mac no longer

Say it ain't so, Carrie!

Our friend Christina Warren reports over at Mashable that the second Sex and the City film is featuring product placements from Hewlett-Packard rather than from Apple, including an entire site dedicated to the movie.

As Christina points out, Carrie's Mac was practically its own character in the original Sex and the City TV series. The episodes were bookended by Carrie typing away on her PowerBook (a Pismo was mostly used). The laptop was the focus of its own episode when the motherboard fried and Carrie's boyfriend at the time tried to replace it with the first generation iBook, referring to it as a "purse."

At age 25, moving across the country from my family for the first time, Carrie and her PowerBook were both a comfort and a symbol of power to me. They represented the modern, independent female journalist and I wanted to be like her. Okay, so I could never have the hair or the figure, but I did scrape together $175 to buy a used G3 PowerBook off of Ebay. When I did my second cross-country move, this one solo, I recorded my journey on that PowerBook and was pleased with my inner Carrie.

The move by Sex and the City's producers appears to be motivated by HP's aggressive product placement program, and I'm sure that a good chunk of money was saved by having Carrie leap to Windows rather than upgrade to a 27" iMac and the latest MacBook Pro. It really is a shame, and I know I'll wince a little inside when I go see the movie. For me, Carrie Bradshaw will always be a Mac girl.

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Source: http://mashable.com/2010/05/21/sex-and-the-city-hp/

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Cult of Mac

Say it ain't so, Carrie! Our friend Christina Warren reports over at Mashable that the second Sex and the City film is featuring product...

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Tuco

Product placement in film done right: Wayne's World.

The best is product non- placement: Repo Man

May 22 2010 at 5:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

deluded spider

I'm a 26 year old girl, but I can't imagine liking Sex and the City at any age. : That show always seemed to be a perfect example of why I have a really low opinion of most other women - they're all vapid harpies who think it's cute to be ditzy as long as you're pretty.

I guess if I've ever had a fictional character role-model, it was/is Veronica Mars (may she rest in peace). Pretty sure she started out with a Dell but then graduated to a Macbook Pro. And she was definitely never a vapid harpy.

May 22 2010 at 2:38 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

AppleZilla

The article has been updated:

'Update: Kristy Korcz from GeekSugar tells us that while the rest of the cast members may be on the HP-train, Carrie Bradshaw may remain a devoted Apple fan! Thanks, Kristy!'

Yay!

May 21 2010 at 11:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Rego

HP instead of Mac?

Make a statement-boycott the movie!

May 21 2010 at 10:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hal

What a whore selling it for money rather than love.

May 21 2010 at 9:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Product Placement Observer

See also: prominent Windows logos on every computer in the last few episodes of Fringe (even the weird "noir" musical episode a few weeks back). Compare to Fringe S1 with lotsa macs that had their Apple logos obscured. In the real world, I've never seen a computer with a Windows logo on it, save the "made for" or whatever stickers.

Apple's in a strange and enviable position w/r/t product placement: their line is physically distinctive and art directors / set designers seem to want to put Apple computers on the set even when no product placement agreement exists. Expect to see more of this in the future. Everybody wants their due and some folks will pay for it.

May 21 2010 at 8:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

iPhone user

It's all part of Apple's increasing focus on mobile computing. The "Get a Mac" ads have all been removed from Apple.com, so why would Apple spend money on Mac product placements in movies?

May 21 2010 at 7:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

nik.cooper

I'm going to rationalise that Big bought her the HP. He doesn't strike me as a Mac kind of guy. The trailer tells ne that Carrie runs into Aidan in this film, maybe he'll buy her another one. A MacBook Pro... with AppleCare this time. So that the motherboard replacement would be free. And a TimeCapsule so that she has everything backed up =]:

May 21 2010 at 7:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

araknd

Really? REALLY? You are wasting bandwidth whining about a fictional b*tch and her b*tchy fictional friends? You have GOT to be kidding.

May 21 2010 at 6:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott

Whores.

Not the characters--the producers. It seems like they've sold everything in the movie to the highest bidder. It's not a movie, it's a catalog.

Hard to get too upset, though. It's just "Sex and the City". They didn't defile a national monument. The sequel and the original can stand as examples of product placement taken so far over the line, the movie is simply merchandise.

May 21 2010 at 5:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply