Apple is the master of free product placement.  How many shows or movies have you seen with an Apple product onscreen?  When I used to work at Apple we had a full-time person (Hollywood@apple.com) whose sole job was to get Apple product placed on primetime and Hollywood productions.  For free. The only stipulation was that Apple product could not be used for negative gains - if you notice, the Mac is often used by the hero.

Imagine how much such exposure would cost, even if you could pay for it (remember, most DVR users don't ever see the commercials.)  Today, marketers should investigate free product placement to showcase their products if possible, and yes, I recently asked Dimdim's PR firm to explore this option for our free web meeting product.  [Warning - blatant plug coming: If any TV or film exec is reading this, we'd be happy to provide our software which lets people chat, share webcams, and do VoIP calls from any browser with no software to install for your show - for free.  Just contact me.]

With the recent American Idol deal, now many of the pre-song clips show those young people using iPods and iPhones - implicitly slipping a message to millions of viewers. More good marketing mojo.

Remember what computer Jeff Goldblum used to save the world in Independence Day?

Remember what computer Tom Cruise used in Mission Impossible?

I'm interested in hearing from you on recent Apple sightings on TV or film.  Seen any good Apples lately?