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Numerous times have I seen a Microsoft tablet running windows 8 and Bing search engine is used by Diggs to search the internet.

Did Microsoft have a product placement deal in Arrow or was there another reason for Microsoft being so blatantly displayed in the show?

Ankit Sharma
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Jared
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    Curious, what other sort of reason could you think of? – Catija Feb 11 '15 at 21:43
  • Don't really have another reason, I guess I find it curious because I have never seen another tv show so blatant with product placement. – Jared Feb 11 '15 at 21:49
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    Ah. I see. I remember hearing that ET was huge for Reese's Pieces because M&M's Mars company refused to let the film use their product but Reese's was cool with it (and Hershey didn't even pay to appear in the film!). – Catija Feb 11 '15 at 21:54
  • +1 Catija, thank you for that anecdote! I hadn't heard of it but searched and found a great write-up: http://www.snopes.com/business/market/mandms.asp – Shiz Z. Feb 11 '15 at 22:47
  • Maybe the show's creators are big Microsoft fanboys. – asmeurer Feb 11 '15 at 22:59
  • @Jared: You should watch House of Cards then. It is basically an Apple wet dream. – bobbyalex Feb 13 '15 at 06:09
  • Figure that any show depicting serious tech/computing is going to have to dress the set somehow, and it can get expensive buying all the bits. Product placement solves the problem because they get it all for free, or even get paid to take it and use it, so long as the supplier gets their name in your face. Why Microsoft? Cuz that's who they made the deal with. Why not Apple? Maybe Microsoft out-bid, maybe a show staffer prefers Microsoft, maybe brand image - Apple more associated with creative endeavours, Microsoft more with business or engineering. – Anthony X Apr 01 '17 at 14:15

2 Answers2

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Microsoft have simply paid for heavily product placement in recent years, to try to combat Apple's market dominance.

Consider this article which features a ton of YouTube videos with Microsoft product placement, from an assortment of shows including:

  1. NCIS Los Angeles
  2. Hawaii Five-O
  3. Castle
  4. Elementary and more.

This article actually posits a fascinating idea that other companies use product placement to a large degree as well, but it simply seems so much more transparent. So, for example, if someone is drinking a coca-cola, people just accept it as it's such a familiar brand. Similarly, if someone suggests "googling" something, people take it for granted - whereas if someone suggests "binging" something, it stands out like a sore thumb as it's such an unfamiliar phrase.

Andrew Martin
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  • Castle is interesting because I always thought Castle himself had an iPhone. – Catija Feb 11 '15 at 21:50
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    I guess I'm the only person on the planet who doesn't pay attention to this stuff at all (let alone cares about it). Or it just works so perfectly unconciously on me. Anyway, gotta bing something on my Windows Phone. – Napoleon Wilson Feb 11 '15 at 21:53
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    Upvote particularly for your last sentence: " 'Binging' something stands out like a sort thumb because it's such an unfamiliar phrase." Like a comedian said, I had to Google what Bing was. – BrettFromLA Feb 11 '15 at 23:26
  • "Elementary" also has a lot of MS product placement. So much, in fact, that I think the show kind of plays it tongue-in-cheek at times by exaggerating it. – DA. Feb 12 '15 at 02:40
  • @NapoleonWilson: I had never really noticed or considered it in my life until I saw both Elementary and Arrow. I think the reason they both stood out wasn't so much because of the Microsoft logo, but because they featured the Windows 8 start screen heavily, and since it's so recognisable, I immediately felt like I was watching a mini commercial. – Andrew Martin Feb 12 '15 at 08:47
  • Just a very small note: somehow the film "Sex Tape", which contains an ungodly amount of Apple products/services WASN'T sponsored by Apple in any way, I just don't understand that, it was offensively bad. – Chopper3 Feb 12 '15 at 11:53
  • Two points: 1) Apple does not have market dominance. Apple only holds 13.5% of the PC market and 12% of the global smartphone market. 2) Apple never pays for product placement. They've managed to cultivate an image that people want in their movies/shows, even without payment. But, that does leave the door open for companies like MS to pay to have their products plastered all over the place. – Darrick Herwehe Feb 12 '15 at 15:17
  • The market is certainly changing, but when Microsoft started heavily marketing tablets a few years back, Apple had over 50% of the tablet market – Andrew Martin Feb 12 '15 at 15:45
  • @Catija - If you thought the product placement in Arrow was blatant, you should see it in Under the Dome. A character actually comes up and say something like "use this Surface® tablet to communicate with your family!" – System Down Feb 12 '15 at 20:21
  • "I'll Bing it", said no-one ever. –  Apr 11 '16 at 13:15
  • What I think is comical is the USA show Psych. One guy uses a PC with the obvious Microsoft logo on it and the other an Apple MacBook. Both product placements. Granted it’s meant to demonstrate their differences in personality. – MissouriSpartan Jun 23 '21 at 03:28
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It wasn't just Arrow. Microsoft had a network-wide placement deal with The CW to put Surface devices and/or Windows Phones in nearly every show on the network. CW shows that have featured them include Gossip Girl, 90210, Nikita, Supernatural, Arrow, The Flash, and Hart of Dixie... and that's not a complete list.

Shirley Márquez Dúlcey
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