We got a laugh out of The Good Wife tonight. In the episode titled “Affairs of State,” an IT guy is shown working on a generic silver laptop.
Except it’s not a generic laptop. It’s a MacBook Pro, with the iconic Apple logo grayed out. The erasure of the logo is hard to see, but I’ve cropped a screen cap here. Look in the yellow square.
When the IT guy turns the laptop around, it’s impossible not to recognize it as a MacBook Pro. But what’s that on the screen?
The Windows Blue Screen of Death!
Of course it is possible to get the Blue Screen of Death on a Mac, if you’re running Windows. (Not that I would ever tarnish my Mac with that operating system, but I understand that some folks do.) What I don’t get is, why use an Apple laptop on the set, but then go to all the trouble of disguising it as a generic Windows machine? Especially when the point is to show the Blue Screen of Death, which is not something the average Mac user ever sees?
My theory: this is a show about a very high-end legal firm. They have fancy offices, nice décor, and work on sleek computers. Windows laptops aren’t sleek enough, so the show uses Macs and disguises them.
Which obviously leads to the next question: why not just use the Macs openly? Is there some issue with product placement?
Of course, the fact that we even noticed this does give us Supreme Geek status. We’ll wear it proudly.
Oregon Expat 
Noticed that too…proudly wearing the geek status also:)
The thing is, they needed a notable error screen, one that would identify itself with the “supreme error”. Mac users are unfamiliar with that but even my 50+ mother knows that when the screen turns blue she f***ed up big time.
Now put yourself in the shoes of the lady at Apple Marketing (the product placement division):
-we’d like to show one of your computers fail.
-no you won’t
but we need it, the plot is….
-no you won’t.
-alright fine, we’ll use the blue screen of death
-not on an apple you won’t
etc. you get the picture.
😀
Suddenly it all becomes perfectly clear! Thank you!
Huh? Windows hasn’t crashed on me for a looong time… but then, I havn’t used it for a looong time 🙂
Wish I could afford an Apple, but as I don’t, I’ll stick with Linux.
But hey, good “detective work”!
I have observed that all the MacBook pro’s they use in The Good Wife have no Apple Logo! I kept asking myself which brand it was but in all looks & design, they are Apple laptops! Why disguise them, is that legal?
I was intrigued by this so i ended up here after googleing it…
I don’t think they needed a “sleek” laptop, as there are lots of sleek PC laptops… And it would be far more productive for a law firm to use PCs and Android devices, as they are much more functional. I will stop watching the show the day Kalinda asks Siri for an advice. And not even arrogant imperialistic American bashing of Chavez did that for me.
You can also notice that they use a few different brands of phones – not all are iPhones. But the ones that are, also have the logo grayed (or blacked) out.
Now, i might be wrong here, but what kind of a product placement is it if the logos are grayed out and the products are on several occasions malfunctioning?
My guess is that Apple somehow made an enemy of the producers and they are getting back at them by making their products look bad.
Actually there is even more subtle Apple-promo in that episode when Zach (Alicias son) solves the bluescreen problem on his moms Mac and goes on to tell her that he´s connected her to a free cloud-service that is faster and more reliable than the companys proprietary solution. iCloud anyone? hehe