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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?

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    Curious, what other sort of reason could you think of?
    – Catija
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 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
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 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
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 at 21:54
  • +1 Catija, thank you for that anecdote! I hadn't heard of it but searched and found a great write-up: snopes.com/business/market/mandms.asp
    – Shiz Z.
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 at 22:47
  • Maybe the show's creators are big Microsoft fanboys.
    – asmeurer
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 at 22:59

2 Answers 2

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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.

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  • Castle is interesting because I always thought Castle himself had an iPhone.
    – Catija
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 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
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 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
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 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.
    Commented Feb 12, 2015 at 2:40
  • @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
    Commented Feb 12, 2015 at 8:47
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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.

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