Apple Sponsors In The Piston Cup Circuit
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I went to see Pixar’s “Cars” on Friday. It was a tremendous movie. At the beginning, I thought it would be hard to watch these cars as people. By it didn’t take long to feel attached to these great characters. The part when James Taylor is singing can even be a bit emotional.
In the opening race of the movie, I thought I caught a glimpse of an Apple car. I thought it strange because there is no other product placement in the whole movie. So, when I got home I grabbed the movie on line (for research sake) and sure enough, there is the Apple car. And even more fitting, the number on the car was 84. Pretty cool!
June 12th, 2006 at 5:30 am
Very nice catch.
June 12th, 2006 at 5:38 am
Uh, ‘84 was also when Apple introduced Macintosh
‘86 was the year Pixar started (or when Luxo Jr. was released)
I know the king was supposed to be “Richard Petty”, but “43″ - first disney something?
‘95 was toy story.
June 12th, 2006 at 5:54 am
Well spotted!
It is unusual to see product placement in a Disney movie… 0_o
June 12th, 2006 at 6:04 am
I’m wondering why it’s eyes are closed? (please don’t scratch my durable polycarbonate body, please don’t scratch…)
All joking aside, I like the looks of the Apple car. True to the Apple Aesthetic.
June 12th, 2006 at 6:14 am
While you’re doing your “research”… I believe there was a very fast pan of the birds from “For the Birds”. I forget exactly where, (near the beginning?) but they were still on the wire. Care to post that?
June 12th, 2006 at 6:18 am
Where did you go to see it that it had navigation controls on the screen?
June 12th, 2006 at 6:28 am
Ummm… he grabbed the movie online. Those screen controls are in the application he was using to watch the downloaded film.
June 12th, 2006 at 6:34 am
43 was Richard Petty’s number. The number still belongs to the car driven by Bobby Labonte for Richard Petty Enterprises. If you have a race car with the number 43, you’re referencing Richard Petty. Nuff said.
June 12th, 2006 at 6:37 am
You also hae to have Quicktime Pro to be able to watch the movie in full screen.
June 12th, 2006 at 6:38 am
I saw the birds too! I don’t remember where, but I remember the pan as well as the distinct noise they made as they zoomed by.
Come to think of it… I’m sure there were a lot of stills that passed right by. Anybody up for going throught the movie frame by frame?
June 12th, 2006 at 6:59 am
One of my favorite things about the movie was the drive-in scene during the credits.
June 12th, 2006 at 7:38 am
[…] If you read my previous post about Cars, here are some articles I found about the litary of inside jokes. Article 1, Article 2. And apparently, Apple is a sponsor in the movie as well. (last one via digg) […]
June 12th, 2006 at 7:50 am
I found an error (in the trailer at least). When Lightning McQueen does a donut and spins out on the classic car (forgot his name) his number is backwards, in other words, it was like a mirror of the actual frame.
I would link to a screenshot but I can’t stream media at work.
June 12th, 2006 at 8:07 am
During the first flyover of the Los Angeles speedway, you can see two cars spitting off the top of the stadium. It was one of the funnier parts of the movie for me…
June 12th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Not only is that car’s number referencing richard petty, but that car itself is his 1970 superbird.
http://www.allpar.com/images/models/Petty-003.jpg
Pretty neat/
June 12th, 2006 at 8:24 am
its not product placement really, im sure apple didnt pay for the little spot. remember steve jobs does (did?) own pixar.
June 12th, 2006 at 8:30 am
The 43 car is Richard Petty’s 1970 Superbird. The car was a high speed development from Plymouth and only about 2000 were made to allow it to be called a stock car.
June 12th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Check me on this, but on the topic of subtle product placement…
While it goes by VERY quickly, in Akeelah and the Bee (currently in theaters), in rapid sequence showing Akeelah flipping through the dictionary learning new words, the word “iPod” appears at the top of one of the dictionary pages.
June 12th, 2006 at 8:51 am
[…] As you watch the racing in Pixar’s “Cars”, keep an eye on the blazing white “84″ car.read more | digg story […]
June 12th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Nice find! I haven’t seen the movie yet (will probably wait for Netflix to offer it), but I have been pretty good at spotting Apple branded products in movies as well as interface designs that were obviously created around the OS9/OSX GUI. Meanwhile, lower budget products show Windoze PCs.
-he who stacks pork
June 12th, 2006 at 9:01 am
the birds thing was on the highway when lightning and Mack are on their way to cali.
June 12th, 2006 at 9:07 am
[…] read more | digg story […]
June 12th, 2006 at 9:11 am
The birds from “For the Birds” were when “Lightning” and “MACK” were driving across the country. It was not night yet. There were about 5-6 birds in the middle of the wire, and you could hear them making their silly noises.
I’m pretty sure there was a bunch of pixar references throughout the movie (not talking about the obvious drive-in ones). This must be because of 20th anniversary.
June 12th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Even though pixar for some strange reason credits intel with their rendering platforms. I don’t see why they would. I know pixar uses final cut for there cut logs, but that’s about it.
June 12th, 2006 at 9:33 am
[…] Cars is not showing in Hong Kong until July. I hate it, because we have to wait till the kids get out from school! Damn it! So, I was browsing online and they spot a car with a little extra on it! Thought that was cool. And found a song by James Taylor called Our Town from the movie, beautiful song! […]
June 12th, 2006 at 9:43 am
[…] Apple Sponsors In The Piston Cup Circuit. […]
June 12th, 2006 at 10:43 am
@ C.B.Leslie
Pixar has a massive renderfarm that does all the calculations which give you each individual frame of animation. THOSE computers are racks and racks of Intel Xeon processors (1024 dual core processors @2.8 Ghz).
June 12th, 2006 at 10:51 am
“The King” was not only an homage to Petty, the voice was Petty himself! (And Jr. was Dale Earnhardt, Jr.)
My review (fwiw), is here http://www.targuman.org/blog/2006/06/get-in-your-car-and-go-see-cars.html
June 12th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Instead of “Goodyear” on the blimps and tires, they say “Lightyear”. Most definately a Pixar & Toy Story reference.
June 12th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
[…] Apple Sponsors In The Piston Cup Circuit […]
June 12th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
[…] I’m not at all suprised that Apple snuck its logo on to one of the race cars in the Piston Cup (Pixar’s Cars) [via]. Coincidence I think not, but it was pointed out that the vehicle number is ‘84′. As in 1984, the founding of Apple Computers ergh Mac. […]
June 12th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
[…] Pixar果然還是Apple集團ä¸çš„一份å，眼尖的freemacblog看到在Cars電影ä¸éš±è—了復活節彩蛋。也就是圖片ä¸é‚£å°å°æœ‰Apple logo的白色賽車。還沒看Carsçš„Apple fanså¯ä»¥åœ¨çœ‹é›»å½±æ™‚仔細找找。 […]
June 12th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
[…] Via FreeMacBlog […]
June 12th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
Not at all surpised. Apple=Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs=PIXAR.
I’m surpised it didnt happen sooner.
June 13th, 2006 at 2:46 am
[…] (von freemacblog.com, via fscklog.com) […]
June 13th, 2006 at 3:53 am
[…] wie nett. freemacblog.com entdeckt ein macbookcar im ansonsten werbefreien cars. […]
June 13th, 2006 at 4:32 am
[…] Alla fine di agosto uscirà anche in Italia Cars il nuovissimo film della Pixar di Steve Jobs e, malgrado manchino ancora diversi mesi all’uscita europea, siamo già in grado di darvi una gustosa anticipazione. Infatti grazie al blog di Brian siamo ora al corrente di un divertente e curioso Easter Egg. Quale? Durante una delle corse del film Brian si è accorto che la macchina numero 84 è stata sponsorizata, per così dire, dalla Apple! […]
June 13th, 2006 at 8:18 am
[…] Verso la fine di Agosto arriverà anche da noi in Italia l’ultimo film della Pixar, Cars. Lo scrittore di FreeMacBlog.com guardando il film si è accorto che la macchina numero 84 è sponsorizzata da Apple!!! […]
June 13th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
[…] Update 2: Come non poteva esserci un Easter Egg sulla Apple!? Lo hanno trovato i ragazzi di MacFreeBlog.com : buttate un occhio sulla macchina numero 84 in questa cattura. Già il numero dice tutto! […]
June 13th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
I also caught the “For the Birds” clip. From what I saw, it was half fade into it near the beginning of the movie, after they left the first race for the tie braker in California. From what I remember, it was just showing some generic shots of them driving on the interstate and they faded the birds into it quickly. That made me laugh out loud. So did many other points in the movie.
FYI: Anyway who has not seen it, STAY THROUGH THE CREDITS. I’m sure that’s unnecessary to mention with all the past Pixar movies. I almost fell out of my seat in the theatre at the end of the movie (The bit with the HUMMER was priceless).
June 14th, 2006 at 9:51 am
[…] http://www.freemacblog.com […]
June 14th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Actually there is considerable product placement in the movie. All those car badges (makes) you see are commercial deals. Lest you have any doubt, read the CNN interview with ‘voice’ John Ratzenberger.
http://us.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/13/film.cars.pixars.player.ap/index.html
June 14th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
I’ve seen quite a few people make reference to the lack of product placement. Am I the only one who noticed one main character was a very accuratly rendered Porsche, was refered to several times as a Porsche, had a prominent Porsche badge, when no other cars were identified this way? Was featured driving fast…sexy…etc, etc. It’s like saying there was no product placement in a Coke ad.
June 15th, 2006 at 6:26 am
Bien por APPLE, va primero en ese fotometraje.
Good for Apple!
June 15th, 2006 at 9:44 am
Here are the Birds in Cars, yes, it is the same ones from the short For The Birds
It looks crappy, but it is the best I can get.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6190/copyofmvncarstsxvid01200017sc.jpg
July 10th, 2006 at 8:08 am
[…] un buen ejemplo de product placement ejecutado por apple en el genial film de cars. se trata de las primeras escenas de la pelÃcula y en ellas se ve fugazmente un coche muy particular: blanco, minimalista, con el logo de apple en su motor y un sugerente 84 en su carrocerÃa. sin duda aparecerán cientos de cruces extraños y peculiaridades de la pelÃcula en foros pero me quedo con esta, con la que a mi me ha llamado la atención. […]
July 30th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Referring to the above quote “he grabbed the movie online”??????
HOW do you do that?? =) I would LOVE to grab this movie online!
I wasn’t aware that there was any way to do this until it was officially released on video. PLEASE tell me how… We’ve already been to see it 5 times, and are working on making it number 6 this week. =) THANKS!!
P.S. - I’m a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, too, and was hoping to catch a clip of his ‘car’ from the movie! =) Apparently it wasn’t used in ANY of the Disney/Pixar promotional material, though… I’ve been to every site that I could find about this movie!
August 15th, 2006 at 8:23 am
No product placement, eh? I think that the following products were nicely placed in the movie:
VolksWagen
Mazda
Porsche
Mack Trucks
Jeep
Ford
Ferrari
Hummer
Fiat
etc….
Granted, that these aren’t “Coca-Cola” type sponsorships, but they are licensed designs and money would have changed hands for the vehicle designs to be included, and manufacturers would have had a say on how their designs were used.
September 3rd, 2006 at 7:17 pm
[…] As you watch the racing in Pixar’s “Cars”, keep an eye on the blazing white “84″ car.read more | digg story […]
October 22nd, 2006 at 4:23 am
[…] Finally got to view the movie Cars this past week. Tipped off earlier in the week by the freemacblog, I was on the look out for a very special car. Yes, the first Apple branded stock car doesn’t dissapoint. Looking like a white knight racing through the field, I can only have wished that Pixar used him/her more in the movie. Not much can be said about this cameo appearance other than to look out for it on DVD or on subsequent viewings in the theater. Makes you wish Pixar would put up some gallery shots of this beauty don’t you […]
October 27th, 2006 at 3:07 am
Good for Apple!
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:30 am
[…] Finally got to view the movie Cars this past week. Tipped off earlier in the week by the freemacblog, I was on the look out for a very special car. Yes, the first Apple branded stock car doesn’t dissapoint. Looking like a white knight racing through the field, I can only have wished that Pixar used him/her more in the movie. Not much can be said about this cameo appearance other than to look out for it on DVD or on subsequent viewings in the theater. Makes you wish Pixar would put up some gallery shots of this beauty don’t you […]
January 5th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I’ve send an e-mail to Pixar, and here is they’re answhere to it:
Yvo,
Thank you for writing Pixar Animation Studios.
Before Pixar was bought by Disney in 2006, our CEO was Steve Jobs.
Mr. Jobs is the founder and CEO of Apple and our two companies have a close relationship. This is why there was an Apple car in CARS.
Best,
Pixar Publicity Team
February 20th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I found this and then went back through it frame by frame. Apple car doesn’t always have his eyes closed. The screen cap just happens to be right towards the end when he blinks….still awesome though
March 5th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
It happens at 7 minutes and 17 seconds into the film, right after the pit stop scene. I ripped a copy of the DVD to my machine and that it the time that it shows up in with Quicktime.
March 5th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
It also seems to appear at 7:43 where the cars are going around the bend (bad description I know), but there is a white car with a dark spot on the hood there too.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
[…] | Via FreeMacBlog […]
January 29th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Yeah, I know it’s been like a year since the movie came out, but would anyone know if or where I could find a toy of this 84 Apple car? I don’t think that they made one, but you never know.