I was wondering if Apple sponsored Neighbours, they defiantly have lots of product placement and mentions. Every single person with a laptop, has a apple one with the apple logo on display, in pretty much every shot. Andrew recently mentioned uploading songs to his iPod. And Natasha did not just get a "top of the range mobile phone" no they made it clear it was a iPhone, complete with shots of the box and her casually mentioning in Charlies how good some of the features were and mentioning them.
That is alot of plugging of Apple products, surely they are getting paid for it?

Probably just coincidence - as I know Callum got a Compaq computer only a few weeks ago from Toadie.

Would Apple one of the worlds most leading brands pay Neighbours to advertise their products!...

If that is the case then its over the top. Callum does not have his laptop with the logo in every shot. Whereas Chris, Tash, Summer, Mal, Karl, Susan, Kate all have had laptops with the apple logo. Never knew one street had so many. And the way Tash talked about her phone in the bar it was like some IPhone advert. Mind you smaller shows have had big brands sponsoring them like the car ones I recall for Taggart now cancelled.

Could be a contra deal.

Or maybe the show makers want it to seem 'cool': none of those geeky PCs.

iphones are pretty common while ipod is essentially a genericised term these days.

Neighbours IS NOT sponsored by Apple.

The sponsor is Debenhams.

Apple products are cheaper in Australia. Comparing prices the cheapest macbook pro is about £100 cheaper in Aus than the UK for example.

It's just realistic. Apple are a brand that you can't escape.

People don't call mp3 players mp3 players, unless they're not ipods. If it's an ipod, they call it an ipod.

As for the Apple logo, well, when a laptop is open it's a little difficult to escape that being there. They don't have to change their shots just to avoid getting a logo in when that logo is so well known - it's not like with beer where they can create their own, most laptops have their brand name on them.

They mention Facebook sometimes too, shall we be judging them for that? It's advertising Facebook after all!

It is only sponsored by Debenhams in the UK. Channel 11 do not have a deal with them. And they would not stop Apple doing product placement.

FaceBook gets less airtime, but it would not surprise me they do plug its something they have admitted too. However you dont a single character sitting on there mentioning the great features and plugging it. I see what you mean like people say Hoover when they mean Vacuum. But when I watch a episode with the script plugging the product, shortly before a close up shot of the product boxed and then 3 of their laptops all in full shot it does seem a bit odd. I have visited Oz a few times never know such a small group of people of all ages to have the same brand of laptop.
In general I have noticed a increase in product placement since it moved away from BBC 1. As we know they make more money here than in OZ and until recently you could not really do it on the Beeb. A search revealed I am not the first to notice this. As for Apple products there is a few webpages from those who have noticed.
http://www.weeklygripe.co.uk/a955.asp
Now I have googled advertising in general they freely admit to doing product placement on a whole host of global brands. They made the change after it was aired on a different channel here because they would lose a big share if they could not screen it on the Beeb. Now they are with Channel 5 there is no such restrictment. And Debenhams being their main sponsor does not mean they are not allowed to do product placement. Like I said they would not admit to that if it was not allowed as part of their deal with Debenhams. Plenty of shows on ITV have sponsors at the beginning and adverts but they are still allowed to do product placement. In fact never heard of a deal that does not allow both.

Product placement has *just* been accepted on UK screens, in the last few months. Before then it wasn't allowed. So whatever amount of product placement you think there's been...it's not direct because that wouldn't have been acceptable until very recently.

I've often wondered about the connection between Apple and Neighbours myself, it has died down a bit recently but there have been times in the past year when a lot of scenes showed the apple laptops.

I have noticed it a bit myself.

That said TV audiences do like to point out and discuss it when Apple products show up on TV. Like on '24'.

Not true it was approved in 2009. By early 2011 it was being used regularly on many shows in the UK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8252901.stm
However this was for television channels that had adverts already not the Beeb. As a result they could not make the change till they went to Channel 5. Neighbours TPTB have admitted freely to using PP. It was only in the last few months I noticed it, which would make sense 10 months later.

Home and Away is the same though I don't think as many people have Apple products. I'm sure a few of them have iPhones, and a few houses have Macs (Gina's house and Summer Bay house off the top of my head) and don't forget the teen place that Leah (I think) set up a few years ago had about 12 Macs. One thing that annoys me about Gina's computer is it is ALWAYS on.

Callum had what looked to be Donna's old pink Vaio but it had stickers all over the branding. The overuse of Apple products gets on my nerves. How can Summer have a MacBook and an iphone when she's living with neighbours? Can Max (if she can remember him as she never mentions him at all) be sending her that much money?

I think Australian rules on Product Placement are a lot more slack than ours.

For example, alcohol is banned from placement over here, yet I remember Andrew(?) wearing a football shirt with Carling branding on it.

As OP have mentioned, Coca Cola would be banned over here, yet you can see the fridge in the General Store with Coca Cola on it.

Furthermore, the prominence of the iMac and iPhone would also be banned under OFCOM (and I believe EU) rules.

The amount of Apple products on Neighbours is getting a bit silly - even Susan has an iPhone and an Apple mac!

Facebook doesn't seem to be mentioned / feature as predominantly as all the Apple products but also it would be unrealistic to ignore one of the biggest social networking sites when there are so many teenage characters and viewers.

Another thing I have noticed though, is when the characters are using search engines on the internet they never use Google or a well known search engine, it's always a fictional one instead - seems a bit strange when they are featuring products like Apple or talking about Facebook!

I like the neighbours search engine!

Eastenders has Matesgate, I always find it odd that Neighbours uses facebook but ee does not.

Not sure what the current rules were but when PP was relaxed in the UK it applied only to non Beeb shows.

The Apple product placement in Neighbours is MASSIVE at the minute like, it seems that 99% of the characters use the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus and have either a MacBook or iPad. I mean Tyler Brennan came in with the iPhone 4 and in a few weeks he has gone to an iPhone 5s and now the iPhone 6.

At least with Home & Away most of their characters use older devices and some even have Android phones, as for British soaps the only character using an iPhone 6 that I am aware of is Robert Sugden on Emmerdale.

It's calmed down a bit now- there was a major Apple PP a while ago as everyone seemed to have an Apple related gadget but it's not so bad now.

Haha. I literally just asked this question on the main Neighbours thread - then find this thread! Sod's law!

Are you watching the same show, the ONLY character I can see that doesn't have an Apple product is Paige. Kyle Canning's phone is too vague to confirm with the case on it, the iPhone 6/6+ PP is ridiculous now.

They've always used Apple. I always remember Summer with all her gadgets that were all Apple!