In the Apple TV spots, actor Justin Long plays a comfortable and lucrative role. He is cool, slightly superior, but ultimately just clever enough.
In the new movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Long plays a role many actors might have turned down. Moreover, many clients, on hearing the character their main spokesperson had chosen to play, would have attempted to prevent him from appearing in the movie at all. They might even have threatened to cancel his contract.
After all, here we have the most recognizable film personification of one of the world's most recognizable brands, Apple. And he's playing a gay porn star.
In fact, not only is he playing a gay porn star, he's actually advertising the iPhone while he's advertising his affection for his boyfriend's bottom.
Zack and Miri is not a great movie. But Long's performance, as he adopts an unusually deep throaty voice and a passion for his craft as well as his man, is the inspiration for much of the ensuing carnal action. In perhaps five minutes of screen time, he shoplifts the movie.
So here's what you might be wondering. Did Apple approve Long's participation in this endearing love story?
How could it not?
The plot pivots on Long revealing that he has seen Elizabeth's Banks's (or rather her charater's) large underpants on YouTube (Yes, it's a date movie). He proves his devotion to the pirated movie featuring her bepanted behind by brazenly playing it for her on his iPhone at a High School reunion.
Could anyone really imagine that Long would risk losing his Apple contract to play what is, at least in screen time, a highly secondary role in an R-rated movie?
Which might leave you with one small but important thought as you head for the voting booth. Some people were surprised when Apple came out strongly against California's Proposition 8, a proposition designed to outlaw gay marriage.
Yet here is an example of Apple putting its brand where its mouth is, supporting with its signature product its own famous spokesperson in his role as a gay porn star.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that, in a movie in which Seth Rogen has to boot up an old original iBook by slapping it very hard, Apple is one of the most confident brands in the world.
Perhaps it is also one of the most sophisticated when it comes to product placement. Product placement isn't about shoving your product into a TV series or a movie.
It's about having it play a role just like any of the actors. Even the actor who's your gay porn star spokesperson.