This reminds me I’m into season 5 of Burn Notice and Sam said at one point, “I’m on Bluetooth if you need me”. It was a weird reminder that once upon a time people were paid to advertise just… Bluetooth, because that’s a brand name. These days it’s just everywhere.
The product placements in that show are not exactly subtle. Excellent show though, I did not expect it to hold up so well.
Boomers learned what Bluetooth was because they started making AirPod-style single ear headsets for cell phones. Everyone called them “a Bluetooth”.
So if you said “I’m on Bluetooth” it means you’d have your big clunky EarPod on, ready to answer a call at a moments notice.
A former fucking spy wouldn’t be caught dead using early Bluetooth for sensitive conversations though (and probably not current BT either). Considering every other segment of that show is a “here’s a hack to show how fragile the house of cards of modern society is, and how spies just navigate through it with impunity”, it’s pretty funny they leaned into this one.
Well they use little bluetooth style earpieces all the time to talk to each other, but this one time he name-checks it very awkwardly. I think they just assume anybody listening would have to target their comms specifically, and most of the time they’re relying on obscurity. I don’t think it would make sense for most of their targets to listen out for every bluetooth dongle that enters the building or whatever.
They also don’t have government resources so they have to make do with what they can get their hands on, which is a running theme. One of the times he’s working for the government they specifically call out that his earpiece is so deep in his ear canal there’s no way anybody will overhear what’s being said to him.
You sure they didn’t mean it like “put it on a USB?” As in, they use the name of the connectivity technology to imply a single class of product that might use it?
This reminds me I’m into season 5 of Burn Notice and Sam said at one point, “I’m on Bluetooth if you need me”. It was a weird reminder that once upon a time people were paid to advertise just… Bluetooth, because that’s a brand name. These days it’s just everywhere.
The product placements in that show are not exactly subtle. Excellent show though, I did not expect it to hold up so well.
So. You would have to be what 5 meters max to talk to him? What does that even mean?
Boomers learned what Bluetooth was because they started making AirPod-style single ear headsets for cell phones. Everyone called them “a Bluetooth”.
So if you said “I’m on Bluetooth” it means you’d have your big clunky EarPod on, ready to answer a call at a moments notice.
A former fucking spy wouldn’t be caught dead using early Bluetooth for sensitive conversations though (and probably not current BT either). Considering every other segment of that show is a “here’s a hack to show how fragile the house of cards of modern society is, and how spies just navigate through it with impunity”, it’s pretty funny they leaned into this one.
It was Sam not Michael. That’s exactly the kind of dumb shit Sam would do.
Well they use little bluetooth style earpieces all the time to talk to each other, but this one time he name-checks it very awkwardly. I think they just assume anybody listening would have to target their comms specifically, and most of the time they’re relying on obscurity. I don’t think it would make sense for most of their targets to listen out for every bluetooth dongle that enters the building or whatever.
They also don’t have government resources so they have to make do with what they can get their hands on, which is a running theme. One of the times he’s working for the government they specifically call out that his earpiece is so deep in his ear canal there’s no way anybody will overhear what’s being said to him.
You sure they didn’t mean it like “put it on a USB?” As in, they use the name of the connectivity technology to imply a single class of product that might use it?
That’s exactly what they meant, it’s just a weird way to say it that they only used because the consortium payed them to
Edit: extra word removed
I did a rewatch not too long ago. Yeah the paid advertising is a bit cringe now but the show itself holds up very well.
Didn’t they say “bing it” at one point CSI or something
Apparently that was Hawaii 5-0. My favourite CSI moment though was the huge ad for Microsoft Photosynth
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I am currently in season 6 and also laughed about that line. Still a good show (although the b-roll scenes are also often quite cringe these days)