The semiotics of product placement have evolved new signifiers for good and evil. Leander Kahney notes that cinematic villains use Windows and heroes run MacOS. Here's my explanation: Screenwriters by and large run MacOS, while studio accountants run Windows. As Neal Stephenson says, "Mac users are the last oppressed minority on the Internet," so it's only natural that screenwriters should strike back at the tools of their enemies' oppressiveness.
In Fox's hit TV show, 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, the villains use PCs running Microsoft Windows. The good guys, of course, use Macs.
