Chromebooks have been the best-preserved technology for some time, but have changed dramatically in recent years. Because they are lightweight, versatile and forward-looking, Google’s laptops have gained increasing access to schools, homes and businesses. Chromebooks are really for everyone – even presidents and karate committees.
Today we look at five times when Chromebooks appeared in pop culture outside of Google’s own ads! We’ll be revisiting it regularly as there are many examples of this, so if you found a Chromebook in a movie, TV show or anywhere else in media outside of ads, let us know in the comments!
Cobra Kai
In the first season, episode seven of Cobra Kai – ‘All Valley’, the city council met to determine whether the team would be allowed back after the kickoff. Look, there on the desktop looks like a first or second generation Samsung Chromebook 3! It was actually the first time I saw one of Google’s laptops on the screen and was very excited because it was now Chromebooks.
For a businessman who imports simple data about the Under 18 tournament in All Valley, a durable, inexpensive Chromebook that can be tossed around a bit is a good choice. If Johnny Lawrence does buy a laptop, we would probably recommend an educational one, as they are so durable that you can stand or hack karate!
Designated survivor
Everyone’s favorite fictional president – Tom Kirkman, played by Kiefer Sutherland, appeared in an episode of Designated Survivor that looks like a Samsung Chromebook Plus v1! What’s interesting here is that while a Chromebook is probably safe enough to browse the Internet, it certainly does not let up with the specialized software that is frequently needed by government officials – let alone the president of the United States – even though the states are only fiction uniting Netflix.
Veronica Mars
In the popular show that began in 2004, with the clever, fearless private investigator, Veronica attends a city council meeting in which she tries to bubble up a serial killer who is at large and places bombs in the city.
Two of the attendees of the board are using the original Samsung Plus v2 – apparently a popular choice for TV shows and with good reason – it is a thin, two-in-one, premium built device with a stylus. Mayor Mark Dobbins sits in the middle with his chunky workhorse of a machine on which he presumably only handles data entry. In fact, if you look at the second screenshot below, you’ll provide proof that they all perform exactly the same tasks – to review documents.
The funniest part is that he says in a context related to the story and not the laptops but at some point “I do not think I’m the only one …” and looked at the Chromebook owners. Yes … yes, mayor, you’re the only one. What about city councilors using Chromebooks? These ladies clearly have good taste.
Geico Commercial
In a Geico ad that started airing during Sunday Night Football last year, everyone’s favorite gecko can be seen with an employee of the company who has just completed a presentation on the company’s savings. After asking him to email the slides to him, the anonymous person taps into an older Acer Chromebook 14 which we believe is an email body, although it does not look like Gmail at all. To me, it looks a lot more like the Google Workspace Admin console, but I’m not sure. Maybe if this guy used Google Contacts and started typing ‘M’, Martin’s the gecko would have come up anyway.
Credit: Miguel Torres
Bull
In the episode “The Great Divide”, Danny James, played by Jaime Lee Kirchner, plays Google’s 2017 Pixelbook can be seen swaying while staring at the screen in her TAC (Trial Analysis Corporation) room. I seriously want us to get more context about the tasks these characters perform on screen with their laptops, but that’s mostly left to the imagination.
Chromebooks allow for inexpensive devices to buy that are available at your local Best Buy with instant notice when you need to do the filming, so it’s no wonder it goes with them. Even the Pixelbook is within budget if you have the budget of CBS. I’ve never seen this show in person, but you can watch the episode here if you like. This is an interesting show that I will explore further, thanks to the focus on court drama and psychology.
