The Eminem Spot is a tempest in a teapot. Apple has been using black silhouettes for its iPod for a while now. The Eminem rap spot is consistent with what Apple has been doing in that campaign. In fact Eminem does not look much different from the hooded Eminem in his Mosh video, although the cartoon characters in Mosh look a bit like South Park and some of the Bush TV spots look Jib Jabish. In the Apple television commercial, the iPod character looks like the typical silhouette with white wires. The color palette in the new Apple ad is right out of the Lugz ad from 2002, and even though this does not constitute plagiarism, there will be no ad industry awards forthcoming for this effort.
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The Eminem Spot is a tempest in a teapot. Apple has been using black silhouettes for its iPod for a while now. The Eminem rap spot is consistent with what Apple has been doing in that campaign. In fact Eminem does not look much different from the hooded Eminem in his Mosh video, although the cartoon characters in Mosh look a bit like South Park and some of the Bush TV spots look Jib Jabish. In the Apple television commercial, the iPod character looks like the typical silhouette with white wires. The color palette in the new Apple ad is right out of the Lugz ad from 2002, and even though this does not constitute plagiarism, there will be no ad industry awards forthcoming for this effort.
Nano scratches. One more Apple head in the sand ostrich imitation. Why don
2 replies on “Apple Controversies”
re: Nano scratches
I was at an Apple store two nights ago hoping to find a lanyard for my neighbor and a quick looksee at the newest iMac. While there I saw the genius replace two Nanos with LCD issues. In both cases the story told by the user wasn’t believable to my ears but the genius replaced the Nano. So how much more proactive do you want Apple to be?
I own a Nano. I keep it in my shirt or my jacket’s breast pocket. The LCD didn’t spontaneously crack, the paper towel I used on it before putting it into its new case last night didn’t scratch it. Hmm…
Is Apple going to be hurt by this? Perhaps. But you know what? I am more than a little intrigued by how many early ‘my Nano is scratched’ stories were posted by people who had never before posted at Apple’s online support site. Is it possible at least some of them weren’t real? Maybe posted from Korea?
As a designer, I think that it’s a tough call on the new iMenem ad. Eminem is an intelligent artist who does think about where he’s come from, who his fans are influenced by and ultimately who he is influenced by. The machine of Cool is always cannibalizing itself. It’s the nature of Cool to destroy it’s creations and be revitalized by new creations. So be it. It becomes a form of education for those who were unaware of the Lugz ad from ’02 before this commercial aired. Often new uses of old designs bring up controversy and by doing so show us things we were not aware of before. Even if Eminem and Apple recreated the Lugz ad to the T, it would no longer be the lugz ad from 2002. Everyone copies and everyone innovates— not always at the same time.