“Four children bullied by the Recording Industry Association of America will re-enact their shame for tens of millions of TV viewers today, at the behest of two giant American corporations: Apple Computer and Pepsi Cola Inc.,” Andrew Orlowski writes for The Register.
“Instead of using actors to dramatize their shame, the RIAA, Apple and Pepsi have forced the children themselves to conform with the copyright regime, and to look suitably browbeaten as a series of captions reads: INCRIMINATED
Apple has removed a number of AI image generation apps after these apps advertised the ability to create nonconsensual deepfake nude images…
Apple’s iOS 18 is widely expected to be announced at WWDC on June 10th and Apple’s AirPods could get a significant software update…
The growing popularity of eSIMs could allow Apple and other phone manufacturers to launch their own cellular networks, a telecoms analyst…
Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit on Thursday, driven by gains from adoption of AI…
When Gucci published the “enhanced edition” of “Who is Sabato De Sarno? A Gucci Story” exclusively on the Apple Vision Pro spatial computer…
Orlowski is just very, very, very, very anti-DRM. Read through his other articles, and he has nothing good to say about it. This isn’t as much him having a go at Apple, as the RIAA (again).
Here we are, Apple is a doninant force in the music industry and behaves as a big brother. Sorry MDN, I think Andrew’s analysis is sad but realist. Apple will not think different anymore.
The Register is worthless. Their writers are a cobbled together group of hack-level Wintel apologists and MS tools.
The publication would make a great bird cage liner though! ;o)
to be honest, the ad sucked, and I agree with The Register. I was screaming at the TV in disbelief as I was watching it. Apple screwed up BIG. You go out and ask 1000 superbowl viewers if they remember what Pepsi and Apple announced and you’ll hear a bunch of blank stares. Apple needed to throw in multiple 30 second spots with pepsi, and the spots had to be DEAD ON. The only hope for this promotion is for pepsi to start running print, radio, and tv ads like mad… and combine those with really FRIGGIN big signs at the grocery store.
jeff,
It is a Pepsi ad. Not an Apple ad. So, how did “Apple screw up big” exactly?
Bastard Apple giving kids money to pay off their legal fees and to save for college bills.
Bastard.
jeff: Apple didn’t air the ad. Note that the name ‘Apple’ wasn’t mentioned at all in the ad?
Who really cares? This is just another ad for Pepsi. So frickin’ what.
Get a life jerk. I know I heard somewhere that most of the fines were paid for these kids by friends and donations, etc. Actors in commercials get paid idiot.
I have been seeing promotional materials in my local 7-11 for the past week. No bottles as of yet.
The bears that bought the Pepsi should have been iPod owners. Rather than show them running off with the Pepsi, they should have shown them eating, drinking and counting caps.
This is such a non story it’s not even funny. Who gives a crap, it’s Pepsi’s ass on the line here not Apple’s since IT WASN’T AN APPLE AD! It wasn’t that bad or that great either way anyhow, so I can’t figure out why there is such a fuss over it at all…
I hate apple for this ad. I hate pepsi to start with, but the sheer f’n disturbing principle behind this makes sure I wont. Let’s see, we’ve bullied these kids into maybe losing their future, then use that lack of power to manipulate them into a commercial.
It’s like something out of a horror movie. “Now tell everyone how wrong you were for copying music you cannot afford and that was being sold in violation of the antitrust laws.” Robot kid voice “I’m really sorry, I was wrong.” *Insert 40+ year old MTV exec* “Oh the kids will see through that, let’s rock’n’roll’itize it all hip. Yea. Well make them rebels by cow-towing with their tails between their legs and all the dumb ass teenagers won’t see through this slick sugar water snow-job and line up all happy and fluffy with their parents’ dollars in tow.”
Hey apple, blow me you f’n 1984 hypocrites. Congratulations Steve. You’ve become a bad sugar water salesman. Right, your kids are too good for that poison, but f’ “the rest of us” *pleabs* is I’m sure what you had in mind, you obnoxious petty peddler.
It might not have been an ‘apple ad’, but it was apple’s product front and center and the promotion has the potential of propelling iTMS to new height. Apple should have nixed the commercial and told pepsi to come up with another. Heck, with Job’s personality I’m suprised he didn’t force-feed pepsi an apple-made commercial. The fact that apple allowed pepsi to run that ad is why I said apple screwed up. Saying apple didn’t screw up because it was a pepsi ad is just splitting hairs.
but as you can tell….the iTMS is so successful that people see that and think Apple without knowing it. i need to find me some pepsi!
Let’s all sit back and see what happens. I’m sure in the negotiations that part of the deal was that it was going to be a Pepsi dominant ad from the get-go. How could Apple not agree to this deal, whether their logo showed up or not.
The iPod ads will correspong with the Pepsi ads, I think.
The kids are smarter than we think and let’s let the grapevine and teenage network do what it’s gonna do. I think we will all be surprised. Don’t know the advertising
agency involved, but Chiat Day is known for subliminal ads
and not stupid Dell-like ads.
I don’t give a shit who came up with the ad, who paid for it or who was in it. All I know is there is a promo that started yesterday giving away 100 Million songs off of iTunes via Pepsi bottle caps. So I’ll be drinking Pepsi for the next 2 months to try and win some songs and then I’ll switch back to Coca-Cola. I don’t give a rats ass about the political correctness (or lack thereof) aspects of the TV ad one bit. EOL
This commercial was designed to try to please everyone including the RIAA. Its not a great commercial but its far from being a total disaster. Apple is not the most prominant part of the ad but for some strange reason is receiving all the flack. I’m sure the promotion will still be a success especially with the kids who like to get free stuff.
I think this ad has worked well! You get so many people bitching about it that everyone goes to look at it. Result!
Mines a Pepsi please!
Who, exactly, pointed a gun to these kids’ heads and forced them to do anything?
Hey, I don’t see why everyone’s getting their knickers in a twist here. It’s not like anyone should be SURPRISED at the Reg doing their best to criticise the iTMS. They’ve hated it from day one, as their holy crusade against the RIAA (ie, paying musicians nothing because the RIAA won’t pay them enough) relies on people downloading for free. If they weren’t so short-sighted, they’d realise that this is the first step toward creating a marketing/distribution channel that isn’t controlled by the RIAA, where indies could compete on equal terms. Why do they think the RIAA members have been willing to license to every tom, dick and harry music store? They don’t want Apple to be able to exert any controll in the future, so they can’t allow them to run away with it.
The Reg has become so blinded by their hatred for the RIAA and DRM, that they just blast anything along those lines, without thinking about the bigger issues. so, iTMS uses DRM, DRM is a tool of the devil. Apple pays the RIAA, so Apple works for the devil. Easy, huh?
Anyway, what I wanted to say was, this isn’t news, this is just hate-filled rambling that we’ve heard a million times before from the very same bunch. And while I agree with many of their concerns regarding DRM and RIAA, I think there are better trees to bark up. Don’t give this kind of crap the airtime it doesn’t deserve.
Big Jerk:
The RIAA. Something like “Settle or we’ll ruin you in court. Even if you win your parents will go bankrupt and you’ll never go to college.” In otherwords, it’s a godfather-esque “offer you cannot refuse.”
Then a few weeks later. Hey, I know we took $5000 away from your college fund and made you our biatch, so you might as well come and take $3000 for doing this ad since you’re a kiss a$$ to us anyway.
I can’t blame the kids. I’m sure they were giving apple, pepsi and everyone involved the middle finger salute to just get their $ and move on. Much like Mike Rowe did with microsoft.
This ad and everything behind it and what it all stands for deserves to fail and blow up in pepsi and apple’s face.
The Bo’ster. You seem vaugely familiar.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
You’re wrong of course. Even if the Reg did hate the iTMS from day one, SO!?! Maybe it sucks DRM butt since day 1, costs too much from day 1, etc. etc.
Also, Andrew and the reg guys ARE mac guys. They use them all the time. But I guess anyone not blowing smoke up apple’s butt and saying everything they do is great should be ignored.
And last time I checked, something is news if it news. You saying it’s not news, only makes it more news.
I watched the ad over and over and I still can’t see the guns held to the kids heads forcing them to be in the ad. Methinks maybe they got *paid* to be in the ad. Perhaps due to legal fees and stuff they might have been willing to be on TV during the friggin SuperBowl for a couple of seconds for the money and the fun of it.
Of course it was a Pepsi ad, the author of the article is a retard.
It could’ve been a great ad if it had been a series of teasers. Instead of one 30 second promo a series of 10 second teasers (using time from the other Pepsi ads). Only at the end revealing the method of how they were going to get the free music “Off of thee Internet”…I did love the way she said that.
If it isn’t apple’s ad, why is it posted at Apple.com?
It was a complicated ad, maybe too much for the beer sotted audience. Certainly no 1984 clone, as many here hoped it would be.
So, away from topic. What’s with the Janet boob flash anyway? Are we really supposed to believe that this was an accident? I saw it, and she didn’t seem shocked afterwards. Plus, if you look at the link that MDN supplies above, you’ll see that the boobie-piece of the outfit had snaps to be easily removed.
It was a crappy halftime show anyway. “Worst show ever”, as the comic book guy would say…
The Reg are not anti-Apple Wintel apologists, but they do seem immune from the RDF, which is a good thing as far as I can tell.
The tend to be pro-open source and therefore pro-Linux. They tend to be quite scathing about microsoft.
They are, however, anti-DRM/RIAA.
This MacDailyNews shite is a biggest asskisser journalofag crap on the Internet. Their nose is brown from kissing Jobs’ ass really hard. They would eat turd if it has an Apple logo.