The Postal Service is supposedly unhappy with Apple and the directing duo that created both the group’s music video for their song “Such Great Heights” and Apple’s new Intel televison advertisement:
It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers’ new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot recreation of our video for ‘Such Great Heights’ made by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent. -Ben Gibbard, The Postal Service
http://www.postalservicemusic.net/
[Apple’s new Intel ad looks similar to The Postal Service’s music video because both were both made by the directing duo of Josh Melnick and Xander Charity, whose working name is Josh & Xander. See related article linked below.]
Yeah, right, Gibbard is “extremely disappointed” while he’s loving life drowning in free publicity. The fact is, Apple’s Intel ad is by far the best thing that ever happened to The Postal Service. More people have heard of The Postal Service and at least one of their songs since this story broke a few days ago than all the people that ever heard them – or heard of them – before the debut of Apple’s Intel ad.
The “extremely disappointed” comment by Gibbard is most probably a smart ploy designed to generate another spate of articles, including this one, and a few more days of free publicity for The Postal Service. The usual next step is for somebody’s lawyer to send out a press release stating that their client is “considering a lawsuit” against somebody else over this “controversy.” That “story” will run in all of the usual places and likely here, too. Nothing will ever go to court and then the whole thing will die out, but by then many more people will know “The Postal Service” for making music and videos instead of mistaking them for letter carriers. Mission accomplished.
Advertisements:
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iMac and MacBook Pro owners: Apple USB Modem. Easily connect to the Internet using dial-up service. $49.00.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Apple offers The Postal Service’s ‘Such Great Heights’ music video via iTunes Music Store – January 19, 2006
Meet the directing duo behind both Apple’s ‘Intel’ ad and The Postal Service’s music video – January 17, 2006
Apple’s ‘Intel’ ad strikingly similar to ‘Such Great Heights’ music video – January 17, 2006
MDN, suck it.
I smell an iPod+iTunes make-up ad coming on.
awww poor little emo rockers.
The Postal Service has nothing to cry about. If I recall correctly, they are already in hot water the the real United States Postal Service over the use of the name “Postal Service.
Ugh. why am I wasting my time…. *shakes my head in shame*
I’m uncertain why the Postal Service wouldn’t be more upset with the directors. I’m assuming that the directors retained artistic rights over the video development, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to replicate it for another client. That said, if the directors retained they rights they can sell them to anyone they want to.
It’s obvious the directors new that they were producing a similar product for Apple, but its not obvious that Apple knew they were getting a similar product. I watch a slew of videos, and still hadn’t seen Such Great Heights, until it was featured on iTMS. They may have known, they may not have, but if they did know, and they went seeking rights, and the director had them to give, then why would they seek the artist permission. You seek permission from the IP owner.
“the Postal Service”
this group of musical superstar wannabes are obviously on the cutting edge of originality judging from their name, and must have good claim to
complain about plagerism, perhaps they are due royalties, after they pay off the postal service, so it goes, maybe they will hire some lawyers for their
pain & suffering
The Postal Service is probably nothing more than a bunch of Windoze apologists…
Go cry me a river…..
Postal going postal.!
i thought that the US Postal service was pissed. turns out there’s a “band” called the postal service…er…i guess.
losers!
If it was the other way around – they copy Apple´s ad – MDN would be screaming to the heavens: “Ban them from iTunes!!!”
Apple does itself no service for copying others work….how can they criticize Microsoft if Apple does it when it sees the opportunity to do so.
U R all hypocrites.
Dickheads
Nearly every band has adapted a name from somewhere. Are you saying that they should begin naming themselves like cars or part numbers?
Copying a style that is so recent is NOT cool. If apple saw the director’s previous work they should have said “anything but the same as what you did for so and so. Chiat Day has screwed up before and not even the pope is infallible. This bit that Apple’s shit don’t stink syndrome is a sheer sign of the immaturity of the posters MDN included. GROW UP DH’s
Alex D enjoying the Mac experience since 1984
Get rid of TBWA/Chiat/Day and all this nonsense will disappear in an instant !
the creators of the ad did wrong here. Apple’s not expected to catch them at it!
wot a boring song zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Both the comments on this post and MDN’s Take are what all you guys accuse others of being, stupid. If you were all to pull your heads out of your asses far enough to see that there is more in this world than just you and your apple computer, you would see that the ‘Postal Service’ has every right to be upset, just like you were upset when windows stole your favorite operating system. I don’t understand why so many posts on this site take such an aggressive stance on so many topics. Why is there so much hatred? Why can’t we all just get along?
Well, Apple had it coming, and it’s the second mistake they made with an ad. Remember the eminem video vs. the ipod ad? Same deal.
This is bad publicity and of course Apple is WRONG here. Unless it’s a giant conspiracy to drum up publicity through controversy. In that case I give up and stop caring.
I am an Apple die-hard fan, but it is clear that that ad is a total lift from the Postal Service video. Nobody wants to be ripped off, not even “emerging” bands. (Too bad both Death Cab and Postal Service have terrific followings.)
It is amazing how you guys go to bat for Apple when someone creates a direct ripoff of one of their products, but if Apple rips off someone’s work, you act like it is no big thing.
nice one, tango.
The Postal Service is a fucked up, flash in the pan band that should be happy as hell for the free publicity. If they were so concerned about their “art” they would never have licensed their song for use in a COMMERCIAL!!! I have no respect for bands that cliam to be “artists” and whore themselves out to Madison Avenue.
The Postal Service can go to hell.
Sorry, I don’t see what the big deal is. The Intel ad shows a “clean room” wafer lab. So does their video. The costumes look similar. Otherwise, it’s a different video. It’s not shot-for-shot. I don’t know how you could do a clean room wafer lab ad without looking a bit like their video. OK, the slow-motion thing helps make it seem more similar. But really, this doesn’t seem as “non-obviously copying” as the iTunes Eminem ad did with all the grungy orange background stuff and hip-hop silhouette imagery.
MDN word: ground, as in let’s bury this discussion in the ground and move on
The Postal Service is already ” Postal” anyway! They keep raising the price of postage stamps.
yeah.. they obviously posted this ‘complaint’ to keep the publicity rolling..
look you twats.. you didn’t direct anything in the video..
the guys who DID.. communicated with Apple..
so why the fuss?
cuz you want someone to hear about you.
There’s no way Steve would’ve approved this unless they thought it was going to be beneficial for the band. Kinda strange if that were the case. My thought is that Apple didn’t know they were getting something so similar, and did NOT deliberately copy anybody. Their hired directors did. At the end of the day, it’s free advertising.
I suppose they’ll have to ask the question “is anybody else using this concept?” with every ad.
I had NEVER heard of this band and their lame music until Apple’s intel ad. Get a life.
So what I am hearing most people in here say is: if Apple rips you off, then you should thank Apple for the publicity.
Mac users are the best.
WOW, totally lost respect for MDN right there.
I don’t think Gibbard is out there looking for as much money as he can get. As a Death Cab For Cutie fan and a Postal Service fan, I think these guys seem more like artists concerned with making good music and ideas, not for seeking all the money they could get. Uh, yeah, I’d be angry if someone ripped of something from one of my music videos without even telling me beforehand they were going to do it.
Try not to insult EVERYBODY who critiques Apple. Apple screwed up… If you’re going to copy something, give them a heads up. They didn’t.
Let’s put it this way:
1) Ad looks like Postal Service… Stop bitching Gibbard and enjoy your free press. Go Apple!
2) Creative Zen looks like Apple… AH!HHHHHHHHH!HH! Go Apple!
See a common theme?
Russell,
MDN is spot on, as usual. Perhaps Gibbard, as an artist, is only looking for a greater audience to hear his work? If so, same means to achieve that as to achieve greater sales revenue.
Apple didn’t screw up. The directors didn’t screw up. The Postal Service isn’t upset. The whole thing was planned long ago and all three parties knew about the video and the ad similarities.
Duh. People always fall for this one.
‘youguysmakemecry’ and others are right. The MDN-take vindicates the same behaviour that they constantly blast others for regarding copying Apple, with the excuse ‘because it is beneficial to them’.
If MDN’s reasoning is applied, than actually it would be very OK for Microsoft to copy MacOSX, because “drowning in free publicity” would be “by far the best thing that ever happened” to Apple, exposing lots of people to the MacOSX they never knew before. And Apple’s subsequent complaint just “most probably a smart ploy designed to generate another spate of articles”.
MDN, what a bunch of juvenile, principleless hypocrites you well and truly are.
The Postal Service has its own band??!
!@#$%^&?
It appears that the dual core G5 Powermac is faster than the dual core Intel iMac. I compared Macworld’s benchmark results for the one test that can be compared fairly between both Macs, which was iTunes 6. The dual core G5’s time was 58 seconds while the dual core Intel iMac took 1:14 both running at 2Ghz. So, at least in terms of pure computational power, it looks like the dual G5 is faster than a dual Intel.
So I guess the only real advantage the Intel chips have is power consumption. So my question is, why put these dual core Intels into desktop machines like the iMac? Why not just stick with G5’s for desktops until Intel can match the performance of G5’s on Macs? I was expecting the switch to Intel would enable Apple to finally market a “3Ghz” machine, but that hasn’t even happened yet. So, why bother?
whaa.
for x=1-#
goto itunes music store
download postal service video
pay $2-
give band a prize
nextx
band happy
end
If the band is “extremely disappointed” they need to talk to Josh & Xander, not Apple. But, on the other hand, who has creative control? A video was made for the band, then the same guys make an ad for Apple. Was it their concept? Was it the band’s concept? If it’s the former then they have no leg to stand on, if it’s the latter, possibly. The weird thing is it looks way better as an Apple ad. Why would you want a music video to look like an ad for a computer company? Makes for a boring music video, not much better as an ad.
Of course this all completely ignoring the fact that as a commercial concept for Apple… IT SUCKS!
Where is the iLife or OSX commercial we are all longing to see?
my rant continues here:
http://www.skillznet.com/RANTZ/RANTZ.html
When Apple sues a company, anyone, for copying a design or a look or watering down the brand (original imac knockoff, zen, thinksecret, etc…), you all cheer. When Apple hires an ad company that blatantly rips off other people’s work, you all jeer the complaining party. Watch the video on their site with your sound off. Even I thought it was the new macintel ad.
And unless you watch VH1 or MTV at 6 am when they actually play videos, how in f*** would anyone know other than the directors that it was a total rip? The only people you should be jeering are the numb nuts at the ad agency that pulled a fast one on one of the most popular, visible companies in the world. And if the postal service band payed even 1/3 of what apple paid for this 30 second ad, I’d be bulls*** too. Trying to get publicity? Now that’s truly insane thinking.
When Apple sues a company, anyone, for copying a design or a look or watering down the brand (original imac knockoff, zen, thinksecret, etc…), you all cheer. When Apple hires an ad company that blatantly rips off other people’s work, you all jeer the complaining party. Watch the video on their site with your sound off. Even I thought it was the new macintel ad.
And unless you watch VH1 or MTV at 6 am when they actually play videos, how in f*** would anyone know other than the directors that it was a total rip? The only people you should be jeering are the numb nuts at the ad agency that pulled a fast one on one of the most popular, visible companies in the world. And if the postal service band payed even 1/3 of what apple paid for this 30 second ad, I’d be bulls*** too. Trying to get publicity? Now that’s truly insane thinking.
When Apple sues a company, anyone, for copying a design or a look or watering down the brand (original imac knockoff, zen, thinksecret, etc…), you all cheer. When Apple hires an ad company that blatantly rips off other people’s work, you all jeer the complaining party. Watch the video on their site with your sound off. Even I thought it was the new macintel ad.
And unless you watch VH1 or MTV at 6 am when they actually play videos, how in f*** would anyone know other than the directors that it was a total rip? The only people you should be jeering are the numb nuts at the ad agency that pulled a fast one on one of the most popular, visible companies in the world. And if the postal service band payed even 1/3 of what apple paid for this 30 second ad, I’d be bulls*** too. Trying to get publicity? Now that’s truly insane thinking.
When Apple sues a company, anyone, for copying a design or a look or watering down the brand (original imac knockoff, zen, thinksecret, etc…), you all cheer. When Apple hires an ad company that blatantly rips off other people’s work, you all jeer the complaining party. Watch the video on their site with your sound off. Even I thought it was the new macintel ad.
And unless you watch VH1 or MTV at 6 am when they actually play videos, how in f*** would anyone know other than the directors that it was a total rip? The only people you should be jeering are the numb nuts at the ad agency that pulled a fast one on one of the most popular, visible companies in the world. And if the postal service band payed even 1/3 of what apple paid for this 30 second ad, I’d be bulls*** too. Trying to get publicity? Now that’s truly insane thinking.
It was no coincidence the advertising agency hired this duo to direct the new intel ad. Apple & the band may or may not have known. Most likely Apple knew. The band may very well have known as well and this could be a whole plot to get the band more exposure as well as the new intel ad.
For what it’s worth, Ben Gibbard:
When I first saw the Apple/Intel ad, I thought, “Oh, cool, they fashioned it after the Postal Service video.”
In other words, I saw it as an honor to the band, not because it was Apple or anything, but because a company considered a video hip enough to emulate for an ad.
Apple ad, bueno, not perfect.
Postal Service music, sucks. Postal Service video, never seen it and never wanna see it.
Tip to Postal Service: Spend more time improving yer musical talents and less time complaining about free publicity, or, better yet, get real jobs ‘cause yer 15 minutes is running out real fast.
Duuh
Maybe they should rename themselves ‘The Apple Store’
I just watched the two side by side. Basically this is all bullshit. The theme between the two is quite different- the chick & the guy are fantasizing about doing each other in the video, and in the ad they are sending their child off to pioneer fronteers inside an iMac. Big difference. The concept of people walking around in bunny suites in a chip factory? Who’s got a patent on that. How about the concept of a car chase down hilly roads in LosAngeles- how many times has that been done? Cry me a river.
“View side-by-side comparison of Apple’s new ‘Intel’ ad with the “Such Great Heights” music video by The Postal Service. The similarities are undeniable. Don’t take my word for it — see for yourself.”
http://www.eliteproductionswi.com/apple-ps.htm
Anim8r:
Good call. The commercial not only rips off the Postal Service (so original Apple, way to go), but it is also a useless ad that only serves to polarize people’s opinions further.
Mac fanatics watch see the commercial and are like “take that Windows users! You got served!” while Windows users watch the commercial and are more sure than ever that Mac users are a bunch of self-important dicks.
MDN’s take on this is pathetic. The Postal service is a great band, their only album is, apart from Nirvana’s albums, the biggest seller on their label and it’s a highly appreciated band in the indie scene. Gibbard is also a member of Death Cab For Cutie, another great band that’s gaining considerable momentum in the world of music.
These guys are artists, they are great musicians, and they care about more than just “publicity”. Artistic integrity is a term MDN obviously doesn’t comprehend. This “you’re better off being copied by apple” attitude has to stop, it doesn’t make sense, apple are supposed to be innovators.
The ad agency shoulders most of the blame though, what were they thinking?
We are being yanked here fella’s
Apple: We will copy the look of your music video.
Postal Service: What???!!!
Apple: You come in and publicly complain.
Postal Service: You darn right we will!
Apple: You will get instant headlines and your music will be sampled by millions of iTunes users.
Postal Service: Ahhhh, that’s good.
All of you who think Gibbard is secretly pleased that the people he hired to do a video for them turned around and made it into a commercial are ridiculous. Make all the excuses you want, but apparently we each love Apple as a company and the products it makes for different reasons, and this type of hypocrisy really shows that avid Mac fans come in two groups.
Group one believes deeply in innovation, originality, creativity, ease of use, etc etc and THAT is why they like Apple. If Apple someday turned into Microsoft, while some other company came along and picked up the torch of innovation, creativity, ease of use, etc then I’dd drop Apple like I didn’t know them. It makes me sad to even think that.
Group two believe in Apple like a football team they need to cheer for no matter what. They also are attracted to the traits that make it what it is, but their need to cheer for Apple comes first. If Apple was less innovative they’d defend it, if Apple got lazy they’d defend it, if Apple was no longer original they’d defend it. They become hypocrites and frankly, lose sight of what it was they originally were cheering for. It wasn’t Apple. It was the triumph of originality, good engineering, and intuition, and ‘truth’ over the forces of marketing BS, monopolistic practices, copying good ideas after they are safe, ignorance, and lies.
I admit I’ve been a fan of The Postal Service, and instantly recognized the new Intel ad, but that has nothing to do with this. Even if I hated the video and the band I’d defend their right to be DISSAPOINTED, even EXTREMELY DISSAPOINTED. They didn’t say Apple sucks, they haven’t sued anyone, they just had a part of their artwork copied without even being told. If it was just simillar like the iPod thing then a case could be made that it was an honest mistake and just an example of syncronicity, but these were done by the same directors. I think their being upset is understandable.
All the people in the forum calling out those in group one for being hypocrites are 100% correct about what you’d be doing if the tables were turned. What if Ridley Scott made a new 1984 ad very simmilar to the old one for Samsungs new line of MP3 players? If Apple made a statement that they were ‘extremely disapointed’ would you all rush out to say they are just out for even more money and should shut up and be happy that it increases awareness of the Mac?
No matter how The Postal Service takes on the ad. issue, it is still a shame for that directing duo and producer of the new Apple Intel ad., to ‘create’ such a lazy copy TVC. It’s killing the dignity and professionalism of the creative industry.
But I bet, if Steve knows of such resemblance in the first place, he will not just roll out the TVC the way he has had.
Shame on Josh & Xander!
It’s exceedingly poor form of the directors in this case to copy their earlier work. Did they tell either Apple Computer or The Postal Service they were doing this? It appears TPS didn’t know at least.
I feel sorry for TPS in that their art is trashed in this way (no longer unique is what I mean.) It’s awful when art is used to sell something – I hate listening to classic songs used in TV commercials. This is kinda weirdly backwards in that the video is ripped off, not the music!
Still, at least the directors ripped off their own work and not someone else’s. Hahaha.
So soon after Lugz too – not looking good for Apple, unless there is some intention in creating controversy in the media.
I also wonder if the publicity hasn’t benefited TPS either – I too initially thought it had something to do with the USPS. TPS’ website traffic this week would have leapt quite substantially I’d imagine.
(Hey, rip me off Apple, I want the publicity!)
MDN, You need to get out more. The Postal Service are very well known and hardly in need of free publicity. Their debut album went multi-platinum and received widespread critical acclaim. Actually, they’re kind of a big deal.
Remember, just ’cause you haven’t heard of them in your little Mac-obsessed coccoon, doesn’t mean the rest of the world hasn’t.
The Postal Service is an excellent band. If you ripped them for being “un-original” musicians, you should try listening to them. They have a very unique sound. So does Gibbard’s main band, Death Cab for Cutie (Yes that name came from a Beatles song). Also, their music has already been featured in a commercial for the Honda Civic.
The Postal Service (the band) has made amends with The Postal Service (the quazi public/private company) over the name. They came to a mutual understanding and did a special live performance. I think that Apple should make similar amends with The Postal Service. A simple apology and mutual understanding can go a long way. Apple obviously knew about the music video ahead of time. It’s no conicidence that Apple ended up asking those directors to do their ad.
No company is perfect, but Apple should own up to their mistakes.
It appears that the dual core G5 Powermac is faster than the dual core Intel iMac. I compared Macworld’s benchmark results for the one test that can be compared fairly between both Macs, which was iTunes 6. The dual core G5’s time was 58 seconds while the dual core Intel iMac took 1:14 both running at 2Ghz. So, at least in terms of pure computational power, it looks like the dual G5 is faster than a dual Intel.
So I guess the only real advantage the Intel chips have is power consumption. So my question is, why put these dual core Intels into desktop machines like the iMac? Why not just stick with G5’s for desktops until Intel can match the performance of G5’s on Macs? I was expecting the switch to Intel would enable Apple to finally market a “3Ghz” machine, but that hasn’t even happened yet. So, why bother?
Processor volume (Intel) and retribution (at IBM)
Processors can’t be made to go any faster, this is why they are doubling up and making dual cores.
Since most programs are single threaded (A has to be done before B) there is not going to be much real world performance gain with duo cores.
This is why the MacWorld results were so disappointing.
Only apps that can be multi-threaded (not many) can successfully take advantage of multi-cores.
Multi-thread means Processor B can be doing this while Processor A is doing that. or Processor A hands off a unfinished job to Processor B which then passes the result on further (to the GPU for instance) and not back to Processor A, freeing up A to do the next thing.
Not many programs can do this and if A has to wait for the results from B too often, then this is a substancial performance loss. It would be faster to just let A do all the work.
Duo cores give the advantage of running the OS on the other processor, and in some things, like the sound (in UT2004) is on the other processor.
The Core Duo iMacTel is a bit faster in some real world tests mostly because the OS is on the other core.
who really cares, Apple should focus more on selling the OS then copying ads.
Thanks for all the hit traffic guys.
Noticed we took the high band version of our song “Such Great Heights” off our site so the maximum amount of abusers… er users, can hear our rather ratty song.
We also fully expect the song to appear next Tuesday as a free download option in iTunes to further abuse your sensitive ears.
My name is Ben and you all can eat my shorts.
-Ben
“Since most programs are single threaded (A has to be done before B) there is not going to be much real world performance gain with duo cores.”
MacDude, so, can you explain to me why my Dual Processor 533 Mhz G4 tower is faster and more powerful than my 1Ghz G4 Powerbook with more RAM and better video card – at EVERYTHING! Not just Photoshop.
Hello. My name is Ford Mustang. I am extremely upset that a subset of crabby ungulates has chosen to call themselves by my name without permission. Furthermore, oats rhymes with goats, and that leaves me feeling a tad sheepish (patent pending).
Ugh, and to add: MacDude, geez, get a hobby. What is your incessant bitching going to change? Hold off. If things aren’t better in 6 months, THEN crab all you want.
Your “premature evaluations” leave me wanting more. Just not from you.
Yeah, I have never even heard The Postal Service band before this whole thing.
They should be grateful that now people are looking into their music.
MDN, STFU.
the postal service is a side project for two well-established musicians who are pretty much at the zenith of their own respective genres.
neither of them need the publicity. ben gibbard was on saturday night live last week, for god’s sake.
perhaps they really do think that their video is important enough not to be infringed on. its three years old, after all.
weak.
So all of you people in here that are talking about and complaing how VISTA is a complete rip off of Tiger are actually complementing M$ for giving Apple so much exposer?
I never heard of this band before the Apple ad.
comparing Apple’s ad agency borrowing from a 3 yr. old music video to make a 30 second commercial with Microsoft’s theft of parts of an OS does not compute. TPS needs to take a chill pill, and enjoy the free publicity.
davida,
TPS are enjoying the free publicity. That’s why they’re ginning up even more.
Davida,
What doesn’t compute? Now 95% of the computing world that has never heard of Apple (outside of the iPod)or the Mac now will.
I was thinking about starting a band myself. I was going to call it Manson Marilyn. We would be a kinda shock goth type band. But I was afraid it would seem like a rip.
Guess you don’t.
I liked the music in the ad. However I thought that the message in the ad was weak; it should have been directed to selling new Macs, not some artsy-fartsy high brow stuff.
But I did like the music.
“Death cab for cutie” – beatles song? Which song? I’d love to know. It’s bizarre.
The Postal Service is a fantastic group, and the album ´Give up´was one of my top 5 albums for 2005 . And by the way the last picture I saw of Ben Gibbard was in Wired, and on his lap ; an iBook 12″…
this MDN take is ridiclous. The postal service has a song on a Civic comerical, and Iron & Wine covers the song in despute here on an M&Ms; commercial. They also have a song on the popular Garden State soundtrack, and an amazing debut CD to their name, and are by no means in need of free publicity. This CD sold 300,000 copies on Sub Pop records, and as such, the band probably made more money then if they had sold 3,000,000 on a major record label like Universal or Sony.
Even if the band sucked, and they had no success what so ever, they still would be justified in being pissed off because their music video was ripped off without their consent. It may not be Apple’s fault, but they she have the right to be mad at someone.
furthermore, such great heights is a good song song, and the postal service is a good band.
clearly all you people you think the band is unkown, you’ve never seen the movie “Garden State”
…. I heard it was good…
what ever, watch scrubs.
STFU!!!
This is the biggest break the bank could ask for, 99% of us have never even heard of the band until everyone started carrying this story.
The just part of this story is, they will fade into obscurity just as fast.
Gibbard who?
Regardless of USPS’s so-called disappointment and potential benefit from the copycat ad, I would have expected more originality from Apple considering originality is the main cornerstone of their success. It’s a bit embarrassing if you ask me, which, of course, no one did.
Just because someone should say something…
I’d heard of the band well before this issue, and I quite enjoy several of their songs… Such Great Heights is one of the ones I don’t like.
Boo-Freakin’-Hoo
I don’t know if this is posted anywhere else, but just for your information, the video may be a ‘The Postal Service’ rip off, but the song is:
Moby – God Moving Over the Face of the Waters
also available on the iTunes Music Store.
Chiat/Day obviously knew all about Josh & Xander’s work for The Postal Service, why else do you think they would have hired them to make this ad?
Apple Computer, Inc. had nothing to do with it. If you people are pissed, be pissed at the guilty parties, which are Chiat/Day and Josh & Xander.
Is anyone else still pissed about how Apple ripped off George Orwell’s “1984”? Or am I the only one?
It’s amazing how many people are getting free publicity from Apple now a days.
1. Who knew of or cared about lugz shoes until the hoopla over the Apple ad and the Lugz ad in October.
http://www.lugz.com/timeline/index.html
2. This band Postal service probably never saw so much attention since this latest controversy. They should be paying Apple for the publicity.
3. Can;t forget the threats of Creative labs. They keep themselves in the news with patent lawsuit threats and going as far as copying the ipod vid design.
I’m sure their is more….
genocidal dictators and millions of folks w/ aids, malaria, cholera, and not enough clean water and . . . gates and jobs are both billionaires . . . maybe TPS will write a song about all this non controversy one day . . . who cares
. . . when the smart aliens finally arrive on this pretty planet they might wonder how it came to be dominated by a species that spends so much of its collective extistence with its head up its fundament hole
have a nice day!
dont agree, it is very similar, and i find it hard to beleive that apple didnt know about their work before hiring them for the job???
a few of the mechanical shots are very very similar.
it is however the directors who should have spoken up. however apple may have hired them for the piece specifically because of that music vid. and given them money that they couldnt refuse.
arghhh dont really care.
like Postal Service
like Apple
like commercial
like video
Gibbard should blame the director and ad agency more than Apple. Unless Apple produced the video, I believe it’s not their responsibility to determine whether there is artistic overlap of their ads with previous work.
Are these guys on crack? So becuase their music video is based around a chip fab, can no one else use a chip fab in any sort of video? Come on people things are getting just a bit out of hand with people claiming infringement. I guess because I shot a home video that included shots of the White House and Washington Monument, that if anyone else ever includes those in any from of video then I can cry foul as well. Let’s look at the whole not just individual frames. These two works are quite different. Another example would be Ford makes a care that uses a Champion plug say model CH12345, and GoodYear Eagle XYZ tires. Later Chevy makes a new car that uses the same plug and tire. Can Ford Claim that Chevy has copied their work? Non issue, case closed, Postal Service shut up and try finding publicity with your music.
NEWSFLASH:
MDN, every time Apple fucks someone, you say it’s the best publicity they ever got.
Unlike this halfassed site, not everyone seeks publicity (in your case read: hits) and not everyone is happy to be ripped off as long as they get more famous in the process.
You have no integrity. And as evidenced by your unending Pixar news, this is not a site about MAcs anymore, it’s a Steve Jobs jerkoff. No more, no less.
>Cpt. Obvious wrote: MDN…You have no integrity.
This doesn’t get said enough.
>Cpt. Obvious wrote: MDN…You have no integrity.
This doesn’t get said enough.
>Cpt. Obvious wrote: MDN…You have no integrity.
This doesn’t get said enough.
>Cpt. Obvious wrote: MDN…You have no integrity.
This doesn’t get said enough.
Sogni X,….
one word…. cache..
Who cares? I have never heard of Postal Service until these articles about that obscure band started popping up. Two to three weeks from now, they will be an afterthought like the Sony Connect music store.
comparing the “borrowing” of film footage for a 30 second commercial, to flipping around a band’s name and starting your own similiar band, doesn’t wash… yes that would be a rip, and ‘wrong’.
MW-issue, I can think of many issues worth this much attention… i.e., creeping Fascism in America.
JadisOne,
To illustrate the flaw in your reasoning:
“Who cares? I have never heard of Mac OS X until these articles about that obscure operating system started popping up, complaining that Windows Vista had ripped it off.”
BECAUSE you have never heard of this band, BECAUSE they could be just starting is the VERY reason you should be against a GIANT corporation from steamrolling and taking advantage of them.
Remember Think Different? The little guy beating the Big Corporate borg.
Most of you people here would be up in arms about how MS ripped someone off. Or how HP is stupid because the “invent” in their logo is a lie because the don’t invent they copy or co-brand. But if Apple does it it’s fantastic publicity?
Do you people ever STFU long enough to hear what you just said before? You guys are probably the same guys who think Napster, Creative and everyone else should give up and go out of business because Apple owns the mp3 market with an 83% share. That remaining measly 20% market share that they are fighting over is inconsequential. And out of the other side of your mouth Apple’s 3% market share in the OS front is really significant and they should fight on to bring down the other 95%. Otherwise you seem to be saying that M$ owns the OS biz so Apple should shut down OSX development and only work on iTunes and the iPod.
I think that most of those presenting a counter argument here are not against Apple, I’m not, but rather against you and your stupidity.
MDN get off the air!
(Apologies to Jello)
What’s weird about all of this is that Apple is very good at doing their homework. It’s really ODD and I mean ODD that Jobs is unaware of other ADS and is willing to copy them in such a way .
Both videos are the same. Are you people blind??
Who fu*king cares!. I’m still buying a MacBook pro.
This was the dullest thread on MDN for a long time.
Postal who????
I love this “who” bullshit some of you clowns come out with. I guess if it doesn’t get heavy rotation on TRL, it’s fair game for Apple to trample.
“Who?”
Good thing you asshats don’t work for the companies that continued to create software for Apple and the Mac OS when they were at rock bottom.
genocidal dictators and millions of folks w/ aids, malaria, cholera, and not enough clean water and . . . gates and jobs are both billionaires . . . maybe TPS will write a song about all this non controversy one day . . . who cares
. . . when the smart aliens finally arrive on this pretty planet they might wonder how it came to be dominated by a species that spends so much of its collective extistence with its head up its fundament hole
have a nice day!
Specialists claim that mortgage loans aid people to live their own way, just because they can feel free to buy needed stuff. Furthermore, various banks offer short term loan for all people.
How can this be that you have really a lot perfect issue just about this topic? Entirely the good thesis writers know how to accomplish a kind perfect thesis writing or custom dissertation.
You can probably buy custom essay papers or the custom written essay just about this topic. A kind of perfect topic! Thank you for that!
This requires a long time to submit the superior release like this post non-automatically. Thence, article submit service and article submission service exist for all people and you can use it.
The write my essay service would utilize your the best theme for a further development, because people usually need the custom research paper of high quality.
Wow, this categorically cleared some things up. One essay i am having dispute with is a illustration for an “who we are” The teacher says that we will have to drive deep into ourselves and discern what we really are. But I think it would be more usefulto use dissertation service.
Reach composition alone, without help from others very hard. And it is really needful to decide on the proper priorities in life! We can assistance you succeed in writing custom essays.
There is no matter if people are distinguished in online essays or critical essay writing, they would have to establish their writing technique in any case. Thus to buy essay paper from the essay writing service would be the great pass way out.
Thank you for the useful idea close to this good post. But to find the perfect essay writing services students should know someth. about already written essays.
When you have a possibility to utilize the buy research papers online service, do not doubt, purchase term paper and chill out.
Big storage of stuff about this good topic people will have, at the writer job service.
The customers trust our
resume service cause they are the most trustworthy! The organization makes resume writer to suit the precise field of research you expect.
Houses are not very cheap and not everybody can buy it. Nevertheless, credit loans are invented to support people in such kind of cases.
I think that you know how hard could the customized term paper writing be. But, you should not be disappointed, because the custom writing services present the essay writers papers and there is not a problem to buy essays online and be happy.
This takes some time to see some ideas just about this good post thus, the term paper writing services would help students to choose the right essay for sale and to buy essay.
I was searching for experienced specialist to help me complete my term essays. Certainly I found the essay service, which assisted me a lot.
Here’re some tips about the right way to get the academic grade. So, people just need read through the theme and finish the superb english essay paper. The more easy way is to opt for the reliable an essay writing service and just purchase term paper in web. Hope it will help students.
You can order some alcohol when you want, that would be better to purchase the term papers topics from the writing services spending the same money.
If people know fantastic material just about how does it work, people must complete the custom essay website just about this topic.
The main problem of up-to-date community is plagiarized paper. In fact, I do not like plagiarized contents and utilize plagiarism check always.