“Apple kicked off last week’s WWDC keynote with a fun anecdote from Tim Cook, who showed off a ransom note [MLB player] Brandon Moss received from his friends so he could get the special 100th home run ball back,” Chris Smith reports for BGR. “Cook showed the ball and said he would pay the ransom, which consisted mostly Apple products.”
“Samsung is suspected to have tried to use the same trick, as Loop Insight reports, only a few days after Apple’s big event,” Smith reports. “Trevor Bauer, a pitcher for the same Cleveland team, got a hold of another milestone ball — the first hit for rookie Francisco Lindor. He then sent out a tweet posting a ransom note filled with Samsung products. ‘Hey @Lindor12BC we have your ball. @indians Bullpen settled for @tim_cook Apple products but we want @samsungmobileus,’ he said… from an iPhone.”
https://twitter.com/hennepinave/status/610557337057669120
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Smirk.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” “Arline M.,” David E.,” “Bill,” and “DavidRac” for the heads up.]
SEE ALSO:
Samsung spokesman LeBron James gives Apple Watches to Cavaliers teammates – June 8, 2015
Nick Cannon tweets his love of Samsung Galaxy S6 camera – from his Apple iPhone – April 17, 2015
Beleaguered Blackberry gets caught tweeting from an Apple iPhone – January 13, 2015
After appearing on stage with Samsung, Adam Levine tweets from his Apple iPhone – September 8, 2014
Samsung presenter Rachel Riley is an iPhone user – September 3, 2014
Clueless Samsung wishes best of luck to Landon Donovan in the World Cup – June 25, 2014
Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres uses sponsored Samsung onstage, tweets from her Apple iPhone backstage – March 3, 2014
Samsung gets caught yet again with celebrity tweeting Galaxy ad from their Apple iPhone – December 3, 2013
T-Mobile USA CEO tweets ‘I don’t know what I’d do without my Samsung Note 3′ – from his Apple iPhone 5s – October 22, 2013
Tennis player David Ferrer accidentally tweets Samsung Galaxy S4 ad from his Apple iPhone – April 30, 2013
Oprah tweets ‘love’ of Microsoft’s Surface from her Apple iPad – November 19, 2012
Ouch…
A moment that defines two companies:
A company promotes a genuine love of their products, and a copycat lies about a nonexistent admiration of theirs.
What, the rich spoiled crybabies can’t buy their own devices?
Did Apple really send them all the stuff on that “ransom list”?
If so, that is just pathetic.
What do you want instead? A, “Don’t Negotiate With Baseball Players”, rule?
Wether they can afford to buy their own is neither here nor there. The fact is, THAT is what got the ball released. That’s how it works dummy.
Did you not comprehend what happened here? Let us explain for the kids in the back row:
Brandon Moses (baseball player) received a ransom note. The note asked him to BUY AND DELIVER devices to the people who had his special 100 hit ball.
The ransom had nothing to do with Apple. It was sent to the person(s) who caught and held onto that 100 hit ball, to the person who hit this ball, demanding that he pay them if he wants the ball back. The payment was to be in Apple devices, which he was to obtain the way he saw fit (and the only legal way would be by purchasing them at an Apple store or similar).
Tim Cook heard about this and mentioned it in the keynote, because it had great PR value for Apple (and there was no Apple involvement or effort).
Now, Samsung PR team saw this and was annoyed, and decided to do a counter-event, so they likely approached this guy, Trevor Bauer, who apparently was in possession of a similarly important ball, and devised a similar ‘stunt’ around it, having him tweet a “ransom request” to the player who hit that ball, asking for Samsung devices. The stunt is now bakfiring because he tweeted from an iPhone…
Again, Apple never did or sent anything.
Regardless of the Samsung part of the story, Cook paid the ransom, right? On behalf of a ball player who could easily purchase the items himself? Did strike me as being a bit off.
If the paid ransom came with the stipulation that the items be given to a school or charity, it’d come across better…regardless how a completely prank ransom “works”.
It seems to me that the decision to pay the ‘ransom’ was made after realising the promotional value of the incident. The initial event (the ransom list) was accidental and organic (i.e. Apple had no involvement with it), and when it became public and it became obvious how much of an Apple Store shopping list it actually was, Cook decided to sacrifice a few pieces of hardware in order to milk the promo value of it.
If you look more closely at the original list, there is an line for a ‘Rick’, where it says “$5,000 or iPad”…
I have to say, it may taste a bit off where Apple is helping rich baseball players by donating gear, but I guess it isn’t much different than when Beyonce gets a free Apple Watch Edition to wear prominently…
Besides not understanding the entire story behind the ball, the guy who got the ball and how Apple products came into the mix can you at least see what kind of PUBLICITY Apple gets, sorry that not entirely correct.
It’s better described as FREE! VIRAL! PUBLICITY!!!!! Apple gets out of this?
And to the Geniuses at Samsung? Do you guys understand how you’ve extended the life of this story? And that it humiliates Samsung, points out once again how not only can you NOT do anything original but you can’t even do it as well as Apple.
And Apple didn’t even start this.
It’s like watching a Greek Tragedy being performed by the 3 Stooges.
…and directed by Donald Trump.
I wonder if Trump will bring up the birther issue for Cruz?
Or Rubio!
Look at the two lists……..
The first one that lists Apple products is written haphazardly, and probably by different people, meaning that it is GENUINE. The second one that lists Samdung products is written by one person in a staged (neat) manner.This is an UNGENUINE list, more of a staged PR than real.
samsung is in the same league as cockroaches
How can Samsung continually make this mistake? It really stinks of incompetence.
One other thing. Never mention competitors in commercials. The only time I saw it do successful was the PC vs Mac campaign and even then they did not mention a product or company.
The rule is never mention a competitor that is equal or below you. Obviously Samsung believes they are well below Apple.
I guess even ScamScum executives use iPhones. Smirk. 🖖😀⌚️
@HTML420. Ouch, that’s cold man. That’s terribly offensive to cockroaches everywhere.
It must be damn near impossible to lose your job at Samsung. What’s worse is that those South Korean ingrate idiots would be singing to the tune of the psychopath known as Kim Jong-um if it weren’t for the United States sacrificing life, limb, and treasure for their ungrateful asses.
For someone who quotes scripture on his blog you are certainly not following Christian ethics. You need to chill there boringbob, the world will not implode tomorrow if you don’t get your way today.
1) You, sir, are a liar. I have no blog. I have never had a blog. And I will never have a blog.
2) Your post is a non sequitur. I realize you don’t know what that is, but that’s not my fault that the public education system squats and dumps morons like you on society every year.
3) You’re a godless liberal – a son of Satan – and are therefore very far from disqualified from understanding Christian ethics.
4) Your unsolicited advice is noted and discarded.
5) Where did I ever say – either explicitly or implicitly – that “the world was going to implode tomorrow if I don’t get my way today”? Show me, won’t you? It is, after all, the leftwing who wants to change everything as quickly as possible to suit their demented world view.
You truly are mentally unstable; I thought it was an act, but the vitriol flows far too freely for this to be characterization rather than reality!
If I were not declared something bad by a liberal, I’d begin to doubt if I had made myself unapologetically clear enough. So thank you for your assessment, which would otherwise be worthless.
Now then, would you care to have a go at any one of my five valid points, or is what you’ve offered all that you have?
It shouldn’t be too hard to put me in my place – BY REFUTING ME – if I am as off-kilter as you suppose.
Good luck!
Bob. Seek therapy. it must be terrible being you.
Why would I refute any of five points that do not involve me? I cannot speak whether silverhawk1 is liberal or not. I know that I am fairly centrist with fiscal conservative leanings; I certainly haven’t fallen into the deep end where you are. I suppose I am mostly libertarian because I truly don’t care how people live their lives as long as it doesn’t affect me, hence why I wind up with conservatives fiscally because taxes DO affect me.
You’d think that even if it is just fluffy fake BS that Samsung would finally get their hired stooges to make damn sure they’re not tweeting from iPhones on this stuff . . . I mean, this isn’t even close to the first time this has happened! LOL
All of Samscum ads have backfired.
It just never stops. What a groups of dofi. That is the plural of “doofus” isn’t it?
Either that, or in the manner of opus pluralized as opera, the plural of doofus might be doofera.
I could go with doofera.
I guess in the world of “all press is good press” mantra, this is a successful stunt, since the last time I even thought of Assmung was when I heard what another massive flop their latest iClone is, which was like a month ago.
Fukc Samsung. I hope Kim Jong-Un destroys them with a supermassive nuclear weapon.
It all makes one wonder if the “Samsung Note” is not a very clever product of Apple PR.
I’ll stamp “Plausible” on that. Or what if this had nothing to do with any PR stunt at all, but rather the ball players just joking that the second ball was only a little hit by a rookie and thus, pretty worthless.
That’s an angle I hadn’t thought of, one that’s more disparaging to Samsung, therefore preferred.
I think I shall stay with my idea, though, because it would indicate that Apple may retain some of the moxie that produced the “I’m PC–I’m Mac” commercials.
Not very clever?
Yea, just look at their phones.
the REALLY pathetic thing about all this is that all the Samsung fans (see the BGR forum) are DEFENDING this.
that’s why Samsung keeps doing stuff like this.
Chairman Lee says “Our Galaxy customers are idiots, don’t worry just keep doing it”.
The whole ransom thing was offensive by Apple. Rich people getting freebies. It would have been better had Apple donated stuff to a school instead of to over paid MLB players.