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Apple Homepage - Class Act
What a gesture by Apple to have Nelson Mandela on its homepage. This is nothing to do with music but it shows Apple is all about humanity as well.
http://www.apple.com
Comments
What a lovely gesture.
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No, actually it is horribly cynical. Why would a company need to do this? It is a massive corporation and has no interest in Nelson Mandela. There is no motivation for this but being seen to join in a perceived universal mourning for a chap who was going to die eventually.
Yes, he achieved much, etc., but what has that got to do with Apple, or any other company for that matter? Fuck all.
Personal mourning and opinion is very different from corporate shenanigans, and every single piece of external communication is the product of marketing departments. What exactly is the point of Apple doing this?
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It's an interesting concept, that firms are just basically humans and therefore are capable of empathy, celebration, etc., but I am convinced that commercial activities are always based on self-interest.
Not such a bad thing but as the very recent competitive and sickly coverage of Mandela's passing on UK news broadcasts proved to me, it doesn't ring true.
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Apple probably did not need to do this but the fact that they did proves they are a company with CLASS. The tweet by Tim Cook as quoted above by Simon tells me that the guys who run Apple are not only about apps, form factor, AudioBus and money.
How many giant companies will do this without worrying about how such a move will affect their financials. Has Samsung done this? They will probably copy Apple and do it. As some of the comments here suggest, some people will probably take their money their money to another company if they click on Apple.com to look for information about their shiny gadgets but only to find the face of Mandela. However, this is Apple and this is why I will always be a fan. There is a time for making money but also there is a time for reflection.
Cynicism will always be there for those who want to embrace it but for me and in this instance, I applaud Apple. They recognise that even though their brand is top notch right now but the memory of this iconic man will far out live their products and want to pay homage.
sickmoth said:
As commercial activities go, how is this going to get Apple more fans? I think commercial activities have been put on hold by Apple. For me, Apple is saying this is our homage and if you want you can take your business somewhere else. I'd be very surprised if there is a spike in the demand for Apple products because of this move. Imagine if the AudioBus site was taken over by the face of one individual and all discussions accessed by just a link? Some posters would think the AudioBus guys have gone loopy. Indeed @Sebastian has gone Loopy
Politics is a personal thing and some people who don't like Mandela's politics will feel offended by his face on Apple's homepage and decide to boycott Apple products, if anything. Maybe Apple can survive some sort of a boycott but I think the self interest that has been served here is not commercial.
I kinda hate the notion of corporate personhood and instantly felt like the home page was tacky. Still, I don't think it was a way to boost brand or sell widgets. My most cynical take would be related to the Apple Insider article: if they did this sort of thing before, how could they not do it when Mandela died? Less cynical: someone meant it. I remember when they did the Rosa Parks home page and since most of the world (or even Americans) had no clue who she was, it was very hard to see it as marketing.
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A company with a strong internal culture will often do "human" things out of sincerity. A company without a strong culture will only ever do them for opportunity.
Apple isn't a saint but it does have a strong culture. Thus I think this was sincere.
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