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Whole Lotta Love (5/25/00)
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The Springer & Jacoby saga continues, as the German ad agency who misappropriated Apple's trademark in a jab at Windows users issues a public "apology." For those of you who missed it, a couple of weeks ago (at the height of the ILOVEYOU virus panic) the agency took out a full-page ad in a major German newspaper that simply said "Dear Windows User: We Love You!" (referring to the Mac's relatively immunity to the virus) and bore the Apple logo and "Think different" slogan. Anyone without a magnifying glass missed the microscopic "Springer & Jacoby" name printed sideways in the top right corner of the page, and therefore the ad looked like a genuine Windows-bashing Apple advertisement to just about everyone who saw it. The agency claimed the full-page spot was their gift of free advertising to the computer company they love.
Except, of course, it became clear that Springer & Jacoby had asked Apple for permission to run the ad and were told not to. Even if they hadn't asked first, Apple has to protect its trademark, and therefore the company threatened legal action after the ad first appeared. Well, the latest news according to MacNN is that Springer & Jacoby have run another ad; this one's an "apology" to Apple for misusing the trademark. It reads, "Dear Steve Jobs, 'the crazy ones', 'the misfits', 'the troublemakers', 'the round pegs in the square holes', 'the ones who see things differently', 'those who are not fond of rules', 'those who have no respect for the status quo' are very sorry for having misused Apple's trademark." Cute, right?
So let's see if we understand this, now... Springer & Jacoby demonstrates its undying loyalty to Apple first by willfully violating the company's trademark after being expressly denied permission to use it. Moreover, the agency abused it in a manner that made it look like Apple was laughing at Windows users, thus alienating potential Apple customers. The original ad also falsely implied that Mac users needn't worry about viruses, and practically dared the script kiddies to come up with a nasty Mac-specific virus just as a challenge. Are we on track so far? Then the agency, who professes to love Apple so much, "apologizes" in a manner that makes Apple look hypocritical and unappreciative of its fans, when the company had no choice in its public actions but to protect its trademark or risk losing it. Wow. With friends like that, who needs a bullet in the head?
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SceneLink (2318)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/25/00 episode: May 25, 2000: It's IBM to the rescue-- but will the next PowerBook sport an SOI-enhanced G4, or "merely" a 700 MHz G3? Meanwhile, German ad agency Springer & Jacoby "apologizes" to Apple, and the government plans to keep its two-way Microsoft breakup plan in spite of the judge's preference for three Baby Bills instead...
Other scenes from that episode: 2317: Revenge Is Sweet (5/25/00) Loath as we are to lay problems on a scapegoat, we're going to do it anyway: we officially pronounce Motorola to be the bane of Apple's existence. We are now more convinced than ever that the PowerPC's relative stagnation is some kind of intricate vengeance against Steve Jobs for killing the Mac clone market and sticking Motorola with the loss on all those StarMax units... 2319: Two's Still Company (5/25/00) Well, if you were hoping for even smaller bite-size chunks of Microsoft in your cereal bowl, you may be disappointed. Behind-the-scenes sources on the set of "Redmond Justice" report that, despite Judge Jackson's strong hints that the government's cleaned-up remedy proposal should include an action-packed three-way corporate split, the government's opting for a less drastic rewrite and sticking with the original "cut 'em in half" plot...
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