Why Apple Users Had An Issue With The U2 Album

Excerpted from a Forbes.com article by Craig Hatkoff and Irwin Kula: Has Apple taken us from 1984 to 2014 and back again? In what is considered one of the greatest commercials ever made, Apple Computer introduced the Mac to the world in 1984 during the Super Bowl running an ad that instantaneously changed the image of Apple forever.

The commercial depicts a futuristic Orwellian dystopia controlled by Big Brother being destroyed by a courageous sledge-hammer wielding female runner—a metaphor for the computer that would change the world. Wearing a white tank top emblazoned with the now-iconic Mac, she hurls the sledge-hammer into the giant screen broadcasting a numbing, tyrannical speech celebrating the first anniversary of the “Information Purification Directives.” The hammer-throw shatters the screen releasing us from the bondage of uniformity imposed by Big Brother. Apple’s message was “we will not be controlled!” To defy uniformity, buy a Mac. There was no turning back.

No wonder many people were outraged when Apple decided what music 500 million users should listen to. In what some considered an epic marketing innovation, Apple reportedly paid U2 $100 million for the right to deliver a gift to its 500 million iTunes customers. However, Apple’s intrusion into individuals’ libraries, without their permission, created an intense backlash. So great was the outrage that Bono offered a public apology via Youtube…

Read the full Forbes article online on the Off White Papers blog. Originally written by Craig Hatkoff and Irwin Kula and published on October 24th, 2014, the Off White Papers are part of Forbes’ Leadership section, contemplating the deeper, disruptive angles of historically and emerging innovations from healthcare and politics to arts and culture.