Apple and Rosa Parks

I read this post on Scobleizer and agreed wholeheatedly with him why Apple have a great brand. I felt that they knew how they could connect with their audience. The idea to remember Rosa Parks on their website was sound. But..

I just read comments on Mini-AOL‘s blog about the same topic. The question raised was “is it right to use her image with a company logo?” It’s a very good question. I went back to Apple’s website and had another look at the image. Sure enough there is the Apple logo and “think different” underneath, which I saw before but never really thought too much about – why should I? it is an image in memory of Rosa Parks – that was the main message. Apple’s logo and tagline is subtle.

If that poster had been used on a billboard somewhere I might have thought the same thing as Mini-AOL right off the bat. That of course for me is the problem. I think Apple did go too far “over the line” in this case. The line is of course blurry, but I think it would have been better to just show the image in memory of Rosa Parks – most people would have still have got the subtle connection to Apple’s brand – but at least the non-cynical could say that they were doing it to remember an important person in America’s history. I am not certain you could argue that with apple’s logo and tagline on it.

[UPDATE] There is a lesson to be learnt here – obtain all the facts before criticizing (or praising!) somebody. I found out over the weekend that Apple had previously run that specific poster in an advertising campaign – for me this changes things – they no longer took a poster of Rosa Parks and added their logo and tag.

Riaz Kanani

Founder of Radiate B2B, which helps companies target advertising at specific companies usually as part of an account based marketing programme.

I have spent almost two decades building startups or expanding fast growth companies in a variety of functions - from tech to operations to marketing, with a little corp dev on the side.

Always up for a discussion on building tech businesses and the latest tech trends. Tweet me.