tomtoronto.ca

Since it's Monday, I don't want to start out here with the heavy stuff. It's a drab day here in Toronto, rainy and grey, so let's keep it light.

Almost a month ago the iPhone launched in the UK, and made a large impact on their mobile market. A pair of their PR counsel and a crack spokesperson also made a large impact in the PR world with their complete bungling of a Channel 4 interview. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44w-RYurbN4&rel=1&border=0]

Before the discussion, I'd like to slice out a couple of choice images that I find hilarious:

This is the exact moment it started to go horribly wrong, and seeing it makes me almost feel bad for the guy. The desperate look to the off camera flack, nervously handling his iPhone, and a reporter in his head thinking "Oh yeah, here comes the good stuff."

Follow that up with a classic deer-in-the-headlights gaze and the green sweater goon on the right knows it time to shut it down. That look always makes me laugh, that's the look of a man who needs a fresh pair of pants after the interview.

All kidding aside, here's how I think it went down. The Apple PR probably gave the reporter a Britney Spears style litany of questions that he's forbidden to ask before the interview. Questions about K-fed, ITunes, getting out of limos, battery life, locked to one network, etc. are all blacklisted. The reporter probably agreed to it, then threw in a curveball to put Apple's spokespeople on the hotseat, completely freaking out the poor guy. I honestly have to believe that, because I can't reasonably assume that at the launch of the iPhone the Apple spokesperson wouldn't know anything about the criticism, or even the "spirited discussion" of Apple's products and platform.

Overall, the PR really dropped the ball on this one. It's bad enough to get on camera and shut down questions like Ari Fleischer, but you've got to come up with something better than "we're so excited!" Why not just say "iTunes is an excellent platform, and we feel it's important to have our products integrated within a simple, unified operating software." Or just say "what the hell else would we use, Windows Media Player?" In the end, it's not going to hurt the iPhone at all, but it's a good laugh for the PR world, mixed in with a black eye.