Just when you thought the finger tap heard 'round the world between Apple CEO Tim Cook and U2 frontman Bono was the biggest music-related news to come out of the company's highly anticipated product launch event on Sept. 9, another story has emerged. And it makes Apple look just as awkward.
Andy Gershon, the manager of the pop-rock band OK Go, claims that the clip Apple played prior to its launch event is very similar to the band's music video for the single "The Writing's On the Wall," which the group posted to YouTube in June. A little too similar, actually.
Gershon told Bloomberg Businessweek that OK Go met with Apple in April to pitch the idea for a possible video collaboration. Apple apparently didn't accept the offer, so the band made the video on its own. Then for Apple's launch event, the company hired the same production company behind OK Go's video, 1stAveMachine, and the same director to film it.
OK Go's music video, which has more than 10 million views on YouTube and nabbed an MTV Video Music Award this year for "Best Visual Effects," uses optical illusions to make us think we're seeing the group members doing one thing when they're actually doing another.
Apple's video titled "Perspective" similarly uses visual tricks to reveal that objects actually spell out words communicating the company's long legacy of, ironically, seeing "things differently."
Apple hasn't commented on the matter yet, but Gershon told Bloomberg Businessweek, "The videos speak for themselves, and you can draw your own conclusions."
Now I don't know about this whole "rip-off" business. It seems to me the fault lies more with the creative team behind the video than with Apple. However, the videos do share a resemblance, especially about three-quarters of the way through OK Go's video when the camera's changing angles reveal words, in a very similar way to the Apple video.
However, one major difference between the two videos: I felt way more nauseous after watching the video for "The Writing's On the Wall." OK Go, you can do more with a single camera take than most of us can do in our lives.
Apparently, Apple has quite the history with eerie similarities between its work and those of other artists. As Bloomberg Businessweek notes, Apple has been accused of getting a little too inspired by visual works by the Postal Service, Lugz shoes and experimental filmmaker Christian Marclay.
But of course, we all know that Apple was founded on controversy surrounding its alleged unoriginality. The Beatles' Apple Records sued Apple for infringing on the company's trademarked name and Granny Smith apple logo in 1978. This was followed by two legal disputes over the trademark through the decades, the last of which was in 2007. The disputes pretty much ended in 2010 when The Beatles made their music available on iTunes.
The past few weeks have been a bit rough for Apple from a PR perspective. The leak of nude celebrity photos didn't make anyone feel more confident in iCloud's ability to protect your privacy, and the recent product launch event had a few hiccups. Still, I imagine the sales for the iPhone 6 and all of Apple's latest gadgets will be more than fine.
