Santa’s Appointments In New iPhone 4S Ad Are All For Staff At Apple’s Marketing Firm

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Santa-calendar-Siri-ad

If you haven’t already seen Apple’s new iPhone 4S ad in which Santa uses Siri, then go and check it out — it’s really great. You may notice than when Santa checks his calendar, he has 3.7 billion appointments on Christmas Eve, four of which are with Whitney Kollar, Mark Sloan, Paula Cristalli, and David Young.

These aren’t just random names dreamt up by employees at Apple’s marketing firm — they are employees at Apple’s marketing firm.

The discovery was made by one inquisitive Reddit user, “HeresToTheCrazyOnes,” who did a little investing after the ad made its debut over the weekend, and found that the names listed in Santa’s calendar are all workers at TBWA/Media Arts Lab, the marketing agency that Apple employs to create ads like this one.

For example, Whitney Kollar’s LinkedIn profile lists her as an Assistant Account Executive at the firm. However, the name Charlie Grant, which is read out by Santa in the clip, cannot be tied to Apple or the marketing firm.

Another Reddit user, “LittleGreenAlien,” says there’s a good reason why TBWA/Media Arts Lab didn’t just use random names:

This is common. You cannot use a persons name in advertising (or whatever) without prior written permission of the person. Yes I know there are people with the same name, but having permission to from one of them is enough whenever someone else would protest their name being used.

It’s common to use names of people in the ad agency or company it they happen to fit. That saves a lot of hassle and they won’t say ‘no’.

[via The Next Web]

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