The iPad is so hot companies were trying to promote themselves by given them away before Steve Jobs even launched it.
Now it seems that Apple now starting to enforce a lengthy series of guidelines with would-be promoters that may signal the end of iPad giveaways.
The biggest problem? Apple has some rules that might hinder companies wanting to give away iPods (like you need to buy 250 of them) but giving away iPads is, ahem, verboten.
“iPad, iPhone and the iPhone Gift Card may not be used in third-party promotions.”
Then there are other specs that many companies have probably unwittingly violated:
• Always show products on a plain background.
• Do not clutter Apple product photos with props, models or marketing messages.
• Always show an active, “turned-on” product screen. Do not add customized images…
Here at Cult of Mac, we’ve only been hearing from companies who want us to help them promote these giveaways, not that Apple has tried to stop them.
If your company has recently launched an iPad giveaway, have you heard from Apple about the guidelines?
Via Fortune
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
36 responses to “Is Apple Trying to Stop iPad Giveaways?”
I don’t understand this logic. If I want to give away something I probably will with or without the permission of the company that manufactures it. It’s my money and, in my opinion, I can spend it on products any way that I see fit. If that’s giving someone $600 bucks for an iPad or buying one and giving it to them, I would love to see the court case where they tried to make me stop.
wtf
I think the issue isn’t so much the giveaway, but the use of Apple’s trade dress and trademarks in what are mostly questionable contests and scams. They don’t want to be associated with crap, and for the most part that’s what these giveaways are.
This is absolute hubris. Mr. Jobs’ god-complex has just hit an all-time high. It’s so absurd that it’s hard to comment! Why would Apple care about FREE ADVERTISING?????!!!!! I am an Apple fan-boy and I love my Apple products, but this is just crazy. They could’ve shortened the whole thing down to say: don’t use our copyrighted photos, picture the product this way and make sure to say we’re not part of this and we don’t promote or endorse this company. Absolute stupidity.
Exactly. Being used as a prize implies that the prize manufacturer is okay with the group doing the giveaway. And that might not always be true.
If you use Apple trademarks in promoting the giveaway you just gave them cause to sue you.
i AGREE
Also it deValue’s the product it self and the image of the company products.
Apple will win, they don’t mess around, not saying you would have a law suit but a small or large company would. This would make a statement and point.
For those who can read but tend to look over such matters, the wording says “guidelines”. Not rules or End User Agreement or any such thing.
It basically means that is what Apple would prefer you do, not hold a gun to your head and make you do that.
Of course it is quite possible that if things don’t get better Apple could start a EULA with every idevice to stop this but in the mean time, get a grip.
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You are so right. We have all forgotten to read…unless, of course, it’s not too hard to read between the lines. Oh, wait, we can’t read, so thatcan’t be the case. I bow to your superior intellect and reading ability.
Come on, say your piece and be done with it…
Apple products are being offered on some websites because those are the products that people want. Many iPad lovers are registering for free iPad 2s at Digitally Undivided
Doesn’t make sense at all! Ppl buying iPad by using their own money! Indirectly, they are doing the free advertising for Apple… by giving away to others.
Apple should not to force any company to adhere the guidelines, because the product is already sold to the companies, so those companies are the owner of that product right now, not Apple.
Dear Apple. If I BUY a product, it is MY product, not yours. You may not tell me WHAT I can do with it or HOW I can do it. You have ZERO power in this case, and if it goes to court, you will lose.
This is one of the reasons I’m slowly abandoning Apple products. Too much control freakishness.
Apple: the new face of Evil Corporations.
Actually, it doesn’t really work that way. All you have to do is leave out the logo–done deal. They cannot stop you from displaying a product you’re giving away in any way you see fit. They cannot order you to buy 250 of them. They cannot order you to give them creative control over YOUR advertisements. They would lose, and *embarrasingly* so. And they’d deserve it.
It doesn’t matter. If I buy your product–it is now MINE. You do not have authority to dictate what I do with the product in perpetuity. Once the transaction has been made, you have ZERO interest in the product and no rights whatsoever about what I do with it. If I choose to give it to a neighbor, hold a contest or smash it in the street to make a youtube video, you have no power to stop me.
And you shouldn’t have power to stop me.
Actually Apple’s horde of lawyers who know the laws inside and out and advise Apple on those laws will probably tell you that in fact you are wrong. There are no laws prohibiting any of this.