20100225

Join the conversation!

Hey check out Joel Canfield's new Internet radio show. It airs Tuesday March 2 at 10AM PST. And, as luck would have it, your's truly will be one of the guest speakers. Who knows, this may actually morph into something! In any event, it might make next Tuesday a little less boring. Check it out!

20100210

Apple flatters Kodak

They say that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Well, if that's true then Apple, in their latest marketing campaign, has just lobbed a bucketload of flattery in Kodak's direction. Whether they knew it or not.

Just take a look. Here is Apple's latest Aperture 3 Ad.


The tag line says "Taking photos. Further."

Now, just about anybody who has ever taken a picture can remember the famous Kodak ad that proudly proclaims that Kodak can help you "Take Pictures. Further." This tagline, still in wide use today, dates all the way back to 1996 according to Kodak. But if you can't seem to recall it, here is an excerpt from Kodak's own published history, direct from their own website [highlight added]:




And, just in case you were wondering, yes, the tagline is trademarked. At least it is according to this excerpt from a web page on Kodak motion picture technology:


Or, again, take a look at an image used by Kodak researchers on their own PPT slides, available via a Nasa website:




Now, whether or not folks at Apple knew they were ripping off an old Kodak Ad may never be made public. Perhaps they are all too young to remember the old Kodak ad. Perhaps they in fact knew exactly what they were doing, and did it specifically because they thought it would be fun to rub their newfound photographic permission in Kodak's face, as the venerable photo giant struggles against the forces of the new Internet-based economy stripping away Kodak's once indomitable market power. Perhaps they simply did not care.

One thing everyone, especially folks at Apple, need to remember. The Internet never forgets.