Steve Jobs' Plan for a Willy Wonka-Style Celebration of the Millionth iMac

[jeremyshaw]

If you're that against private lotteries, then why not craft laws that go after private lotteries with just a little bit of nuance and intelligence?

Surely you can write a law that allows something like what Steve Jobs proposed, which is clearly not a private lottery.

Because, somehow, someway, that law would be exploited and perverted to evil deeds. Sounds silly, but also a very distinct possibility.

 

[SvP]

Because, somehow, someway, that law would be exploited and perverted to evil deeds. Sounds silly, but also a very distinct possibility.

Well, they're idiots. They should have written a decent law, with exceptions, rules and permits to be given out in these cases. This law is an example of "let's forbid driving, so no-one can drive drunk".

 

[Truffy]

California law required that all such sweepstake contests allow entry without requiring a purchase.

That's kinda bonkers

Given that people would then be able to enter the contest without purchasing an iMac and there in fact being a very good chance that the winner wouldn't be an iMac owner or even an Apple fan, Jobs' pet idea for a Willy Wonka-themed prize was cast aside.

That's kinda sad.

 

[WalkingSnake]

Do you ever notice the "No purchase necessary"disclaimer on every contest or sweepstakes in existence? There's always another way to enter aside from purchasing.

Just FYI -

You don't have to buy McDonalds food to get their Monopoly pieces. Send a self-address stamped envelope to an address they specify in the fine print, and you get them for free - because of this law.

If a company advertises "Send in your proof of purchase for a chance to win an iPad/a million dollars/ etc." Then they have to, by law, also give you a non-purchase form of entry, usually also a mailing address.

Otherwise, they're infringing on gambling/lottery laws. It IS possible in most states to do what Steve was imagining (the law is more complicated than this article implies,) but it'd involve strict regulation and would be considered a form of gambling.

But you also have to consider that this would be a US-wide contest, so more than just California law would apply. It'd have to meet the standards of every state possible. Hence the other fine print: "Void where prohibited."

Plus consider the other legal problems - what's to stop someone from buying a thousand Macs, checking them all for the ticket, and then returning them only to buy more?

 

[cosmichobo]

Here in Oz, the government just gets their cut through (company) taxes...

I think it's a crying shame that the idea didn't come to fruition, especially for that reason.

Hell, how does any company promote their products though competitions then?

Buy a bottle of Coca Cola for your chance to win a Ferrari!
Or just send a stamped self addressed envelope with your name in it and
we'll put your name in the draw for free...​

 

[iEdd]

So... what's the motivation for this law? Is it easier to bankrupt your family with mars bars and iMacs than with casinos and lottery tickets?

 

[WalkingSnake]

Here in Oz, the government just gets their cut through (company) taxes...

I think it's a crying shame that the idea didn't come to fruition, especially for that reason.

Hell, how does any company promote their products though competitions then?

Buy a bottle of Coca Cola for your chance to win a Ferrari!
Or just send a stamped self addressed envelope with your name in it and
we'll put your name in the draw for free...​

That's exactly what they do.

If anyone could find a way to word this law so that it somehow allows Apple to run what's essentially a lottery while managing to stop shady lotteries, I'd love to hear it...

Again, Apple COULD do this. It'd just fit in under gambling laws and be met with strict regulation. It's not as simple as this article makes it sound.

 

[marekkurlmann]

What's stopping Tim Cook from reviving this idea now? They could take a group of cherubic kids through a tour of the iPhone factory. These all-American youngsters would witness their Chinese peers putting in 20-hour work days, melting away their skin with toxic screen-cleaning chemicals, living 30 to a room in 21st-century tenements, etc., etc.

Or is that the Mike Daisy adaptation of the story?

 

[devilbond]

This story finally made me change my Mac Rumors bookmark.

From macrumors.com to macrumors.com/mac/

 

[ansalmo]

Apple clearly aren't averse to running this type of promotion, e.g. the recent "25 billion app countdown" one, so methinks the cancellation had more to do with Steve's outfit than California's law.

 

[designgeek]

I really miss steve. WWDC won't be the same without him.

 

[DrFu79]

Like this?

http://youtu.be/gPYromrN7OI

"look, i dont even love apple, but, cmon, who'd want a Zune?"

 

[Molecule]

Here in Australia all loteries are private, and society doesn't seem to have fallen apart.

EDIT: Competitions such as the one suggested by Steve (buy this, go in the draw to win such and such) are very common here, and there isn't usually a way to enter without buying something.

 

[macnerd93]

LOL how bizarre I actually wrote a fictional story about this for my English project in year 10 (2007) LOL. I called it "Steve Jobs and the Apple Campus" got me an A I think.

Although in my story it was a golden floppy disk hidden inside any Apple product and there would only be 5 winners and a private tour of the entire campus faults and all LOL.

They should have really done this

 

[Gamoe]

Leave it to Californian law to spoil the fun. Well, at least you can smoke a joint and forget about it.

 

[theluggage]

That's exactly what they do.

...and it works based on the assumption that very few people will actually bother to read the small print and enter "for free". If Apple did this, sites like this would be poring over the rules looking for loopholes.

Also, look what actually happened in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - Charlie's family are on the verge of starvation but Charlie (presented in the book as a role model for good kids) uses pester power to persuade his parents to spend their nonexistant displosable income, including Grandpa Joe's life savings, on chocolate. Then he finds some money and instead of either (a) handing it to the police like the good boy he's supposed to be or (b) buying enough cabbages to keep his family in soup for a month, he blows that on a chocolate bar too. Then when Pratchettian narrative causality causes the last, desperate million-to-one chance to come off (which wouldn't happen in the real world) does he do the sensible thing and sell the ticket, probably making enough money to give his family financial security for ever? Hell, no - and at this stage he had no way of knowing that he'd end up being given the factory, and I betcha that the "lifetime supply of chocolate" would have come stamped "Not for Resale".

...so there clearly is a justification for regulating this sort of contest (even if the guv'ment has other motives).

(Sorry, Roald, but you did the same thing to Jack and Goldilocks

 

[DrDomVonDoom]

That sounds like a very Californian bulshit law.

"People have to spend money to get in your sweepstake? Thats not cool man."

Yet they don't have a problem collecting taxes on lottery tickets.


Why is it every time California is brought up it pisses everyone who doesn't live there off?

 

[cosmichobo]

Here in Australia all loteries are private, and society doesn't seem to have fallen apart.

EDIT: Competitions such as the one suggested by Steve (buy this, go in the draw to win such and such) are very common here, and there isn't usually a way to enter without buying something.

Any lottery/competition etc does need to be approved by any state/s that the lottery/competition is being held in... (and they must quote the approval number in the fine print of the lottery/competition)

I'm not sure of the exact details of the approval process, but I assume they have to jump through certain hoops to show it is not a "con" or unfair etc...

 

[needfx]

nooooo, not a willy wonka event

 

[mac jones]

"Yeah, that's it! and we'll hire a singing midget....Tim do we have any midgets on payroll?...see if they sing...and squirrels ha ha ha, gotta have them...What? illegal? what for?.....your kidding me?, well **** them, we''ll do it at our China plant then, anything's legal there he he."

 

[RMDI]

Found this mockup:

Image

Great photoshop! But in the 90s the man was a lot younger and more smiling.

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/steve-jobs-with-imac-g3-blue.jpg

 

[Ciclismo]

You think thats bad? Try living in Ontario, Canada. Bylaws here are rampant, they make life a sterile nightmare. It doesnt help that Canadians are passive either, the government says jump, Canadians say 'how high?'

Here in Germany, when the Government says jump, most don't ask how high because they're already in the air.

 

[organerito]

You think thats bad? Try living in Ontario, Canada. Bylaws here are rampant, they make life a sterile nightmare. It doesnt help that Canadians are passive either, the government says jump, Canadians say 'how high?'

I completely agree. I have lived in more than 4 countries for more than 4 years on each. Canada is by far the most depressing.

 

[rawdawg]

I wish this happened and I won and Steve gave his company to me. My first order of business would be to actually start making computers again!

 

[motorazr]

I feel this would have been amazing...

I mean, if Steve was going to actually do it . . . . there would have been no stone unturned, I'm sure. Grrrr laws...