Apple Store Customers Targeted With Creative AirDropped Ad Campaign to Promote 'Cheaper and Greener' Refurbished Devices

[Bluetoot-]

I actually used Back Market to buy a few things and it was a decent price, so I'll just ignore how annoying this campaign is and pretend it never happened.

 

[CapitalIdea]

I would be extremely annoyed to receive this, and yet if the EU gets their way and forces Airdrop into open interoperability we can all expect to have this garbage popping up everywhere we go or having to turn off a good feature because they want everything to be a free-for-all.

 

[CapitalIdea]

The reading comprehension of some of the commenters in this thread...

BackMarket targeted Apple Store display iPhones with this campaign. They weren't spamming anyone.

Calm down everyone.

I would argue that sending an ad to interfere with the experience of someone looking at and holding a product is incredibly dumb, distracting, and intrusive.

 

[msp3]

"Refurbished" my ass. Absolutely no one except the manufacturer can legitimately say refurbished.

These are reseller scumbags that buy stolen, blacklisted, salvaged, or counterfeit iPhones to repackage, retool, "repair", and resell for near MSRP prices making a killing in the process. This is an integral outlet of the "repair" black market and along with illicit unlocking by bribed carrier employees central to this business model

 

[Wanted797]

Next up on how to teach people to fall for scams.

 

[iZac]

The same hucksters that send calendar invites and shared photo album invites? This is purely invasive spam.

 

[cmcbhi]

As I read this, the AirDrop was also to the display phones in the Apple Store. This Apple can stop immediately. If one has AirDrop on to anyone, they deserve what they get.

 

[svish]

Interesting concept. But not a good idea to open any random AirDrop.

 

[kc9hzn]

No, I read the article. It doesn't matter to me that it was only done to the display iPhones at the Apple Store and not directly to the consumer's iPhone. What matters to me is how invasive and spammy this is and there should be zero tolerance for such an act. I honestly hope Apple can sue them for it. Then I'll laugh.

And shame on MacRumors for giving them such free publicity.

It also seems potentially legally dodgy that they’re advertising an unrelated service in an Apple Store. But, for the purpose of this viral advertisement (because, yes, that’s what this is, a staged viral advertisement), they’re using paid actors. It’s viral stunt advertising, and MacRumors is either passing off their press release as an actual news story out of laziness, or they’re getting a cut.

 

[mansplains]

This reminds me of when I'd AirDrop a photo of a can of Spam to all of my classmates ignorant to leave AirDrop to everyone enabled on their iPads.

 

[MrENGLISH]

This reminds me of when I'd AirDrop a photo of a can of Spam to all of my classmates ignorant to leave AirDrop to everyone enabled on their iPads.

So if someone is not tech-literate they are ignorant? I certainly don't expect the vast majority of people to know how to properly manage AirDrop settings on their own. Hence why Apple makes it default to 'everyone'.

 

[mansplains]

So if someone is not tech-literate they are ignorant?

Illiterate is a synonym for ignorant. Ignorance is not an insult.

I certainly don't expect the vast majority of people to know how to properly manage AirDrop settings on their own.

You're assuming the vast majority of people to be uninformed, another synonym for ignorant.

 

[kc9hzn]

So if someone is not tech-literate they are ignorant? I certainly don't expect the vast majority of people to know how to properly manage AirDrop settings on their own. Hence why Apple makes it default to 'everyone'.

But, isn’t AirDrop opt-in, at least from people outside of your contacts list? I believe the default setting is On, but Contacts Only. Either they’ve added him to their contacts book, or they’ve changed the default setting from Contacts Only to Everyone. Ignorance is probably the right word to use in that context, they had a level of technical know-how to change the default option to a less secure/private option, but lacked an understanding (hence were ignorant) of what could happen as a result of changing to the less secure/private option.

 

[Omega Mac]

Anyone notice they do strange things with pricing on blackmarket, feels and looks like like gaming the metrics from the user traffic. Very peculiar. Price fluctuations that make no sense.