Apple takes down billboard that many felt promoted iPhone as a babysitter
A billboard showing a toddler with an iPhone drew criticism and was eventually replaced
Apple gives in to critics, replaces iPhone billboard | Image by Apple
As part of its "Relax, it's iPhone" advertising campaign, designed to show consumers that Apple's smartphone can handle or survive anything thrown its way, the tech giant might have crossed a line. In Italy, Apple had put up a billboard showing a toddler holding an iPhone Pro model that the rugrat must have smeared baby food on. The billboard read "Tutto ok, e' iPhone," which, when translated to English, means "Everything's good, it's an iPhone."
A billboard promoting the iPhone in Milan was the subject of controversy
Italian children’s rights watchdog organization Autorità Garante per l’Infanzia e l’Adolescenza (AGIA) received a complaint from a citizen in Milan as soon as the iPhone billboard went up in the city's Via Melchiorre Gioia, an avenue that runs north to south in the city. The letter accused Apple and the billboard of normalizing "electronic babysitting."
The AGIA concurred and passed the complaint to Italy’s communications regulator AGCOM, the Italian Competition Authority AGCM, and the country’s advertising self-regulatory institute IAP. The trio were asked to review the billboard and to take any potential action against it.
The original billboard that was the subject of controversy. | Image by la Repubblica
Apple decided to remove and replace the billboard
Before any decisions were handed down, Apple decided to remove and replace the ad as reported by Repubblica Milano. Apple has yet to comment on the situation, but it appears obvious that the company wanted to steer clear of any controversy.
From Apple's standpoint, it wanted to show that parents don't have to be concerned if their toddler grabs their iPhone. From the viewpoint of the consumer who lodged the complaint about the ad, Apple was trying to show that the iPhone can be a responsible babysitter. Frankly, I don't see how anyone could come to that conclusion from looking at the billboard.
Apple replaced the billboard picture starring the toddler with this one. | Image by la Repubblica
Disagreeing with me is Alberto Pellai, a developmental psychotherapist who riffed on Apple's "Everything's good, it's an iPhone" translated tagline. He called the billboard "the denial of everything science is trying to tell the world" about the harm caused by the use of digital devices at an early age.
A developmental psychotherapist called the billboard "a gigantic provocation"
Pellai went on to say that after trying to get through to the parents of preschool children and warn them of the dangers of giving them access to a digital device with a screen, the billboard felt like "a gigantic provocation." Nice try, Alberto, but as the father of two children who have grown up to be great adults, introducing them to digital devices when young did them no harm at all.
Pellai also said that his concern is that the pcture conveys the implct message that a very young child with a smartphone in his hand is a good thing. He notes that the Italian Society of Pediatrics has issued a guideline stating that parents should not give a smartphone for personal use to any child under 13 years of age. He says that the message on the billboard is not only a big lie, it also goes against the country's recommendations.
Apple replaces the picture used in the billboard with an image that won't cause any problems
When you look at the picture in the billboard and read the copy ("Everything's good, it's an iPhone"), you can see that it is the dirty smartphone being waved around that is in peril, not the toddler who has a tenuous grasp on the device. Apple replaced the billboard with one that removed the picture of the baby and the baby food-stained iPhone. In its place is the image of an iPhone that fell into the sand.
Andrea Canginik, director of the Paper, Pen, & Digital Observatory of the Luigi Einaudi Foundaton located in Rome, had issued a public warning about the ad. She called it "terrible" back on July 30, asking for it to be removed.
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