by the Night Writer
Somebody had the brilliant idea to create a game app for the iPhone where the objective is to shake a baby to death, and then Apple thought it was a good idea to approve and market it.
What next, a baby-seal clubbing app? Columbine as a first-person-shooter? Concentration Camp Jenga?
It’s amazing how quickly a bad idea can get disseminated via today’s technology — and how quickly the smack-down can take place (interesting details of what happened here and here).
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I…am speechless. And a little sick.
I’ve heard of people who have no sense of judgment. But a marketer? It’s their job not to be idiots about stuff like this.
Of course, when society’s moral code is up for grabs it can be hard to gauge what is offensive and what itsn’t. It’s worth noting that it’s perfectly fine in civil society to support abortions with no restrictions. How is a marketer supposed to know what will raise hackles and what won’t?
Marketers (smart ones) are supposed to have their finger on the pulse of the masses (kind of like high priests dancing outside the cave of the monster ala my Nock essay last week). In this instance, someone woefully misjudged…and I guess there’s some comfort in the fact that the public (those paying attention) is decent enough to be outraged.
Or maybe they just think that no one has a “right” to shake a baby.
Wish I could say I was surprised, but I’ve known enough marketers to understand exactly how it happened. This one came out of the “pushing the envelope” department; usually such ideas get shot down by the “what’re you, nuts?” department, but I can only assume they were at lunch.