Jimmy Iovine on NFL Beats Ban: 'I Can't Believe I'm This Lucky'
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Posted October 16, 2014 at 1:02am by iClarified
Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine commented on the NFL's ban of Beats headphones while on camera during a talk at University of Southern California's Global Conversation, reports BusinessInsider.
"We didn’t do anything, and now the players are going out and putting black tape on our logo," Iovine said.
"It’s like, I can’t believe I’m this lucky," he said, laughing. "I feel like sending them the tape."
49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was fined $10,000 by the NFL for wearing his Beats headphones on camera. He has since used a piece of tape to cover the logo on his headphones.
"What happened there, you have a tech company that’s culturally inept," Iovine said. "There’s no one at the company that said, 'If you ban these guys, you’re going to look bad to the young people, and they’re going to look like superheros even though they’re just pure capitalists — well they’re not pure capitalists, but they’re real capitalists and [they] sold that company to Apple — but you’re going to make them look like the underdog."
All I can see is Apple being (rightfully) furious about Samsung and other companies ripping off its design, while conveniently looking the other way when recent acquisition Beats 'borrows' noise canceling expertise from Bose.
Of course, that hypocrisy is lost on most people, meaning they couldn't care less. And yes, NFLs directives seem naive, but they're a matter of contractual agreements, not PR strategy.
(You can be sure that if Bose didn't have a case, there would have been no settlement. Apple would have gone to court.)