Apple Says No to iPad and iPhone Giveaways

[Phillip Swanson]

Honestly, what could drive more traffic to a website than the prospect of winning an iPad or iPhone? Maybe the cure for cancer, or guaranteed lottery winnings.

Maybe.

Too bad Apple is trying to dig a grave for the marketing gold that is free iPhone and iPad giveaways. CNN Money's Philip DeWitt highlighted Apple's Guidelines for Third Party Promotions today (found here), and made note of a few of the restrictions. The issue came to light after an ABC affiliate in Durham, N.C. was notified they had violated Apple's rules when promoting an iPad giveaway.

Here are a few excerpts from Apple's guidelines:

• iPad, iPhone and the iPhone Gift Card may not be used in third-party promotions.
• iPod touch is only allowed to be used in special circumstances and requires a minimum purchase of 250 units.
• You may NOT use the Myriad Set font on or in connection with web sites, products, packaging, manuals, or promotional/advertising materials.
• The use of "free" as a modifier in any Apple product reference in a prominent manner (headlines, call- outs, etc.) is prohibited.
• You must submit all marketing materials related to the promotion of Apple products to Apple for review.

The guidelines/restrictions above have been around since January. The best part about the entire document is the very last line:

"We appreciate your interest in doing business with Apple!"

Where was that excitement in the rest of the document?

Source: CNN Money

[Melech518]

HAHA! Good luck enforcing that one Apple!

[dq13]

wait... so I can not BUY and PAY for an apple product and then give it away to whoever I want?? WTF is wrong with apple...

[TheNoob12]

wait... so I can not BUY and PAY for an apple product and then give it away to whoever I want?? WTF is wrong with apple...

Oh you can give away you just can't "promote" or "profit" from it.

[BSmith]

Is this for retail or wholesale purchases from Apple? I find it hard to believe that they would think they could control the sale after a retail purchase?

[NakedFaerie]

I always thought crApple were retarded and this just gives more proof I'm right.

[XenoSaber]

Is this for retail or wholesale purchases from Apple? I find it hard to believe that they would think they could control the sale after a retail purchase?

I find nothing "Hard to believe" when it comes to apple. After all, when I had an iPhone, it wasn't really mine it was still steve's. I just paid to use it as he saw fit until I upgraded or otherwise got rid of it, which I did.

[GmAz]

My god, and just when you thought Apple couldn't get any more nazi, they do this. I haven't owned an apple product in over a year, but I keep coming back to modmyi.com just hoping for stupid **** like this.

[2Jaze]

Kid sells one of his kidneys so he can buy an iPad 2 | 9 to 5 Mac

I think the link says it all. Maybe a giveaway or two couldn't hurt.

[Truckerbear]

Why is that when I am not signed into MMi I can see all the comments on every post... but when I am signed in I only see the first comment. This post has 7 comments and I see one the moment I sign in. I am using Vista and firefox. Its been like this since the update. The other thing is very few of the topics have the READ MORE link. I have to click the comments or topic subject to READ MORE.

[syedsufyan]

The for dummies website didn't take down their iPad giveaway yet.

[stevelucky]

You can do whatever giveaways you want. They're just saying that you can't use their trademarked names in the promotion. While being a little harsh, I can understand why Apple doesn't want their name attached to every crappy, scam company out there. And seeing as how they're Apple's trademarks that they've worked so hard to create and brand, they should have the right to control them. Enforcing this new policy however...