Apple: The Forbidden Fruit

In horor I have just discovered that Apple's app store is offering for free an app titled: 400+ A Sex Positions in the category for girls' games.To be more precise, the app is next to Classic Yummy Doodle Burger, Bunny Shooter Christmas, Bride and Groom Maker and Make Up Girls. Follow the link pic.twitter.com/H1k3A8aV to see the evidence that can incriminate Apple in any court worldwide.

 

I was downloading a few apps for my 4.5 year old daughter to play during the weekend - the only time she is allowed access to iPad - and had downloaded Easy Bake and Mini Pets when I stumbled upon the sex app which Apple itself rates for 17+ followed by remarks such as Frequent/Intense/Mature/Suggestive Themes and Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity.

 

The horrifying thing is that children the age of my daughter can actually tap into the Free Installation button and consume the content while browsing on the iPad with parents sitting next to them oblivious of what's taking place. 

 

Apple needs to take action right now and remove this app from the girls' games category.

 

This can certainly be a massive PR disaster for the brand of which I possess many of its gadgets.

Golden Arch Tops Olympic Sponsors' Online SoV Contest

With nearly 3 billion Google search results (as of 19^th September 2012) Samsung is one of the world’s top brands in terms of online presence, yet how did its PR machine fair in the battle for Olympic share of voice glory?

Using Google search results statistics as the only methodology tool it transpires that while being the most popular brand online amongst all 11 lead sponsors of this year’s London Olympic Games, Samsung ranks a modest fourth in terms of search results containing the keywords ‘Samsung Sponsorship of London Olympic Games’.

That’s despite Samsung’s clear dominance in non-London Olympic Games online share of voice where it holds a massive 55 per cent of the total pie amongst the Games’ 11 lead sponsors.

Fast food fare finished first as McDonald’s got the London Olympic Games’ online share of voice gold medal in this rather novel study with a total number of 5.3 million results or 38 per cent of the total online share of voice amongst the 11.

Second place went to GE with 16 per cent of the spoils or 2.27 million search engine results inching Coca Cola by the smallest of margins as the soft drinks giant run out of fizz finishing third with 15 per cent of the total online share of voice registering 2.17 million results.

Despite being a member of the Olympic partner programme (TOP) since 1986 and the first to commit to the 2012 Games, Visa finished out of the online share of voice medals table in fifth place with 916.000 results or 7 per cent of the total.

Omega’s race was not against time but Panasonic with the Swiss luxury watch maker edging the audio and visual equipment specialist to claim sixth place with 4 per cent or 619,000 results.

The big disappointment of the tournament came from Acer, Taiwan’s consumer tech provider with annual revenues in excess of US$16 billion and a non-Olympics related online share of voice presence of 463 million; Making its first four year cycle as a TOP partner since it joined the programme in 2009, Acer managed a meagre 236,000 Google results finishing alongside P&G in the penultimate position of the table just above Dow Chemical whose decision to make its Olympic Games sponsorship debut backfired as it sparked controversy over the company’s alleged involvement in a mid-80’s industrial catastrophe in India.

American brands comprised more than half of the overall number of lead sponsors with six out of the 11 companies coming from the US. The Far East with Korea, Japan and Taiwan each had a strong overall presence and France and Switzerland completing the roster. Not a single UK-based firm was part of the Big 11 failing to capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage with their home consumers on home soil around the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza.

While purely superficial and based only on English language results, these figures are indicative of the PR effort the 11 companies put behind their multi-billion dollar sponsorship contracts.

 

  

Fast food fare finished first

McDonald’s got the London Olympic Games’ online share of voice gold medal in this rather novel study with a total number of 5.3 million results or 38 per cent of the total online share of voice amongst the 11 lead sponsors of this year's biggest sporting extravaganza.

Based on the number of Google results shown on 19 September 2012 by typing the keywords "Company Name Sponsorship of London Olympic Games". 

 

Watch this space for a full analysis of the findings as well as more insights

 

Austerity for Posterity

If you are following developments on the Greek situation and phrases such as “bailout funding”, “debt to GDP ratio”, “austerity measures”, “fiscal policy”, “recession”, “debt default” etc are too technical for your liking, do take a minute to read the following list of some of the issues facing Greek people today and then try and answer the question at the bottom of the list. Perhaps then you’d probably understand exactly the actual meaning of all this jargon.  

1)    Your salary is cut by 30 per cent without any downsizing of your role or responsibilities.

2)    Your overall contribution to various state taxes increases by 20 per cent and it is possible that this is likely to increase even more.

3)    Your mortgage is locked at a fixed 5 per cent interest rate and cannot benefit from the lower interest rates of the ECB.

4)    Your monthly shopping expenses for essential goods remains unchanged.

5)    Your monthly fuel costs for your car constantly rise albeit already being amongst the three highest in the world and your only option to commute to work is with your own car.

6)    Your home’s utility bills spiral upwards as energy costs for heating almost double.

7)     Your contribution to your pension scheme for the last 25 years is unlikely to yield you a  pension once you qualify for it and even if it does it would be 50 per cent lower than the one you’d expect based on your payments.

8)     Your daily life costs remain constant

 

9)  Your hope for a better tomorrow for you or your children is against the vested interests of the political establishment and social elite of the country you live in.

What would you do if any or all of the following happened to you at the same time?

Back to School OR Back to Basics?

In a recent survey most parents of Dubai school children seemed happy about the basics; safety, transportation arrangements, learning, assessment practices, canteen food quality etc. For more details of that survey follow the link:

http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/nine-in-10-parents-say-kids-safe-in-uae-schools-2012-06-27-1.464824

But when we conducted that survey, we never thought that a few months later one of the most expensive schools in Dubai (CAS) would tell some parents on Back to School day that their children would be without a teacher for an unspecified period of time.

 My colleague Heba and her husband have already splashed out AED13,000 in advance tuition fees for 4.5 year old Fares only to be told on Day One that the school has yet to appoint a teacher for at least three of its classes. What should these parents do? What CAN they do other than complain?

That is bad for the reputation of the school of course but it is also negative for the image of Dubai’s private education sector, which has been facing many debacles off late regarding the quality of its offering, the credentials of teaching staff and pricing policies.

It seems that on Back to School day we need to go Back to Basics for an education system that still has many sand dunes to climb and deserts to cross in order to reach its own oasis.