iPod & iPod Shuffle

So I got an iPod shuffle this summer from TD Canada Trust bank. They were having a promotion that if you switched a chequing account from another institution they'd give you one for free. So after seeing ads on the side of my diet Pepsi all summer for "the chance to win one of ___ iPod shuffles" I had to have one. Now I honestly give kudos to the iPod people, this is the best marketing campaign of all time... LOL I didn't even know what the heck and iPod was when I first saw the ads on my diet Pepsi, all I knew was that I had to have one! I actually told this to a co-worker who informed me that if I wanted one that bad I'd have a better chance getting one through the bank than drinking myself stupid on Pepsi trying to win one. So I did, I went to the bank and got my iPod shuffle, now here's the funny part I haven't even opened the thing yet. I got it from the bank, took it out to look at it and haven't bothered to put a single song on the thing.

See the problem is now that I own one I realized that what I actually got was a fashion icon, I bought into pop culture. By obtaining the iPod I got the spiffy and coveted white earbuds, putting me in the elite iPod crowd that apparently exists as a sub-culture. Apparently in fact, this sub-culture is so elite and so worth getting into that there are people buying white earbuds and plugging them into non-iPod devices like Discmans and then hiding the Discman so that no one knows they don’t have a real iPod! I mean honestly, that's sad!

I would also like to take a minute to note the ad campaign that iPod is running for their devices, well I suppose not so much the ad campaign but the slogans behind iPods. The slogan for shuffle is “Life is random”, which I suppose is not so horribly inaccurate. The tag line though reads at this “Time to mix things up. Meet iPod shuffle, the unpredictable new iPod.” I wonder if perhaps unpredictable will be taken as unreliable? The iPod mini tells us exactly what iPod is trying to sell, an attitude and a sub-culture with their tag line reading “This season’s must-have accessory? Your music.” And “Music is the New Black.” This iPod comes in four colours to suite anyone’s wardrobe, or better yet, buy all five and then you’ll always be colour co-coordinated! The worst by far though is the original iPod; its motto is “Your music in colour” okay now that doesn’t even make sense! Why music must be in colour is beyond me! This tag line for this is “Everything Sounds Better in Colour”…. Okay then? But then if you go onto read specs you realize the things views photos, save mp3s or data and, etc. etc. Which is cool, except that honestly now who needs to have “20GB or 60GB models and carry up to 15,000 songs or as many as 25,000 photos in your pocket”??

Well kudos to Mac for suckering me into your sub-culture, I think the lesson learned from this is that perhaps I should research before I fall into marketing traps! I think perhaps just to smite them a little I’ll attach my old clunky non-iPod earbuds to mine and try and make my own statement!

Oh and as a side note all the quotes I got came directly from the official iPod site located at:
http://www.apple.com/ca/ipod/