And now, concentrating on the wrong thing. Do you ever wonder when Apple makes these pre-recorded presentations? I saw some people complaining on Twitter on Tuesday about the fact that Apple said nothing during Tuesday’s event about Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, which is entering its third week. Some defended the company, pointing out that there’s no telling when the various segments were shot. Others said, yeah - okay, but they could have tacked on some sort of acknowledgement. Personally, I think Apple’s statements on the situation - both to the public and to employees, moving Crimea back to Ukraine in the Maps and Weather apps, plastering donation links for humanitarian aid across all of its services, suspension of hardware sales in Russia, and nixing App Store Ad Sales in Russia all send a pretty strong message. Additionally, from a presentation point of view, how does one talk about the atrocities being visited upon the Ukrainian people, then say, “but enough about that, let’s sell some iPhones”?
Yeah, it turns out Apple did acknowledge the situation, though in a subtle way. A piece from Cult of Mac points to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s outfit for the “Peek performance” performance. According to the site:
Cook emceed the event wearing an eye-catching yellow Sport band. Paired with his blue sweater, Cook seemed to be making a subtle gesture of support for [Ukraine] (yellow and blue are the colors of the Ukrainian national flag).
While “Cook didn’t call out the situation in Ukraine during the presentation,” the Cult says “the color pairing seems unlikely to have been a coincidence.”