Most of the companies in the world would be extremely happy if an actor, a sportsman or a man ranked among the richest people in the world would use a certain product, but at Apple things are completely different. The company from Cupertino refuse to offer preferential treatment celebrities when it comes to the launch of new products and some big names in the US have had their requests to receive an iDevice denied just a few days before launch. Shaquille O'Neil, Bradley Frank (Celebrity publicist, Rogers & Cowen), Channing Frye (Forward, Phoenix Suns) and others tried to convince even Steve Jobs to offer them a product before the official launch but they were met by a I firmly refuse.
Shaquille O'Neil
I've always wanted to be the one that's on the edge of the technological curve. I always wanted to be ahead of everyone else. The great Steve Jobs, rest in peace, when the iPhone was first coming out, I used to call him every other day. Can I please get one first? Can I please get one first? He never gave me one. He said, 'Shaq, I can't, I can't, I can't.' He was a great guy.
Bradley Frank
When we shot the last Old Spice campaign with Isaiah Mustafa, Apple was shooting the iPad 2 campaign on the next sound studio. We tried to check it out, but it was like machine-gun guards, check-in at different stations. They had code names. It was like dealing with the CIA. Then they walked their asses right onto our set, and had no issue doing that. They just walked onto our set! We were like, 'What are you doing? You can't do that!' And when the iPhone 4 came out, I can't tell you how many clients were like, 'We need that early.' And Apple's like, 'No.
Channing Frye
My cousin works for Apple, in marketing. I bug her every day about what's coming out. All she can say is, 'What you have works perfectly fine.' Literally, they are like a secret society–if I tell, I have to kill you. It's just wild how they are so tight-lipped about everything. That makes everyone want it so much more–and the NBA is sponsored by Apple, basically. I've yet to see a player use a PC on the road. So, we're all interested. I went to Apple and visited once, checked it out, looked around. I was more interested in if I could find any secret codes. But I can't hide. I'm too big for that.
Basically, Apple gets a lot of attention when it launches an iDevice and it seems that offering a gift before the launch would not help promote the product at all. On the other hand, the company tries to display an attitude of fairness, tries to tell us that we are all equal in front of it, when in reality we all know that things are completely different.
