ShoutingInDigital

AT&T casting a dark shadow on Apple – iPhone Hell

Posted by Andrew | Filed under branding

You’ve heard the classic “United Breaks Guitars” hit by now. It’s certainly true to say that a YouTube viral can hit a brand hard. Spare a thought for Apple who now have to put up with the rather good spoof ad from Pat Lee. “AT&T – iPhone Hell”.

None of the problems Pat mentions are anything specific to do with the iPhone. They’re all AT&T issues and yet it’s Apple’s brand that’s being used in the spoof.

It really hasn’t been a good day for AT&T today. This morning the news was out that the service provider had started to block some of 4chan. In response the hacking literate 4chan community readied the dogs of war. After only a few hounds had been released AT&T dropped the block. Pete Cashmore, himself, has the write up over at Mashable.

Could this be the end of this bizarre turn of events? If AT&T is smart, it will be.

Tech.blorge.com’s John Lister, however, reminds us that;

It’s hard to assess the case without knowing why exactly AT&T blocked the site. It’s possible there was a valid technical reason for doing so.

That’s a comment worth baring in mind. A reader of Erling Løken Andersen’s blog noted that;

It was blocked because it’s been a DDoS target for weeks. This had nothing to do with content.

Blame the idiots who run javascript embedded images.

It seems almost certain that 4chan would have begun to pressure Apple to drop At&T had their battle with the network continued. Even without 4chan pushing the iPhone Hell video it seems all too possible that the spoof will be seen by thousands.

Tags: apple, at&t, iphone, phones