BART punks out, pulls cheeky doubleTwist ad near Apple store

Jon Johansen's doubleTwist -- a package that lets you manage all your media, uncoupling iTunes and the iPhone -- bought an ad outside the Apple Store by the Powell Street BART station in San Francisco, proclaiming that doubleTwist is "The Cure for iPhone Envy."

Not long after this cheeky -- but paid-for -- ad went up, BART tore it down, citing the lame excuse that the ad was "too dark." So doubleTwist submitted the same ad with a white background, and BART rejected it for "having a solid white background." Now they're doing it on a transparent background -- what excuse do you suppose BART will come up with this time?

We then submitted the following revised ad with a white background. A white ad would have let even more light through (notice how bright the bottle is in the original ad above). However, it was rejected for having a solid white background (!).
At the ad agency's request, we then made the background completely transparent. It's a lot harder to read text on a transparent background... After complying with all their requests to change the ad, we still haven't been given a firm date on when the ad will be back up.
Apple is a major BART advertiser (in the past they've plastered entire BART stations with iPod ads). Apple's WWDC conference ends on Friday. It's pretty obvious what's going on here... I'm sure our ad will conveniently be back up after WWDC ends.

The Cure for iPhone Envy: The story behind the doubleTwist ad (Thanks, Jon!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

If you’ve seen the SF Apple Store, you know that wall of windows at the BART entrance is HUGE and I was stunned to hear that they’d put an ad on it at all. It’s the equivalent of a billboard at ground level. I think there’s a reasonable possibility that this has nothing to do with Apple. As with most cities I’d imagine there are laws regarding the design of advertising on downtown city streets.

For that matter, BART probably has its own rules regarding advertising that obscures the visibility of the station entrance, which this ad does.

Or maybe Apple is just evil and in cahoots with local government.

Or we all just need to remember to take our medicine.
Genn

#9 know what? I can almost hear guys in Cupertino crying you stopped using iTunes. Oh, wait! I can’t because they don’t care! Isn’t that strange?
Anonymous

I’m putting my money on this not becoming the next greatest media manager/player. It’s a good idea, but it’s banking too much on becoming the next greatest media manager/player. I’m hoping I’m wrong though and that they’ll get rid of the mandatory sign in.
toyg

No it’s not strange. After all, they’re just another greedy corporation. A wink here, a nudge there… and lo, competitors’ ads disappear…

But I’m sure they have nothing to do with it, no sir. It’s all BART’s fault, sure. By the way, fancy a new bridge? I’ll make you a good price!
Anonymous

Aah, the good old Streisand Effect is in full swing. I went immediately to doubleTwist’s home page. Thanks BART!
danlalan

I’m reasonably sure that someone at apple knows that individual responsible for approving BART ads….and in the time honored tradition, I’m guessing something of value moved from one of these individuals to the other, all, of course plausibly deniable to the higher ups in both organizations. Way to exploit good old fashioned corruption in SF, apple!
Anonymous

I just hope BART gives DoubleTwist an extra week, at least, for their ‘inconvenience’ If not DoubleTwist can sue for contractual reasons.

So, yeah, BART, make DoubleTwist sue you, then it’s in papers and on the TV too!
arkizzle / Moderator

Stephen

“Anonymous messages are held for moderation. This could take a (long) while. Or your comment may not be posted at all. Please consider creating an account.”

~ From the anonymous comment form.
mdh

Anonymous @ 9

There is NO way I would have heard about this ad if the stupid, narrow-minded BART-idiots wouldn’t have torn it down, causing bloggers to report that China-like demonstration of modern censorship.

Assuming you’re good at the internet, the software must kinda suck if you haven’t heard of it before a story about it’s advertising (rather than features and awesomesauce coating) hit BB.
hairloss

For those not in the area, BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit… I had to google it, not knowing wtf BART stood for.
Slicklines

It’s not a question of whether the software sucks or doesn’t, or if Apple is hip or not. It’s a question of whether or not a government-funded entity is beholden to a private corporation.

If BART is blocking a paid ad because Apple has them scared, then yeah — I got a problem with that. I can’t imagine not having a problem with that. If you have trouble seeing this, then replace the word “Apple” with the word “Halliburton” and see how that feels.
mdh

slicklines, to anonymous at 9 the sucking of iTunes sucks WAS the question.
Genn

ANTICONNOR, you’re damn right!
Takuan

modcats: ” I iz in ur captchas and I eated ur comment!” (or is “lolmods” better?, at least with “cats” you have a stock of images)
Anonymous

DVD Jon’s (Johansen) Wikipedia page is an interesting read for those that aren’t familiar with his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lech_Johansen
njohnson23

My question… How does DoubleTwist make any money? Everything appears to be free. At least for now…
pebird

If you’ve even been in a BART station – it has to be one of the largest Apple ad locations. Powell Street will have iPod or iPhone posters plastered over and over on both sides of the station. Think London Underground ads, but not as big nor as interesting.

Anyway, this ad probably got approved initially by an underling, then when it hit the top dog, oops, can’t piss off the big advertiser.
Anonymous

doubleTwist is missing the point. Anytime you aren’t being thrown to the floor and shot to death by Bart, your having a good day.

Odd how that news story went away.
Anonymous

Well- as is usual in these cases- I never heard of this product before- NOW I do.

Oh when will the old style businesses understand that there is a NEW way for doing business now?

Mapu
Anonymous

What are they complaining about? At least the advertisers weren’t shot.
Jerril

I expect they’re yet another website trying to live off of advertising for the moment, although probably a “premium” paid service is in development if they have any sense.
Cadfael

Interesting. Isn’t BART in the business of just shooting people they don’t like?
Stephen

DoubleTwist and this ad campaign appear to be successful social hacks by DVD John. That makes their business plan quite hard to predict.
Malgwyn

Tried Doubletwist on the XP, doesn’t work, crashes immediately. Calls home to mommy with a sob story about mean old .Net taking its lunch money and giving it a wedgy.
Anonymous

I get the suspicion that Apple is becoming more and more like the computer world’s Church of Scientology.
Anonymous

This is not Apple, it’s BART. Also it’s restraint of trade and probably fraud.
bobhughes

trendy hipsters are supposed to be against the strong-armed stifling of free expression. what oh what will apple customers do?
Anonymous

#2 “trendy hipsters are supposed to be against the strong-armed stifling of free expression. what oh what will apple customers do?”

Er… well, Apple customers will mostly not notice. Those who notice and take an interest will might think it’s kinda dumb for BART to sign an advertising contract and then break it.

Or is your point “random insult against Apple customers” and the content of your statement is actually irrelevant?
anticonnor

You know, it could just be that these ads were removed for being too damned ugly. I can’t believe that they actually paid someone to create these!
Xenu

I can already access all my mp3s on any device thanks to my Ampache server.

Highly recommended, especially if you have a spare server with a big hard drive and know how to setup a LAMP server. Was very easy with Ubuntu.
Stephen

I can’t see any possible reason my two anonymous posts where blocked by the moderator, unless it’s because I didn’t slam Apple.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I know that it’s not nearly as entertaining as imagining that you’re being suppressed, but maybe you should just try refreshing the page.
Genn

Isn’t it quite stupid to place an ad for Mac owners about “cure to iPhone envy” while the Mac OS X version of app doesn’t recognize iPod and iPhone and it is “known bug”? Insulting stupid!
Stephen

Hi Antinous. I assumed that things would appear (or not) in order. My first comment appeared as #2 and the previous #2 was moved to #3 more than 10 minutes after what is now #3 first appeared as #2. Also, I did try reloading periodically for 15 minutes. I would have though nothing of it, if another post had not appeared during that time.
Anonymous

I never heard of DoubleTwist before. I am an iPhone user, and I hate the way iTunes “performs” on my PC. So you know what, Apple punks? I am now downloading DoubleTwist. No wait, I am not downloading it, I am installing it as we speak. Oh no, wait, let me rephrase that: I just started the program. I won’t be using your crap iTunes program any longer.

Now, the fun part is, I am 5467 miles away from San Francisco. There is NO way I would have heard about this ad if the stupid, narrow-minded BART-idiots wouldn’t have torn it down, causing bloggers to report that China-like demonstration of modern censorship.

Way to go BART! You really did your big client a favour!! Idiots!
Anonymous

Jeez guys, I hate to point this out, but as of 4:30PM or so today the ad was back up, with a pleasant transparent-grey background, which matches the Apple Store beautifully. The text was quite legible.

I was on my way back from WWDC–two days left! I really thought we had a good conspiracy theory going. I wonder when DVD Jon’s blog will be updated.
SkullHyphy

HFS+!
Brainspore

@ Anticonnor #29: I was thinking the same thing. An AGENCY came up with that hideous ad? I don’t know what that spoonful of rainbow-colored medicine is trying to say, but I want it away from my computer.

Of course Apple is going to be equally disappointed when they learn BART longer allows ads with solid white backgrounds.