Apple's Carpool Karaoke… isn't great. But despite scathing critical reviews of the show, Apple keeps trying to make it happen. In fact, they're so horny for the show to succeed that they've been forcing advertisements for it out to iOS users. According to The Verge, many iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users have been receiving unwanted Carpool Karaoke push notifications from Apple, via the iOS TV app for the past few weeks.
From The Verge:
We're not sure how many iPhone users received the notifications, but it looks like Apple has tried plugging its show at least twice in recent weeks: once on December 7th for an episode where Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin grill each other using a lie detector test, and once on December 14 for an episode featuring joint singalongs with comedian Jason Sudeikis and the Muppets.
Developed in house by Apple, the TV app doesn't ask for user permission to send along push notifications the first time that it's launched, like third-party developed iOS apps do. The shit and giggle part of this is that Apple App Store policy makes it very clear to developers that unsolicited notifications pushing advertising, features or promotions are not OK. If you know your way around iOS, turning off notifications spewed out by any app is as easy as flipping on a light — but not all of Apple's users are software-savvy. So, without help, they could be stuck putting up with the company's unwanted solicitations.
It's a case of "do as we say and not as we do," I suppose.
You'd think that Apple's management muckily mucks would have learned by now. Back in 2014, they blew over $100 million buying up digital copies of U2's latest record to push out to iTunes users, no matter whether those users liked U2 or not. Many Apple customers were enraged that the company would dare to force unwanted content on them without so much as a by-your-leave. As a result, Apple was forced to throw together instructions for how to remove the unwanted music from an iTunes collection.
Image via Flickr, courtesy of Andy Thornley
