Apple’s Use of Donations as Marketing

The other day Tim Cook (‪@tim_cook‬) tweeted:

Our hearts go out to the people of Sulawesi and all of Indonesia after this weekend’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. Apple is donating $1 million to aid relief efforts as this beautiful country starts to rebuild.

I feel bad for the earthquake victims too, but this kind of marketing makes me a little ill.

Best I can tell Apple reported 53.8 billion dollars in profit over the last year. If you compared the ratio of their donation to say a person making $100,000 a year, the donation would be $1.86.

Now I don’t want to say a million dollars isn’t a big impact to the receivers of the donation, I’m sure it is — but it just feels a little cheap to announce it and have everyone retweet it, the media website repost it, all to build up this fake “good will” sentiment. Hell, you can’t even buy a media ad campaign for that cheap.

Anytime you read this stuff remember, these are the same big corporations dodging taxes that could normally fund proper emergency relief and preparedness along with other infrastructure needs.

Some might say, well Apple needs to answer to their shareholders and this is how every company works. Well I say, everyone has a choice, and yeah it can be easier to fall in line and do the expected but I root for the person who is going to step out of line and Think Different.

At a minimum, donate your $1.86 annomously without looking for a thank you.