Macenstein

Faithful Macenstein reader Emily (a female reader!!!!) sent us a concerned e-mail about the shot of Apple’s NorthPark Center, Texas Store appearing on Apple’s site.

“Why would Apple use this photo on their site with a giant broken window to showcase the NorthPark store?” wonders Emily.

Nice catch, Emily. It looks like Apple has sunk all its money into that fancy new Sydney Australia store, thus letting all the domestic stores fall into disrepair. 🙂

Actually, no. That “broken” window is actually a big old sticker, used to promote the short-lived iPod Hi-fi boom box. The idea was supposed to be that the Hi-fi was so darn powerful, it would break your house (and who wouldn’t want that?) The shot of the NorthPark store must have been taken during the Hi-fi’s 15 minutes of fame, and then just never updated.

As clever a marketing gimmick as that was, this shot actually calls to mind something I have been seeing WAY too much of here in suburbia of late, and that is the “fake broken windshield with ball sticking out” stickers that all mini-van/SUV-owning proud parents of athletic kids are slapping onto their vehicles. From baseballs to hockey pucks to inexplicably incorrectly-sized footballs and basketballs, apparently parents love to pretend their car was broken by their children’s sport of choice. Maybe I’m just overly sensitive to tackiness, but I see it as more or less like putting a giant pink flamingo on your lawn. And then driving your lawn around town.