Everyone on the internet loves OK Go’s music videos, including the folks at Apple, who — according to the band’s manager — borrowed from the band’s latest music video for a promo video shown at Tuesday’s product-launch event. As Andy Gershon explains to Businessweek, the band came to Apple earlier this year in the hopes of collaborating with the tech giant on the project that eventually became the music video for “The Writing’s on the Wall.†Apple turned them down, only to unveil “Perspective,†a short film that uses the same kind of optical illusions featured in the OK Go video, made with the same visual-effects company and the same director. “The videos speak for themselves, and you can draw your own conclusions,†says Gershon.
Compare and contrast that with:
Hiring the same people isn’t the same thing as ripping someone off, and it’s not like OK Go holds a copyright on the idea of optical illusions. But, as Businessweek points out, this isn’t the first time Apple has been accused of not thinking differently enough. Ben Gibbard claimed the company borrowed too heavily from a Postal Service music video for a 2006 TV spot, while the famous silhouetted iPod spots caused a small ad-industry uproar thanks to their similarity to a series of shoe commercials.