Move over, Onion. There's a fake news site for Apple fans too. Two key veterans of Apple's ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day have created spoof Apple news site Scoopertino.com to disseminate "insanely funny" fake news stories.
Michael Rylander and Ken Segall were deeply involved in the award-winning - some would say ‘company-saving' - Think different campaign that marked Steve Jobs' return to the company.
Segall dreamed up the name ‘iMac', which of course led to all the other ‘i' products: iPod, iBook, iPhone, iLife, iWork, and so on.
Rylander was involved in the eye-catching iMac ads, and other Apple commercials such as the infamous smoking Intel bunnies TV ad - as well as television and print campaigns for the iBook, PowerBook, Airport and Power Mac.
Tongue-in-cheek Scoopertino claims that is "an independent news organization devoted to ferreting out the most relevant stories in and around the world of Apple, whether or not they actually occurred".
Its motto, as displayed in its masthead, is "Unreal Apple News."
"Nobody loves Apple more than we do," says Segall.
"We're addicted to the technology, and we admire the Apple spirit. But the headlines coming from Apple are so consistently amazing, we can't resist giving them that extra twist, just for the fun of it."
A story in the launch edition tells of Steve Jobs' demand that his annual salary be adjusted for inflation, from its current one dollar to a whopping $1.05. Another reveals a new technology that goes beyond Apple's Multi-Touch, allowing users to control devices via brainwaves - but only if Apple approves their thinking first.
"We're doing what the late-night talk shows do," says Rylander.
"We're looking at the news and playing with the absurdity of it. And we're trying to do it with a degree of wit and design worthy of Apple. We hope those inside the company will laugh more than anyone."
Springing from the brains of long-term Apple ad creatives Scoopertino.com has a real Apple feel to it, especially in terms of its design.
In a story describing how Apple has licensed Steve Jobs' "Reality Distortion Field" to the Pentagon for use in Afghanistan an Apple Store Genius Bar is integrated into a rock wall at a remote military meeting.
Scoopertino is updated as fake news stories break, at least twice per week, and will continue to publish "until Apple stops supplying such good fodder".
Actual, non-spoof Apple news here
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