# I-Pad - terrible marketing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2010, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736 "2010-01-28T05:44:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/1 "2010-01-28T05:44:02Z")
Apple unveiled the I-Pad today and it’s already generated some humor. Is this a major marketing blunder? > [@](#): > > Punch lines about hygiene products flooded the blogosphere on Wednesday only moments after Apple Inc. announced it would call its new touch-screen computer the “iPad.” > > “The mocking goes along the lines of: Yes, the iPad is small, lightweight and slim. But can you swim with it?” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ tech blog. > **[iPad name draws feminine hygiene jokes - CNN.com](https://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/27/apple.ipad.reaction/index.html?hpt=T2)** > > Punch lines about hygiene products flooded the blogosphere on Wednesday only moments after Apple Inc. announced it would call its new touch-screen computer the "iPad." This goes beyond schoolboy snickers. Even female bloggers are commenting. > [@](#): > > "With “iTampon” quickly emerging as a trending Twitter topic, it’s probably safe to say that many women found themselves cringing as they asked, ‘Do any women work at Apple?’ " wrote Annie Colbert on the blog “Holy Kaw!” Perhaps the product can overcome it’s name. If it is useful and fun to use. I think Apple has stumbled badly, right out of the gate. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/2 "2010-01-28T05:46:30Z")
If Nintendo was able to overcome the snickers over “Wii”, then surely Apple can overcome “iPad”. I mean, it’s not like Apple has ever had any difficulty marketing their products before. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/3 "2010-01-28T05:54:36Z")
The jokes just that a woman hygine product is also called a pad? If that’s all there is to it, I can’t imagine that it’ll be that damaging. How many other produts have the word “pad” in them. We have mouse pads and game pads and dance pads and notepads and software named Wordpad and wavepad and TypePad and Paripheral Arterial Disease and so on and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/4 "2010-01-28T06:05:36Z")
(this was also being discussed in IMHO [Apple's iPad in all its glory- Would you buy one? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=549694) ) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/5 "2010-01-28T06:07:41Z")
I didn’t plan plan on posting. My initial reaction to I-Pads and Sanitary Pads was unexpected. It’s been a long, long time since I was ten. 😉 But, I read the CNN report and realized many other men and women had the same gut reaction. Blame it on advertising. We’re inundated by commercials for Pads every day of our lives. I can’t watch tv without seeing some lady gush about the confidence her pad gives her in every public situation. I watch tv real time and get hit with all sorts of commercials. This thread is different than the other. I’m focusing on the marketing and media aspects. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/6 "2010-01-28T06:25:33Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > This goes beyond schoolboy snickers. Even female bloggers are commenting. SchoolBOY snickers? A couple women on ATC got mileage out of “There were probably no women in the room when they named it.” I love the idea of tablet computers used as eBook readers, but mine date back ten years or more and are left showing, mostly, what has hot on the PD where I downloaded it, but I’m an old fart: [ePaper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper) is liable to be thinner, more personal, and more open, and it will soon screw the iPad and Kindle to their proprietary origins. Jeff Goldblum may have been a turd in “Jurassic Park,” as in everything else (though I liked “Tenspeed and Brown Shoe”) but his character as, in a paraphrase, “Open-Source will out.” You can’t beat free, even with its hidden costs. The iPad was a short-term gain but, in a couple years as other publishers strike other deals, and it’s screwed. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/7 "2010-01-28T06:25:48Z")
MadTv did a sketch, years ago, about an revolutionary product, the ipad. Reality is stranger than fiction. 😃 :eek: This video is hilarious and came out several years ago. > [@](#): > > The new iPad from Apple — can set you up with fast uploading without all that water bloating,” confides one lady to another in the vintage “MADtv”sketch [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35109625/ns/technology\_and\_science-tech\_and\_gadgets/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35109625/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/8 "2010-01-28T06:35:30Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > This thread is different than the other. I’m focusing on the marketing and media aspects. In the other thread there were also comments on the iPad / women hygiene product name overlap. Just mentioning in case you were interested in reading what other people had said on the topic. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/9 "2010-01-28T06:36:00Z")
Yes, because notepads are clearly feminine napkins that people take notes on. There probably isn’t a word in the English language that somebody won’t think of as slang or a euphemism for something. The speed of the Internet in spreading juvenile stupidity just means that it hits faster and harder (and will pass just as quickly. By the time these ship, the tampon/napkin jokes won’t be “funny” any more.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/10 "2010-01-28T06:36:17Z")
Unless Jobs casts aside everything about business his fantasies have reinforced in the past 25 years, as his failures are glossed over. It’s no “the odds are” dismissal that more prudence than bravado was the way to go with the iPad’s release. Okay, as business is as much playing the odds as bravado, he made the best choice, for tomorrow if not next year. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/11 "2010-01-28T06:40:26Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Yes, because notepads are clearly feminine napkins that people take notes on. I have a wife and three post-pubescent daughters. When I wish to borrow a notebook the LAST thing I would ask for is a “pad.” I’d say, “Get a life,” but more appropriate might be, “Get a **wife**.” ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/12 "2010-01-28T06:48:23Z")
I think this whole thing is juevenile and stupid. Really? PAD HAHAHA PAD IS ALSO WHAT THEY CALL THAT THING YOU… I mean really, who cares? Is it really that funny? To the point where people actually think it’ll taint the devices image? What are we, a bunch of giggling 10 year olds? “Pad” is generic enough that I would’ve never made the connection had it not taken off as an internet meme as fickle groupthink that people use to think they can be funny without any of the effort of actually being funny. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/13 "2010-01-28T07:37:19Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I can’t watch tv without seeing some lady gush about the confidence her pad gives her in every public situation. Gushing ladies are the last thing I want to see when we’re talking about menstrual pads. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/14 "2010-01-28T09:48:13Z")
I think the problem is that, as of now, ‘pad’ is used more as a word for a female sanitary product than an Apple computer. In days or weeks, the Apple connotation will outweigh the other one, and the snickering will fade away. As people have said, Wii doesn’t seem to have hurt Nintendo. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/15 "2010-01-28T11:50:40Z")
The Wii overcame the name issues because it was a fantastic product that took gaming in a whole new direction. The iPad is just sort of an in-between device that’s part this and part that. Does it do anything better than other products, or does it just amount to an awkwardly big iTouch that’s also sort of a netbook, and does anyone need that combination? I don’t know that it can be marketed to fit any specific slot or fulfill any particular need that can’t be absorbed by other products. I couldn’t foresee using it more than a couple of days a month. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/16 "2010-01-28T12:22:12Z")
I’m a woman, and I went there too. I can easily admit I laughed when I saw [this photoshop job](http://failblog.org/2010/01/27/name-fail-photoshop-win/). Plus considering all of the hype it’s pretty funny to have this as what a lot of people are paying attention to. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/17 "2010-01-28T12:58:20Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I mean really, who cares? Is it really that funny? To the point where people actually think it’ll taint the devices image? What are we, a bunch of giggling 10 year olds? “Pad” is generic enough that I would’ve never made the connection had it not taken off as an internet meme as fickle groupthink that people use to think they can be funny without any of the effort of actually being funny. Agreed. If people can’t see that iPad is a takeoff of iPod, they’re likely too stupid to operate either one. I think the iPad will flop horribly, but not because of the name. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/18 "2010-01-28T14:57:24Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I think this whole thing is juevenile and stupid. Really? PAD HAHAHA PAD IS ALSO WHAT THEY CALL THAT THING YOU… > > I mean really, who cares? Is it really that funny? To the point where people actually think it’ll taint the devices image? What are we, a bunch of giggling 10 year olds? “Pad” is generic enough that I would’ve never made the connection had it not taken off as an internet meme as fickle groupthink that people use to think they can be funny without any of the effort of actually being funny. I don’t think it’s funny like haha what a funny joke, but I absolutely made the immediate connection to sanitary napkins the first time I heard the product name. It’s not like they named it iDouche, but man, it ain’t that far off. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/19 "2010-01-28T15:45:38Z")
It would be good marketing buzz if the ipad was cool but I’m with **Tom Tildrum** , it’s a pointless device. At least the name and the resulting furor is mildly amusing, with such underwhelming specs, the name may be the BEST thing about the ipad. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736/20 "2010-01-28T16:38:12Z")
My favourite photoshopped “IPad” gag has [bugger all to do with its name](http://www.b3ta.com/board/9891074), and hits a little closer to the bone. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pad-terrible-marketing/526736.md?page=2)