There’s nothing like icon-on-icon violence. Well, not real violence, but it’s fun seeing legends tussle and finding out which alpha male prevails.
Business Insider had a story of what happened back in 2004 when U2 was going to appear in an iPod commercial.
Bono’s new book is coming out, and in it, he talks about how he and his bandmates desperately wanted to appear in an Apple commercial even though they never licensed their music for ads. The reason? According to Bono, Apple had “a history of groundbreaking commercials.”
Can’t argue with that. The group told Steve Jobs they didn’t want to be paid to be in the commercial. Instead, the manager of the band, Paul McGuinness, asked the Apple boss for Apple stock.
Jobs countered by saying they didn’t have a big budget for the spot, so McGuinness said “even a symbolic amount” of stock would get the group to perform for the ad.
Jobs didn’t secure a reputation for being a shrewd negotiator by being a pushover.
Jobs told the band the stock convo was a “dealbreaker.” Offer refused.
U2 really wanted to be part of this commercial. So they accepted that they would not be paid and not get stock, and settled for allowing Apple to create a U2-branded iPod that offered the song “Vertigo.” The same song Apple used in the tv commercial.
Apple also created the only digital box set that featured every U2 album, which Bono credits for bringing a new generation of fans to their music.
To this day, Bono revealed in his book how grateful he was to be part of Jobs’ universe.
“Apple was on a ride to infinity and beyond; we were just lucky to hitch a lift.”
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