I, and plenty of other women, got quite a kick this week out of Apple naming its new wonder-toy iPad. It seemed fairly obviously to us why this was an unfortunate name, and we delighted in the numerous jokes that followed: Will it come with wings? Will more memory make it a MaxiPad?
Many men, however, didn’t get the joke. I find that hard to believe, but perhaps some traumatizing errands buying feminine-hygiene products have left them so scarred they prefer to block out any knowledge of those items. (Believe me, most of us women would like to be able to forget about them, too).
And for any men who find all this iTampon talk silly and immature, just imagine if the iPad had been called the iJock. Could you hold back a snicker?
The fact that Apple went ahead with this name at first led me to believe that they must not have consulted with any women beforehand. Do no women work in the corporate offices? Are none of the bigwigs married?
But maybe I’m being naive thinking they were naive. Perhaps it was brilliance, not ignorance. What better way to get free publicity than to set the Internet, particularly the Twitterverse, on fire with jokes? Even the New York Times covered the hoopla.
And maybe Apple had women in mind all along. I think men are much more likely to plunk down money for the latest technological toy, so naming anything iPad is a surefire way to get all the women paying attention, too.