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Two more soccer players have been photographed with a “mysterious” pair of unreleased Apple headphones, in what must now count as the least subtle campaign in the history of guerrilla marketing.
On two separate occasions earlier this month, and spanning a total of five photos and one video, Barcelona and Spain star Lamine Yamal appeared on social media either wearing or holding an unidentified pair of Beats over-ears. The posts were not tagged as ads, nor did the player make any reference to the product in the captions. But it seemed obvious that the inclusion of the headphones was a deliberate piece of marketing ahead of an imminent launch.
The over-ears were shown in two different colorways (corresponding to the Cloud Pink and Sandstone of the Beats Solo 4 and Beats Studio Pro respectively) with the Beats logo visible, and clearly had a different design to any existing Beats headphones. Industry speculation, along with documents filed with the FCC in May, hint that this may be an updated version of the Beats Studio Pro.
Yamal’s efforts garnered plenty of publicity, but Apple, which owns the Beats brand, is not leaving anything to chance. Two other players involved in the ongoing World Cup have made their own Instagram posts showcasing what appear to be the same pair of headphones.
Over the weekend, U.S. left-back Antonee Robinson posted seven photos in celebration of his team’s victory over Paraguay, and one of these showed him wearing the same mysterious headphones–this time in a mixed blue-and-white finish. And this in turn followed a post two days earlier which included a photo of that same pair of headphones (this time with the colors reversed and his number “5” printed on them) without any explanation. Product placement doesn’t get much more blatant than this.
The South Korean player Kang-in Lee, meanwhile, appeared in two photos wearing the headphones in yellow and white. These latest posts imply that the product may allow customers to mix and match ear cups and headbands in different colors.
Surely the headphones will launch soon. Because this flood of stealth marketing is becoming unbearable–and frankly, a distraction from the football.
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.
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