Tom Krazit
White earbuds are, like, so 2001, according to the people behind the iPod-skewering iDon't Web page. Of course, those people have a vested interest in reversing the iPod craze.
iDont.com is the latest so-called 'viral marketing' campaign, in which corporations aim to come off as anything but corporate through a cheeky Web site designed to look like a grass-roots uprising. As little white-earbud clad sheep saunter on the home page, iDont.com declares, "The time has come to rise up against the iTatorship. There is an alternative."
Interestingly, however, the only alternative they cite is SanDisk's Sansa e200 music player, unveiled at CES earlier this year. Other companies make MP3 players that thumb their nose at the iTatorship, including Sony, Creative and Cowon, but iDont.com only has eyes for SanDisk.
And that, of course, is because SanDisk owns www.idont.com, according to Network Solutions' WHOIS search service. Other companies have chosen to hide their ownership of similar sites, as was the case when Microsoft and Intel marketed their Origami and ultra-mobile PC projects.
A SanDisk representative confirmed the company was behind the campaign. The site was designed as a tongue-in-cheek parody of Apple's iPod campaign and designed to be edgy in hopes of reaching a young audience, he said. The site will probably be up another couple of weeks before SanDisk launches a more mainstream-oriented campaign.
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