Beats by Dre co-founder Jimmy Iovine sold Beats to Apple for billions. He doesn’t need free advertising, but he’s getting it courtesy of an NFL ban on his Beats headphones. The NFL has an exclusive deal for Bose to be the headphones of the league, so it’s not allowing players to be seen in Beats, a popular youth brand. (The players, it’s easy to forget, are young.) After fining 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick $10,000 for wearing Beats to a press conference, the penalty resulted in massive free media coverage for the Beats brand. It was mostly about how players love Beats–and won’t be denied their choice. Beats incredibly became a rebel brand, even though it’s owned by Apple, one of the most successful companies in the world
Kaepernick, who’s a paid spokesperson for Beats, still wore the headphones but put tape over the logo for the next press conference. (Pulling a 1992 Michael Jordan move.) “It’s like, I can’t believe I’m this lucky,” Iovine told a crowd during a talk at USC’s Global Conversation conference. “I feel like sending them the tape.”
