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Comment by netcan | Hacker News Reader

Imagine having to reprint brochures, reshoot something or even have to tinker around with the clock so all your screenshots are 9:41.

There are cute quirks and there is attention to detail. But at some point or another it becomes a cultish bureaucracy no one knows the origin of demanding that all clocks alway show 9:41 for some long lost reason.

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I think you may be downvoted (wasn't me either) because you assumed a negative consequence and negative reason without even trying to think of positive ones.

I would assume that they don't reprint or reshoot things, they just have a style guide so all affected people know to set the time right. As I wondered in my other comment, maybe they have tools to help them do this. And if there is a mistake (somebody forgot to set the right time), they probably fix it in photoshop.

As to why this is done, I think a company that displays so many interfaces containing a clock of some sorts, and that is known for attention to detail might try to remove any possible negative view of their ads. We often rely on the devices they sell to tell the time, so our eyes are naturally drawn to the time display in ads. If it were something odd like 3:33am or 11:12pm that might make the viewer wonder why, and get distracted from the message of the ad.

I also think that 9:41am is a positive time. It's when most people are alert and productive, feeling like they have a whole day ahead of them. I would not overlook such touchy-feely effects in advertising.

In my experience people love quirky details performed for long lost reasons. They are central to our culture and identity creation. Take Santa Claus on Christmas dressing in red and saying hohoho, and entering through the chimney. Why not a blue woman squeezing through a tiny crack in the wall and saying neeneeneeneenee?

EDIT: Didn't downvote you btw

it's cute, but pointless. probably contributes close to nothing in terms of revenue.

And that's exactly why Apple is the world's most valuable brand. Attention to detail, even if it doesn't directly generate revenue can have profound effects that will never be discovered in an A/B test or by crunching financials. Unfortunately most tech companies (and businesses in general) don't understand this.

yes, but it's nothing to be written about or discussed. lots of startups do this and they get no attention

But probably costs next to nothing in terms of time. Look at all the companies we're discussing just in this thread. Why does everything have to be only in terms of revenue?

Ah, yes, quirky Santa Claus who dresses in red and white for some long lost reason...

"The Santa Claus we all know and love — that big, jolly man in the red suit with a white beard — didn’t always look that way. In fact, many people are surprised to learn that prior to 1931, Santa was depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to a spooky-looking elf. He has donned a bishop's robe and a Norse huntsman's animal skin."[1]

"Close your eyes and think of Father Christmas. What do you see? A jolly, fat man, with rosy red cheeks, a fluffy white beard and a red suit? Well close your eyes again and try and imagine him with a green suit rather than red...

Difficult maybe, but that is how the British Father Christmas should be dressed. In the 1930s a certain American soft drinks company decided Santa should be dressed in red as part of a marketing campaign and that has stuck."[2]

[1]http://www.coca-colacompany.com/holidays/the-true-history-of...

[2]http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/york/hi/people_and_places/histor...

Sorry but Coke didn't make Santa read and round, the character had been depicted like that before. While they did popularise this, and has gone on to inspire the popular image of Santa, so say they created it is going a bit far.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm

I guess its all context. When you do it yourself, it can be fun. When you do it as an homage, that can be nice too. When you do it because someone else wants you to do it for some reason they themselves don't know or care about, it's not fun. I suppose that is the origin of cultural memes but in the context of a big company workplace, my mind tends to go the other way. I'm not a perfectionist so I guess I don't relate to this from the start.

PS: This is perhaps the most disliked comment I've ever made on HN. I'm genuinely confused. Did this seem like trolling?

Surely they'd just alter the time in Photoshop (or what ever they use).

Or, for a photo shoot, set the time and take a screenshot and then display the screenshot full screen.

Advertising standards in some countries forbid digitally modifying photos of the products. I'm not sure how they define the grey areas like adjusting constrast/etc. though.

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