Joining a pantheon of gaffes which includes Qantas endorsed black face and a delightful KFC advertisement which imagined fried chicken as an instrument of diplomacy, Apple have censored the new Spicks and Specks iPhone app after it was deemed offensive to hispanics. Fair enough. That’s like if there was a Polish trivia show called Chinks and Checks but there weren’t many Asian people in Poland so no one thought it was offensive and everyone was cool with it anyway because the name was taken from a really popular song by a non-offensive Polish rock group.
Such is the case with Spicks and Specks, named for a non-racist Bee Gees song about forgotten loves and not being able to bang them anymore. If Apple’s music knowledge was as comprehensive as their racial epithets database they would know that.
‘It’s just a technical hitch because iTunes is a US-based platform [and] it automatically censors words which mean something offensive in America,” an ABC spokesman said. ”We’ve asked them to review it and are waiting for a response.”
At this stage customer reports indicate it is “quite fun” and “pretty good” though it could benefit from “background music or something”. Good to know!
Purchase the Spicks and Specks app here.
