iPhone 4CF

The Conflict Free iPhone site mimics Apple’s web presence precisely, the layout and style are indistinguishable from a site Apple might produce. The text claims that the ‘new iPhone CF guarantees to all its customers the same high quality phone as the original iPhone 4 with the added bonus of taking you one step closer to a world without conflict.’ And further reports that Apple has decided to ensure the minerals used in the production of their devices are not sourced from mines in Africa ‘under the control of rebel groups further fuelling a conflict that has killed more than 5,000,000 civilians’ (Source: Oman-Reagan 2010 np link).

On November 16th, 2010, the website went live and an on-site intervention was staged where the YesLab, assisted by the Yes Men network, infiltrated the Apple store at 59th Street and Columbus Circle in New York City and posed as Apple employees, handing out vouchers to passerby’s for the ‘iPhone 4CF’ to highlight the lack of knowledge most individuals have about conflict minerals and the war in the DRC, and as an amends, to allow them to trade their old phone in for a new ‘conflict free’ device (Source: Max 2016 np link).

If you own an iPhone 4, you can get it upgraded for free in our store in 767 Fifth Avenue, New York (Source: Yes Men 2010 np link).

[The iPhone 4CF] flyers were … both advertisements and vouchers to act as the catalyst for the action … filled with information and directions about how to receive an iPhone 4CF for free at the 5th Avenue Apple store. … Consumers could take the voucher to the Apple store at [New York’s] 5th Avenue where they could upgrade their current iPhone, that was not conflict free, for one that was. They relied on the fact that by imitating in appearance both Apple’s printed matter (by using its logo and font) and employees’ attire, they could convince people that the product actually did exist. And so they dressed up in printed Apple employee shirts that they had made, spread out around Midtown with their mission, and got to business (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.10-11 link).

The Yes Men supporters and customers who thought the ad was real went to the store and demanded a free upgrade to an iPhone 4 Conflict Free (Source: Musavuli in Musavuli & Bonanno nd np link).

People actually brought [the vouchers] into the store in Columbus Circle, and many Apple employees were surprised that Apple would create such a thoughtful product for the market (Source: Maxmgard 2015 np link).

The experience in the store was intriguing: Apple had informed its employees about the action, but it was impossible for the sellers to find out who the real customers were and who The Yes Men supporters were (Source: Musavuli in Musavuli & Bonanno nd np link).

Eventually, as members of the group started to go in and out of the Apple store, carrying the press releases with them and setting them down in the store, Apple itself responded for real. Those that went into the store were followed and asked to leave, and employees as well as supervisors began to make it known that whatever was going on was not making them especially pleased (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.10-11 link).

… they were already greeted by police officers when they arrived there (Source: Musavuli in Musavuli & Bonanno nd np link).

The police, having acknowledged the presence of more than a few people poised to do something, had set up an area for them to carry-out a ‘protest’ (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.11 link).

At [Apple’s] behest, the NYPD showed up en masse and attempted to barricade the students into a holding pen (Source: YesLab 2010 np link).

[There], the students staged a (fake) impromptu sidewalk press conference as fictional corporate liaisons, and brought together all the elements of their action in one final improvisation (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.10-11 link).

[Among other things, they] called for the arrest of John Paulson, founder of a New York-based hedge fund that heavily invests in the sort of Congo mining that fuels conflict.  (The NYPD did not respond with as much vigor to that request) (Source: YesLab 2010 np link).

Within hours Apple had applied its legal muscle and shut down the website (Source: iphoneproj2011 2011 np link).

Apple … fired off a hostile e-mail to… [www.apple-cf.com’s] service provider, and got the spot-on Apple.com imitation shut down (Source: O’Brien 2010 np link).

But not before the Yes Men had the final word in crafting an Apple-like response that only served to inform the public further about their issues (Source: Chansanchai 2010 np link).

After all of their pranks of the past, a press release from the actual company they targeted hits the news wires explaining that it was a prank, it wasn’t us, blah blah blah. Knowing this, the Yes Men released their own press release acting as Apple, explaining that it was a prank, it wasn’t us, blah blah blah (Source: Kelchner 2010 np link).

Yes Men crafted a clever mea culpa from Apple in its mock press release from a seemingly non-existent Apple spokesperson with a non-working number (Source: Chansanchai 2010 np link).

Apple wishes to inform the public that the so-called ‘conflict-free’ iPhone, promoted today outside the Apple Store at Fifth Avenue in New York City, featured on the non-Apple website www.apple-CF.com, and noted in a spoofed media advisory to numerous New York City reporters, is fraudulent and fictitious, and entirely the imagination of the group of pranksters who created it. To be perfectly clear, this product does not exist, and Apple has no connection to the group that promoted it. Furthermore, although Apple does have plans to certify its materials as conflict-free, this will by no means be any sort of solution to the situation of conflict in the Congo, nor in any way help bring an end to that conflict. Rather, the solution must be based in diplomacy. In this regard, there is a law on the books – the ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act,’ Public Law 109-456, introduced by then-Senator Obama in 2005 – that demands, among other things, the appointment of a special envoy to the Great Lakes region. As of now, four years later, this has still not happened, and the Congolese continue to die by the tens of thousands. There are various possible solutions to this problem, but it is up to you, not Apple, to accomplish them. Here are some things you can do: Report the violation of Public Law 109-456 to the FBI. Visit tips.fbi.gov to do so, or call 1-800-CALLFBI (225-5324). Culpable parties involve not only the President and the White House, but the Secretary of State, who is in charge of enforcing that portion of this law that demands the withholding of aid to destabilizing nations. You might consider performing a citizen’s arrest against the above parties. Any citizen can arrest someone committing a crime, if the crime is sufficiently grave. Millions of deaths in the Congo are, Apple believes, a very grave crime. You might also consider performing a citizen’s arrest against shareholders and officers of the mining companies that have been implicated in pillaging the resources of the Congo and fueling the conflict in the Congo over the past 14 years. Why not start with John Paulson, the majority shareholder of AngloGold Ashanti, the mining company most responsible for financially supporting rebel groups and furthering the Congo conflict. His office is located at 1251 Avenue Of The Americas (at 50th Street), Floor 50. We at Apple have acknowledged in the past that the conflict in the Congo, which has claimed many millions of lives, is fuelled in part by the provision of minerals that go into consumer electronic products, and not only Apple’s. However, so-called ‘conflict-free’ certification is not a real solution, merely a very tiny part of a real solution. Regardless of whether Apple or other companies produce ‘conflict-free’ products, the Congo conflict will not end until the U.S. government chooses to enforce its own laws (Source: Anon 2010b np link).

A Paulson spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to whether the Paulson office had been visited or called as a result of the campaign (Source: Delevigne 2010 np link).

By the end of the night … our message was effectively heard and seen by the general public as well as Apple (Source: Max 2016 np link).

[We’re] ‘lying in order to tell the truth’ (Source: Bichlbaum in Anon 2011a np link).

In their joke, the Yes Men literally perform another way of being, another way of living as resistant and cheeky, within a system in which conformity is the easier (and often more applauded) choice. Ultimately, the Yes Men confront a bleak situation too common under neoliberal economic models: further loss to the disenfranchised, further profit to the enfranchised, and difficulty in corralling the energy and will to address the situation, and in response dress up, take on ridiculously punning pseudonyms and perform an alternative punch line, provoking maybe a laugh, perhaps a smile, or, at the very least, a glimmer of recognition not only of the problem, but on the level on which action occurs, in which the body can speak against cynical ideology (Source: Veldstra 2010 p.152).

Fake sites … are humorous parodies of commercial sites, and one that are created as a form of Internet Activism called cyber-activism. When considerable work is done, these may look like the real thing and can easily fool you (Source: Cross 2013 p.182).

The [iPhone 4cf] website … mimics the design and commercial language of the market-leading smartphone company Apple but reveals problems in the production of electronics through ‘identity correction’: creating a spoof website that shows what they think a corporation could and should be doing (Source: Kemppainen and Ylä-Anttila 2016 p.10 link).

Emulating The Yes Men is easier said than done. It all began when Andy Bichlbaum, one of the leading members of The Yes Men … instructed a class at Parsons New School for Design in New York City called The Yes Lab. The Yes Lab was formed to conduct experiments – social or breaching experiments (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.1 link).

Ideas were thrown around in the group and eventually one emerged above the rest when one of the students came up with the idea to address the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (henceforth DRC). She described the pattern of rape, torture, forced displacement, and the illegal use of child soldiers. … They could not speak for other people, but they were interested in formulating a critique that made their position visible. They wanted to identify the closest connection they had with the conflict (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.3-4 link).

[They] chose their favorite electronic company as the target of their critique – Apple. Believing that Apple should put pressure on its minerals suppliers, the group created a campaign purporting that Apple had actually done so (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.1 link).

They tried to connect their local situation with the global conflict. They did not just want to criticize multinational corporations, they wanted to discover which connection they had with the conflict. Therefore they would not only criticize the company and their use of conflict minerals but also integrate the consumer – including themselves – in their critique (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.6 link).

They saw The Yes Lab as a learning experience. It put tools and methodologies for political activism in their hands. As The Yes Men in training, they developed this action in order to highlight not only an international conflict – including the conspicuous consumption of a capitalist society and its global ramifications – but also the difficulties of acting politically (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.13 link).

Because of all that information the students developed a strategy to both promote the knowledge of what was going on in the DRC as well as publicly make an example of a company that was glibly exploiting the conflict for their corporate social responsibility campaigns. Their focus of critique was Apple’s effort to represent itself and its customers as especially socially responsible. Additionally they wanted to inform consumers that political problems could not only be solved by corporations or by consumer buying habits but by political means … The students created a fake product … that served as a vehicle for all the information that they had unearthed during their work … Using the aesthetics and stylistics of Apple, their campaign was made to mirror the company and their consumers that they were subverting. They provide to the consumer, who more than likely wants to believe that consumer buying habits have a strong influence on the environment, a solution for the conflict: buy a new gadget (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.8 link).

The students then proceeded to build an entire marketing campaign for the iPhone 4CF, including a website, flyer, ersatz Apple employees, business cards, customers, a pre-release event, a media advisory, hotline, a press conference, and a press release … On the iPhone 4CF website and in the press release – everything in Apple’s corporate design – the students not only gave facts about laws that are being entirely ignored by the government but called for Situationist-inspired activism such as citizen’s arrest for pertinent abettors wrapped up in the conflict mineral trade and in not enforcing existing laws. For example, they called for the arrest of President Barack Obama, who does not enforce the 2005 law that he himself introduced while in the Senate: ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act.’ They also demanded the arrest of the hedge fund manager John Paulson, whose company finances some of the worst extraction practices (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.8 link).

[T]he Yes Men frequently play both sides of the corporate vs. activist game, first acting as the corporation itself in making an announcement, posing as the company, and then posing again as the ‘real’ company denying that the previous action was authentic … The power of the Yes Men campaign comes from this mind-bending juxtaposition, and the way that experiencing these two announcements draws the user into consciousness about the modes of production without ever using the term or even mentioning capitalism (Source: Oman-Reagan 2010 np link).

In the follow the things genre, experiments in ‘critical making’ have generated powerful critiques of, with and alternative to the injustices of ‘free market’ capitalism. The iPhone 4cf (2010), for example, is a ‘conflict free’ smartphone advertised on a spoof website – www.apple-cf.com – where consumers were encouraged to download, print out and take to their local Apple store a form that would allow them upgrade their iPhone to a non-existent ‘cf’ version without charge (Parkin 2011, np). Phone Story (2011) is a smartphone game in which, to get through one level for example, ‘while the narrator explains that most electronic devices require the mining of coltan, a conflict mineral in Congo whose demand spurs war and child labour, the player must use the touch screen to guide armed soldiers to bark at exhausted child miners in order to meet the goal in time’ (Alexander in Kemppainen et al 2012, np). And the ‘real’ Fairphone (2013) has been made and marketed to ‘create a fairer smartphone economy by building a phone’ whose ‘raw materials come from conflict-free mines, … [whose] manufacturers are paid a living wage, and … [whose] open source operating system … anyone can modify’ (Salek 2013, np). In each case, the critical making process used ‘the very device that [each] is criticizing as the vehicle for its criticism’ (O’Dwyer in Kemppainen et al 2012, np) (Source: Cook et al 2014 p.12 link).

The website was taken down, but its existence and takedown generated a great deal of discussion about why Apple and other electronics companies weren’t producing phones like this, and how they could and should (Source: Kemppainen and Ylä-Anttila 2016 p.10 link).

Reading through the iPhone prank site, it becomes evident that its ultimate goal is not to take a bite out of Apple. As the Yes Men’s fake press release notes, ‘although Apple does have plans to certify its materials as conflict-free, this will by no means be any sort of solution to the situation of conflict in the Congo, nor in any way help bring an end to that conflict. Rather, the solution must be based in diplomacy.’ That’s a reasonable argument, and the Yes Men deserve credit for not repeating the simplistic view that we, the American consumer, can bring peace to the DRC by merely boycotting blood tantalum or buying the right kind of electronics (Source: Gilson 2010 np link).

Essentially, the [iPhone 4CF] prank was to raise general awareness of conflict minerals and their usage in the electronic industry. It wasn’t a direct attack on Apple, but I would guess they performed it at Apple since it is one of the most popular electronic manufactures in the world. The real act of their mischief was with the press release where they explained this is much bigger than Apple, and even bigger than corporations (Source: Kelchner 2010 np link).

While their intentions may be genuine, the Yes Men need to do more fact-checking before they spout off. Dave Gilson from Mother Jones makes some corrections in the content of the campaign that show the complexities of the Congolese situation and that the specific companies the Yes Men blame may not be the most effective in curtailing the violence, which is the ultimate goal of the activists (Source: Chansanchai 2010 np link).

[W]hile the Yes Men’s design and humor are spot-on, making them phenomenal pranksters, their politics are a bit simplistic, making them less than ideal activists. Mother Jones is no bosom buddy to multinational corporations, but [Mother Jones writer] Gilson … points out that conflict minerals simply don’t appear to be the root of the DRC’s problem. It’s ‘a conflict complicated by dozens of major players and a web of regional politics and rivalries,’ he writes, and, noting that the Yes Men plan to re-launch their site, adds: ‘Here’s hoping the Yes Men work out some of these glitches before they roll out the 2.0 version of the iPhone 4cf’ (Source: Zax 2010 np link).

The Yes Men have come under intense criticism for their simplistic politics which render them less than ideal activists; their campaigns no more than impressive graphic designs and publicity grabbing stunts. Is this the only way to harvest a good crop of responsible Apple products? Or is there a more constructive NGO approach to identify what rots the core of the Apple giant? And how is Apple reacting to those NGOs whose campaigns constantly afflict the Apple brand (Source: iphoneproj2011 2011 np link)?

I still do not like witch hunts, so I’m not thrilled with this kind of smear campaign. But if we were indeed able to think about the global and permanent consequences of all our choices, including the most futile (but not necessarily the ones with the least impact), it would not be bad. No (Source: Bosman 2010 np link)?

Beside the reaction from Apple itself, the students received attention from the public, the police, as well as the press. The fact that critics viewed the action as irritating could be considered proof that the actual purpose of the breaching experiment / performance had been achieved (Source: Mönkedieck 2011 p.2 link).

Are we suggesting that you give up your iPhone or any of the other gadgets that contain conflict minerals? No. We are, after all, users of this technology ourselves – at least until we figure out how to transmit our weblog directly to your minds. We are simply passing on information that isn’t exactly at the forefront of everyone’s attention. As Nicholas D. Kristof says in his Op-Ed piece: ‘It’s not that American tech companies are responsible for the slaughter, or that eliminating conflict minerals from Americans’ phones will immediately end the war. Even the Enough Project, an anti-genocide organization that has been a leading force in the current campaign, estimates that only one-fifth of the world’s tantalum comes from Congo.’ But awareness is a step toward solution. There simply has to be a better way. We should all know where the products that are a part of our everyday lives come from, what the impact is, and what it means to our future and our past (Source: grippinglyauthentic 2010 np link).

After the threat from Apple to completely remove the upstream provider of the [iPhone 4CF] site, the content was removed by the hoster. [Such] speed and consistency … would be welcome in the fight against the use of ‘blood minerals’, but [is] completely lacking there. Obviously, it’s more important to the company to preserve their supposedly clean image without advocating fair and equitable delivery and delivery of the necessary product components. So far, the Yes Men have not been able to find another host for the site (Source: Anon 2011b np link).

Too bad that the iPhone 4CF was not genuine (Source: Bjoern 2014 np link).

Researchers and product innovators have been developing the idea of a conflict free smartphone from an activist stunt (the iPhone 4cf) into a real product (the Fairphone) (Source: Kemppainen and Ylä-Anttila 2016 p.11 link).