Unreleased Beats Pill Speaker Teased by F1 Driver Daniel Ricciardo

[cateye]

This phase of marketing by Apple is cringe af.

Most of Apple's mewling over-the-top marketing is cringe af. It's the worst side of Apple, this Nike-style "we're so extra" nonsense. At least when it's applied to something like an iPhone, or a Mac, or whatever, something that contains significant engineering legacy and a depth of function, we can sort of swallow Apple's hyperactive B.S. factory in return for a solid, well-conceived, unique product.

But this? Right here? It's a bluetooth speaker. It is the electronic equivalent of a loaf of bread—if you're compelled to pay more for a specific brand, just set your money on fire instead. At least then you get some warmth out of the waste. Skip this nonsense and go buy a Shenzhen Special on Amazon for $19.95. It'll sound and look the same. Because you just know Apple is going to slap a $169 price tag on this ridiculous thing and laugh all. the. way. to. the. bank.

 

[Fuzzball84]

When a product can't sell itself!

Double no... no, just no. This puts me off beats even more than before.

 

[Fuzzball84]

Would be hilarious if he dropped it, it cracks open and its revealed to be a non functional display version.

 

[kerr]

Would have been better marketing to give them to sportsmen whose careers weren’t finished

 

[jgdeschamps]

Would have been better marketing to give them to sportsmen whose careers weren’t finished

Not sure if his career is finished (embarrassing, it is) but Ricciardo was indeed a really bad choice for a cool F1 driver to "leak" this BT speaker. Lewis Hamilton is way more related to music, and his personal style screams Beats products... he must charge a fortune for these type of stunts.

 

[dasmb]

But how are the good drivers listening to music?

alternate joke: He'll just use it to bash other people's Beats speakers, and then switch to Focal, which he'll never listen to even once before also failing to listen to a Bowers & Wilkins speaker.

Then he'll switch to whatever the kiddie version of a Beats speaker is just to scare Checo.

 

[SFjohn]

You can tell no women were on the design team haha. It is a tampon.

It doesn’t look absorbent at all. It’s hard long cylindrical in nature, reminds me of a body part of ½ the population… 😉

 

[MJWaters1985]

I'd say it is horrible marketing.

They probably pay an exorbitant amount for these "celebrities" to carry an object, with the purpose of being pictured with it. I would say the average person would have no idea what it was (it looks like a huge tampon) or if it was an unreleased product or not. The general public will only understand what it is when a tech site points it out or when a "news" outlet is paid to point it out in the post/article containing the picture.

Seems like a lot to spend for unclear results.

The ONLY thing I saw the first time this surfaced was a guy walking around, holding a giant tampon by the string. This may be the most sanitary product I’ve seen in a while.

 

[rafark]

I hope people know this is totally, 100% on purpose. He's even holding it almost identically to the picture of LeBron. Even the pics are too perfect. I'm excited about this, I just hope people know this is totally 100% on purpose, marketing at its finest. I'm all about good marketing. And this is it.

I agree with the first part but not the last one. As another poster said, it’s marketing for the weak minded.

 

[DYLM369]

Beats pill isn't the only thing I see hanging in this pic... HEYOOOOO 😛

 

[steve09090]

Would have been better marketing to give them to sportsmen whose careers weren’t finished

Drive to Survive fans are hilarious….

Don’t be silly.

Daniel Ricciardo is not just an F1 driver, he’s also a venerated expert in consumer audio technology. As part of the Beats product validation team, he has been carefully evaluating the soundstage, measuring the frequency response (with particular attention to his personal favourite, the bass!), testing the reliability and range of the Bluetooth connectivity, battery life, etc, and reporting his results directly back to the engineering team.

Consumer Audio is not just a hobby for Daniel Ricciardo, it’s an obsession! He loves nothing more than to wind down after long F1 training sessions by deep-diving into the latest Beats tech.

Spare a thought for the product security team at Beats, though, whose job it is to ensure that photos of celebs using unreleased products don’t get out into the wild. Someone has very likely been fired over this.

Music is definitely one of his passions. Especially live music.

Also great with the Red Wine. I’ve had a couple of DR3’s and they’re as good as anything else out there for $100.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Most of Apple's mewling over-the-top marketing is cringe af.

it works, though. As long as websites know that reporting about their marketing will get people to come to their website, potentially view their ads, or at least show up in their “These many people come by our website” metrics, the cycle is complete… until the next cringe marketing opportunity.

 

[Dj64Mk7]

This feels like the marketing department embracing an old Steve Jobs line, “Stop me if you’ve already seen this.”

 

[kerr]

Drive to Survive fans are hilarious….

Ricciardo's career in terms of wins and podiums is finished, at the moment the best he can do is out-qualify his teammate (rare) and maybe sneak a 10th here or there (also rare). If it wasn't for Christian Horner mentioning his name from time to time, he would be just another name at the bottom of the pack.

Ricciardo has only remained relevant because of Drive to Survive, that big cheesy s**t-eating grin has helped people overlook some terrible career decisions. He's 35yo and his own choices and performances do not warrant a seat in a good team.

It would have been more fitting for Ricciardo to promote the Humane Pin or Rabbit R1.

 

[apocalyarts]

You know what else I’d like to see with Daniel Ricciardo?

Reaching Q2 😬💀

 

[RickDEGH]

LeBron was recently observed carrying his around the same way. No one carries a pill speaker by the lanyard like that... and I can guarantee you that not one of these celebrities has ever used it, if it's even functional. Marketing for the weak minded folks.

We’ve all seen advertisements on TV, many of those far from reality, some quite silly and ridiculous. We don’t say we’re “weak minded folks” because we saw an advertisement. Advertisement is marketing. How else should products be marketed? Just imagine Apple introducing the HomePod and saying something like, “this is the HomePod, our finest smart speaker yet. Sometimes it doesn’t answer when you ask it for the time or weather. We suggest you should buy it”.

 

[RedWeasel]

at least they are celebrities and not "influencers" ... and yes, I know that celebrities do influence but my comment is related to those YouTubers and so on ...

Do influencers also celebrate? That is the important question.

 

[bLackjackj]

I hope people know this is totally, 100% on purpose.

Obviously 🤦‍♂️, it's not even released!

 

[Boing123]

Seems like an odd way to actually carry this around. I must be old.

I was thinking exactly the same thing… blatantly obvious they’re just getting paid to lug this hulking thing around.

That being said, I hope the masses don’t get any ideas: can you imaging how horrible the public space will become if many people have one of these, blaring whatever is their favorite flavor of noise??? Wear cans already…

 

[Boing123]

Beats Pill+ and had 2 until the batteries completely died (btw if ANYONE knows how to get the battery replaced in them PLEASE REPLY TO THIS POST).

Use Google much? Internet is rife with kits and instructions…

 

[GaryMumford]

A definite marketing ploy, but what age group are they aiming at? I’m mean how many 34 year olds are going to be strutting around with one of those? I thought they would have gone for one of the younger drivers like Lando Norris who’s more likely to hang around with a bunch of naughty kids in the playground.

 

[Mandalorian1310]

LeBron was recently observed carrying his around the same way. No one carries a pill speaker by the lanyard like that... and I can guarantee you that not one of these celebrities has ever used it, if it's even functional. Marketing for the weak minded folks.

You can’t really guarantee it though can you……..

 

[steve09090]

Ricciardo's career in terms of wins and podiums is finished, at the moment the best he can do is out-qualify his teammate (rare) and maybe sneak a 10th here or there (also rare). If it wasn't for Christian Horner mentioning his name from time to time, he would be just another name at the bottom of the pack.

Ricciardo has only remained relevant because of Drive to Survive, that big cheesy s**t-eating grin has helped people overlook some terrible career decisions. He's 35yo and his own choices and performances do not warrant a seat in a good team.

It would have been more fitting for Ricciardo to promote the Humane Pin or Rabbit R1.

What rot. So tell me, who else has finished in the top 3 that are still on the grid. Alonso, Hamilton, Perez, LeClerc & Max. That’s it.

So here is what happened. He became a legitimate 3rd & 4th place in 2 world championships. Horner brought on this kid (he’s a pretty good racer it seems) and gave him everything he could and clearly made it difficult for DR3 to be given the same opportunity. Having favourites and clearly making it known is never good for a team. DR left and went to Renault as a team with (apparent) potential and outdrove that car. When he realised the car was a dog he went to McClaren and their car was weird a.f. But still managed to win a race. Something no one has done in that car since Hamilton on 2012!

Finally he went to VCarb, where through no fault of his own, he was forced to crash the car or kill Piastri and injured himself. This year, his first real year with the car, he has had the race pace (I’ll give you the qualifying) over Yuki who has been driving this car for 4 years now! Failing to finish twice because of 2 incidents that were not deemed his fault. Unfortunately he now has a 3 place grid penalty because he overtook Nico H under safety car, when Nico overtook him under safety car earlier. That was an error in hindsight because his team should have clarified it for him.

Maybe go back to season 1 and start again. Clearly you do not understand Formula 1.

 

[steve09090]

A definite marketing ploy, but what age group are they aiming at? I’m mean how many 34 year olds are going to be strutting around with one of those? I thought they would have gone for one of the younger drivers like Lando Norris who’s more likely to hang around with a bunch of naughty kids in the playground.

I guess they are aiming for people who can win races? Maybe Piastri Would be a better choice?

 

[OS X Dude]

He's a better walker than a driver these days. Hopefully Lance Stroll isn't behind him!