Brandjack News

By Quentin Langley

Apple's iPhone has been the victim of two interacting fake brandjacks. One is the rumour that the new iPhone 6 is designed to bend to improve screen angles and the other is that people have been damaging their iPhones by bending them. Both are untrue, but rather cleverly they feed off each other. Discovering that one is a hoax does not prevent a person from believing the other. Maybe people have damaged their iPhones because they (foolishly) believed the hoax story about them havng been designed to beand.

In fact the iPhone 6 is not only not designed to bend, it seems pretty immune to bending in all but the most extreme circumstances. Apple reports having only nine complaints on this issue, and when durability tester SquareTrade tested the iPhone, it concluded that hardly any humans are physically strong enough to bend one. (A body builder who can bench press over 400 lbs [181kg] managed it).

According to the Washington Post, the pranksters 4chan are responsbible for this hoax.

To Apple's credit, the company has not deleted threads on its own users' forum discussing the "problem" of the bendy iPhone 6. 

Samsung has jumped on the bend-wagon, making an ad which alludes to the rumours without making any false claims about the rival product. It simple shows one smart phone prostrated before another with the tagline "bend to those who are worthy".