Justin Kocott took a novel approach to iPad release weekend. Instead of rushing home with his brand-new, $499 toy to download dozens of apps and tweet about how cool it was, he decided to destroy it with a baseball bat. And make a video of it.
The clip quickly became one of Sunday's most viewed YouTube videos, scoring 180,000 views in less than 12 hours. Whether you think the video is a delicious bit of countercultural anti-hype or more evidence of the dissolution of suburban youth, its success suggests that if nothing else, they were thinking different.
We caught up with Kocott, a 19-year-old Pittsburgh high school student, to ask him about the “project."
What gave you the idea for the video?
Pretty much that I've seen people smash Wiis and Playstation 3s and stuff, so this was something new. I wanted to be the first one to do it before other people did it. It was just something to do.
I knew some people would hate it, but I didn't think that many people would hate it. A lot of people are leaving really bad comments.
Like what?
Some people are saying I should've donated the money instead of wasting it. But my family donates money all the time. Last year we gave $10-15,000 to the Make a Wish Foundation (my little sister is sick). It's not like we're greedy, it's not like we did it to rub it in and say, “We have the money, oh look at us."
Are you glad you did it?
I love that I did it. I did it with my money. And we actually ended up buying two more iPads that we kept. The one that I bought was the 16Gb. I had to save up a bit to get it, I don't just walk around with $500 in my pocket. But the fact that so many people hate it -- I don't want to say I love that, but it's funny.
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