Leadership Quote by Ron Johnson

Apple's genius, in Ron Johnson's telling, isn't just what it makes - it's the story it sells. Calling its PR and marketing "among the best in the world" reads like admiration, but it doubles as a quiet accusation: that perception can outrun substance, and that public opinion can be engineered with professional precision. Coming from a politician, this isn't neutral praise. It's a worldview in miniature: branding is power, and narrative management is as decisive as policy.

The line works because it's blunt and comparative. "Great" is casual; "among the best in the world" is a rankings mindset, the kind politics loves because it sounds like common sense without requiring proof. It's also a strategic deflection. If Apple is winning because of marketing, then criticism of Apple (whether about competition, labor, taxes, or platform power) can be reframed as hysteria whipped up by rival narratives. The compliment subtly lowers the stakes of substantive critique: maybe the outrage isn't about what Apple does, but about how well Apple controls the frame.

Context matters: Johnson is a conservative senator from Wisconsin with a business background, often skeptical of regulatory overreach. In that ecosystem, praising Apple's communications machine can signal respect for private-sector competence while implying that institutions - government, media, even watchdogs - are comparatively clumsy. The subtext is less "Apple deserves this success" than "Apple understands the real game". In modern America, that game is persuasion at scale.