A top Apple executive has left the company after he was captured making an offensive joke about women in a viral TikTok video.
During a car show in Pebble Beach, California, this August, TikTok creator Daniel Mac, known for interviewing drivers about their exotic cars, asked a man sitting in a rare $500,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren what he did for a living.
“I have rich cars, play golf and fondle big-breasted women, but I take weekends and major holidays off,” the man responded with a laugh.
“If you’re interested, I’ve got a hell of a dental plan,” he added.
“That is quite the career, I’m looking to get into that,” the cameraman says in response to the comments.
The video, published in September, went viral, racking up more than a million views.
Apple employees soon realised the man in the clip was Tony Blevins, a 22-year veteran at the company who was vice-president of procurement and reported to top executives such as chief executive Tim Cook.
The executive, known internally by his nickname “The Blevinator”, confirmed to Bloomberg that it was him in the video.
“I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise to anyone who was offended by my mistaken attempt at humour,” he said.
Employees on the procurement team reportedly flagged the clip to the company’s human resources department.
According to Fortune, the comments appeared to be a quote from the 1981 film Arthur, where a character says, “I race cars, play tennis and fondle women, but I have weekends off and I am my own boss.”
The Blevinator has since left Apple, the company confirmed.
He was among a high-powered group of 100 top vice-presidents at the tech company.
He supervised a team of several hundred people and was responsible for negotiating large-scale deals with Apple’s suppliers.
Daniel Mac’s TikTok channel has featured other even more high-profile run-ins, including bite-sized interviews with president Joe Biden, actor Brad Pitt, late-night legend Jay Leno and the chief executive of luxury automaker Lamborghini.
