TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Many feared that the iPhone factory worker who had her picture taken with an iPhone while on the job would be fired, but apparently Foxconn has no intention of firing her.

Foxconn has described it as a “beautiful mistake,” and that is accurate in more ways than one.

While Chinese factories have been maligned as inhumane, the photos show a clean, modern work area and a worker having fun. It is perfect publicity for Foxconn — an attractive female worker’s photos end up on an iPhone, and the photos are spread online virally. The brilliant part is that the positive work environment aspect of the photos is not the focus of them. It is a background thing that is being mentioned as an aside, which means free good publicity without any debate over working conditions in Foxconn factories — just the background message to people that Foxconn factories are quite nice.

This is publicity that companies cannot generate on their own, and it would be ludicrous for Foxconn to punish the girl, because that would turn public goodwill into condemnation.