|
Originally published: 31 March 2006
Original link:
http://www.forbes.com/home/digitalentertainment/2006/03/30/apple-ipod-ads_cx_lh_0331APPLEAD.html
|
 |
Directed by film director Ridley Scott,
"1984" was the Apple ad that introduced the world to the Macintosh; it
is still Apple's most famous ad. The spot aired nationally only once,
during halftime of the Super Bowl, and featured a female runner who
hurled a sledgehammer through a looming video screen, meant to
represent the PC world. " '1984' was the greatest TV commercial ever
made," says Bob Garfield, advertising critic for Advertising Age
magazine. "And it has damaged advertising to a degree that can
scarcely be estimated. It encouraged many lesser talents to take the
same risks, and they failed gigantically." |
 |
In an attempt to re-create the buzz that
surrounded its wildly successful "1984" spot the year before, Apple
placed a big bet on another risky ad. The ad depicted suited office
workers marching blindly off a cliff, one after another, until the
last one in the line (the Macintosh user, one suspects) took off his
blindfold and stops at the edge. Like the characters in the ad, Apple
itself was about to take a nasty fall. The suite of business products
it had advertised wasn't ready, and the ad was deemed to insult the
very people to which it was meant to appeal. |
 |
When Microsoft launched Windows 95, many Mac
fans groused that it was a rip-off of the Macintosh. Apple aired this
in an attempt to defend its turf. A PC-using executive attempted to
give a business presentation, only to have his machine crash at the
critical moment. Members of the crowd tried to help him, shouting
technical advice like "Check your autoexec.bat!" At the end of the
commercial, one lone voice in the audience called out, "Get a
Macintosh!" |
 |
What kind of computer would Gandhi have
used? A Mac, of course! When Steve Jobs returned to the helm in 1997
as "interim CEO," Apple was in critical condition. One important step
was to hold on to the customers who had started to desert the
Macintosh platform in favor of Windows. "Think Different," which aired
in 1998, was meant to rally the faithful. In fact, there were no
computers in the ad, which simply profiled creative "crazy ones" such
as Albert Einstein, John Lennon and Bob Dylan. |
 |
Introduced in 1998, the iMac essentially
saved Apple Computer's consumer business. In 1999, Apple began
producing the iMacs in colorful cases and promoted the move with this
ad, which featured the machines cavorting to the Rolling Stones'
"She's a Rainbow." The ad saw heavy rotation during prime time. |
 |
After years of saying the Mac was
"different," Apple finally got around to saying it was better. A
series of ads presented "real people" testifying to their love for the
Mac. The spots made a minor, temporary celebrity of 15-year-old Ellen
Feiss, whose tale of losing part of a school paper to a crashing
Windows PC was universally understood. Feiss' face started popping up
on T-shirts, coffee mugs and fan Web sites, and she was asked to
appear on Letterman and Leno. She declined. |
 |
Apple introduced the "silhouette" ads in
2003 in order to promote the now-dominant iPod digital media player.
As upbeat music played, dark, silhouetted figures clutching bright
white iPods danced against brightly colored backgrounds. The format of
the ad has evolved over time (one version featured a man walking past
a set of silhouette posters that came to life and danced when his iPod
was playing, but froze whenever he paused it). But its iconic status
is firmly established. |
 |
To commemorate the release of the
special-edition U2 iPod, Apple released an ad that featured the band
performing "Vertigo"--the first track from its 11th studio album,
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb--in "silhouette" style. The
cross-promotional deal also granted Apple exclusive rights to sell all
songs from the album through its iTunes Music Store for the first few
weeks following its release. According to reports, U2 split a standard
royalty of about 60 cents for each song downloaded with its label,
Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group. The band
shot the commercial for free. |
 |
To announce their recent switch to Intel
chips, Apple hired music video directors Josh Melnick and Xander
Charity (aka "Josh & Xander") to create an ad that depicts the Intel
chip being "set free" for its new life in a Mac. Viewers soon noticed
that the ad--with its lab-coated scientists and its crisp white
factory--bore an uncanny resemblance to the video the directors had
shot for indie band the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights." The
Postal Service and its label, SubPop, released a statement claiming
that the remake was executed without their consultation or consent,
and fans continued the acrimonious debate on blogs and online forums. |
Computer
Hardware & Software
Leah Hoffmann,
03.31.06, 6:00 AM ET
New York -
Think different. For the rest of us.
Everything is easier on a Mac.
Millions of customers ignore
Apple Computer
when they purchase their PCs, but but over the years it's been much harder
to ignore the company's subversive, catchy advertising. From its
groundbreaking Super Bowl spot in 1984 to the iconic "silhouette" iPod
ads, the company has developed a knack for keeping its finger on the pulse
of what's interesting, quirky and cool.
"The quality of Apple's advertising is
consistently above average," said Allen Adamson, managing director of the
New York offices of brand consultancy Landor Associates. "And more often
than not, it's world class."
Apple's ads are powerful in part because they
all reinforce the same branding message. Apple prides itself on appealing
to the discerning customer, the person who, as one slogan famously had it,
thought differently. And that message--of creativity, counterculture and
good taste--is one that Apple has portrayed consistently in its
advertising for the past 30 years.
"The tone, the design, the headlines--they
all work toward that same message," Adamson says.
But Apple's attempts to associate itself with
hip people and to appropriate cultural memes have also been the cause of
some testy intellectual-property debates. Footware-maker Lugz threatened
the company with legal action after Apple aired an iTunes ad that featured
rapper Eminem that was strikingly similar in feel to an ad Lugz had aired
several years before.
More recently, Apple has been criticized for
the ad it aired in January to announce the switch to
Intel
microprocessor chips. That ad, which featured lab-coated scientists
supposedly freeing the Intel chip from its PC-bound constraints, appeared
to have been an almost shot-for-shot recreation of indie band the Postal
Service's music video for "Such Great Heights." Perhaps that's because
both the ad and the video were shot by the same directors.
"Think different…I guess not," wrote one
disgruntled blogger.
At any rate, high-concept advertising doesn't
come cheap. Apple has spent more than $100 million thus far marketing the
iPod to digital media lovers across the globe, and many more millions
marketing their other products. Even so, some might argue that the
company's biggest advertisement is its incorrigible chief executive,
SteveJobsSteve Jobs.
Jobs has managed to turn simple product
announcements and anniversaries into blowout events that are invariably
accompanied by great fanfare and tremendous media coverage. And as savvy
readers know, media coverage--this article included--is the cheapest form
of advertising there is.
Home
Articles
Best Books
|
|
|