Apple Inc. advertising

In the past two decades, Apple has become well known for its advertisements, which are designed to reflect a plan of marketing their products to creative individuals. Their most significant ad campaigns include the "1984" Super Bowl commercial, the 1990s Think Different campaign, and the "iPod people" of the 2000s. Apple's portable music player, the iPod, has been showcased as a piece of contemporary art in New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Since the original Macintosh Super Bowl commercial in 1984, which mimicked imagery from George Orwell's 1984, Apple has maintained a style of homage to contemporary visual art in many of its more famous ad campaigns. For example, the Think Different campaign linked Apple to famous social figures—including artist John Lennon and freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi.

Several lawsuits have been filed against Apple by artists and corporations alike, such as visual artist Louie Psihoyos and shoe company Lugz. These claims were later confirmed.

In 1997 the Think Different campaign introduced Apple’s new slogan, and in 2002 the Switch campaign followed. The most recent advertising strategy by Apple is the Get a Mac campaign.

Today, Apple focuses much of its advertising efforts around “specialist events", and keynotes at conferences like the MacWorld Expo and the Apple Expo. The events typically draw a large gathering of media representatives and spectators. In the past, special events have been used to announce products such as the iPhone and iPad.

1980–1985

Page 1 of the 1983 “Macintosh Introduction” brochure published in Newsweek magazine.

A “Macintosh Introduction” 18-page brochure was included with various magazines in December 1983, often remembered because Bill Gates was featured on page 11. For a special post-election edition of Newsweek in November 1984, Apple spent more than $2.5 million to buy all of the advertising pages in the issue (a total of 39).

Apple also ran a “Test Drive a Macintosh” promotion that year, in which potential buyers with a credit card could try a Macintosh for 24 hours and return it to a dealer afterwards.

"1984" television commercial: launching the Macintosh

Main article: 1984 (television commercial)

"1984" (created by Ridley Scott) is the title of the television commercial that launched the Macintosh personal computer in the United States, in January 1984.

The commercial was first aired nationally on January 22, 1984 during a break in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. The ad showed an unnamed heroine (played by Anya Major) wearing orange shorts, red running shoes, and a white tank top with a Picasso-style picture of Apple's Macintosh computer, running through an Orwellian world to throw a sledgehammer at a TV image of Big Brother — an implied representation of IBM — played by David Graham. The concluding screen showed the message and voice over "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984'." At the end, the Apple "rainbow bitten apple" logo is shown on a black background.

1985–1990

In 1985 the “Lemmings” commercial aired at the Super Bowl.

In 1988 Apple released a short film titled Pencil Test to showcase the Macintosh II's animation capabilities.

1990–1995

When Apple let the Mac become a religious issue more than a tool, the consequence was high visibility and a lot of great press — but also a limited market.

—Gordon Eubanks (1994)

In the 1990s Apple started the “What's on your PowerBook?” campaign, with print ads and television commercials featuring celebrities describing how the PowerBook helps them in their businesses and everyday lives.

During 1995, Apple introduced the worlds first infomercial style sitcom named 'The Martinetti's Bring Home a Computer'.

In 1995, Apple responded to the introduction of Windows 95 with both print ads and a television commercial.

1995–2000

"Think Different"

Main article: Think Different

Further information: List of Apple Inc. slogans

"Think Different" was an advertising slogan created by the New York branch office of advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day for Apple Computer during the late 1990s. It was used in a famous television commercial and several print advertisements. The slogan was used at the end of several product commercials, until the advent of Apple's Switch ad campaign. Apple currently does not use the slogan, and their commercials usually end with a silhouetted Apple logo and sometimes a pertinent website address.

Even today, Think Different remains an intrinsic part of Apple's identity, alongside flagship products like the iPod and iMac.^{[citation needed]}

Television commercials

Significantly shortened versions of the text were used in two television commercials titled "Crazy Ones" directed by TBWA's Jennifer Golub with a voiceover narrated by Richard Dreyfuss.^{[citation needed]}

The one-minute commercial featured black and white video footage of significant historical people of the past, including (in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright, and Picasso. The commercial ends with a young girl opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.^{[citation needed]}

The thirty-second commercial used many of the people above, but closed with Jerry Seinfeld, instead of the young girl. In order: Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Martha Graham, Muhammad Ali, Alfred Hitchcock, Mahatma Gandhi, Jim Henson, Maria Callas, Picasso, and Jerry Seinfeld. This commercial aired only once, during the series finale of Seinfeld.^{[citation needed]}

Print advertisements

Print advertisements from the campaign were published in many mainstream magazines such as Newsweek and Time. Sometimes these were traditional advertisements, prominently featuring the company's computers or consumer electronics along with the slogan. However, there was also another series of print ads which were more focused on brand image than specific products. They featured a portrait of one of the historic figures shown in the television ad, with a small Apple logo and the words "Think Different" in one corner, with no reference to the company's products, which attests to Apple's brand recognition.^{[citation needed]}

2001–present

"Switch"

Main article: Apple Switch ad campaign

"Switch" was an advertising campaign launched by Apple on June 10, 2002. "The Switcher" was a term conjured by Apple, it refers to a person who changes from using the Microsoft Windows platform to the Mac. These ads featured what the company referred to as "real people" who had "switched". An international television and print ad campaign directed users to a website where various myths about the Mac platform were dispelled. The television commercials were directed by Errol Morris.^{[citation needed]}

iPod

Main article: iPod advertising

Apple has promoted the iPod and iTunes with several advertising campaigns, particularly with their silhouette commercials used both in print and on TV. These commercials feature people as dark silhouettes, dancing to music against bright-colored backgrounds. The silhouettes hold their iPods which are shown in distinctive white. The TV advertisements have used a variety of songs from both mainstream and relatively unknown artists, whilst some commercials have featured silhouettes of specific artists including Bob Dylan, U2, Eminem, Jet, Caesars, and Wynton Marsalis. Successive TV commercials have also used increasingly complex animation. Newer techniques included using textured backgrounds, 3D arenas, and photo-realistic lighting on the silhouette characters. The "iPod nano - Completely Remastered," series of ads for the 2nd generation iPod nano have a totally different design. The background is totally black. The colored iPod nanos shine light and glow, showing some of the dancers, holding the iPod nanos while a luminescent light trail made by moving iPod nanos. This is to display the fact that the 2nd generation iPod nanos are colored. The silhouette commercials are a family of commercials in a similar style that form part of the advertising campaign to promote the iPod, Apple's portable digital music player. The commercials include television commercials, print ads, posters in public places and wrap advertising campaigns, and are unified by a distinctive, consistent style.^{[citation needed]}

"Get a Mac"

The two characters from the ads who personify a PC (left, John Hodgman) and a Mac (Justin Long).

Main article: Get a Mac

In 2006, Apple released a controversial series of twenty-four "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" advertisements as part of their "Get a Mac" campaign. The campaign officially ended in 2010.

The ads, which are directed by Phil Morrison, star actor Justin Long (Accepted) and author and humorist John Hodgman (The Daily Show) as a Macintosh (Mac) and a PC, respectively. The format for each commercial is similar: Long introduces himself as a Mac and Hodgman introduces himself as a PC (assumed to be running the Microsoft Windows operating system), then the particular facet of computing is stated, after which the Mac is depicted as being able to do whatever the PC is able to do, but does it quicker, more safely, more creatively, or with more versatility.^{[citation needed]}

Since the launch of the original ads, similar commercials have appeared in Japan and the UK. While they use the same form and music as the American ads, the actors are specific to those countries.

The UK ads feature famous comedy duo Mitchell and Webb; David Mitchell as the PC and Robert Webb as the Mac. The Japanese ones are played by Rahmens, with Jin Katagiri as the PC and Kentarō Kobayashi as the Mac.

In April 2009, Justin Long revealed that the "Get A Mac" commercials "might be done". In May 2010, the "Get A Mac" was officially ended and the web pages began to redirect to a new "Why You'll Love Mac" page with more features on the Macintosh hardware and software.

Criticism

Artist Christian Marclay denied Apple the rights to his 1995 short film "Telephones" to market their iPhone, but then decided against filing suit when Apple ran a similar ad during the 2007 Academy Awards broadcast.

In July 2007, Colorado-based photographer Louie Psihoyos filed suit against Apple for ripping his "wall of videos" imagery to advertise for Apple TV. Apple had allegedly been negotiating with Psihoyos for rights to the imagery, but backed out and promptly used the imagery anyway.

Mac OS X "Tiger" kernel panic screen. This error message is similar to the "Blue Screen of Death" on a Microsoft Windows machine.

In August 2006, AppleMatters, a website devoted to Apple products, carried comments by blogger Aaron Wright questioning the veracity of Apple ads that suggest Macs do not crash. Apple has previously advertised their products as being crash-free and currently advertises Macs as being "crash resistant". While a number of commentators have praised Mac OS X for its stability, Apple has acknowledged the kernel panic and other crash-like issues in their technical support documentation.

More recently, Apple has been criticized for its iPhone ads, which depict much faster network speeds than are realistically possible on current 3G network infrastructure, although they do include a disclaimer explaining that fact. In August 2008, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK had banned one iPhone ad from further broadcast in its current form due to "misleading claims". The ASA took issue with the ads' claim that "all parts of the internet are on the iPhone", when the device does not support Java or Flash. The newer iPhone ads show a caption, 'Sequence Shortened' at the beginning.

See also

• List of Apple Inc. slogans
• List of music used by Apple Inc.

External links

• The Macintosh Marketing Campaign