You Can Change the World: An Analysis of Apple s Advertisements

Transcription

1 Jacob Van Hook Van Hook 1 Professor Lori Bedell CAS 137H 09 October 2015 You Can Change the World: An Analysis of Apple s Advertisements Technology is becoming omnipresent in today s society, and as consumers purchase more and more devices companies are fiercely fighting for increased market share. There are a variety of techniques that companies use to advertise their products. Some advertisements talk about the features of their products, while others talk about why their competitor s products are inferior. Apple, however, has quite a few commercials in which they promote their products by connecting them to inspiring ideas unrelated to the products themselves. There are two commercials I will analyze in this paper: the Think Different ad from 1997 and the ipad Air commercial Your Verse from Both of these commercials effectively inspire the viewer to consider the possibilities and opportunities before them should they try to be different and change the world and connects this feeling to Apple s products. They both function similarly while some differences in the implementation reflect the different times in which these advertisements were created. Both of these commercials work to inspire the consumer to see life as something which they are a part of not a movie they are watching but rather something they can touch. Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple in 1997 while Apple was failing and they needed a great advertising campaign to get back on their feet Think Different was born out of this moment (Evans). Steve Jobs was central in getting this advertising campaign off the ground, and one of his central ideologies is aptly expressed in his quote: Everything around you that you call life

2 Van Hook 2 was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use (Gallo). This inspires people to realize that they can change their world, that they don t have to be passive in their lives, but rather can be an active driving force for bettering themselves and others around them. The commercial, with quotes such as They re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo (EveryAppleAd, Apple Think Different ) and the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do (EveryAppleAd, Apple Think Different ) works to express the ideology that going with the flow of everyone else does not allow one to change the world, rather, one must be independent and crazy to effect a great change upon their world. The use of great minds further demonstrated the point that none of those people became who they were by accepting society at face value. Instead, they challenged what they disagreed with to better their world. This provides an ethos to the commercial as the figures used are highly recognizable and are well-regarded for their accomplishments. According to a Forbes piece written by someone deeply involved in the creation of these advertisements, The emotion and the context of [Dead Poet s Society] very much related to what I wanted to capture for Apple (Siltanen). The author goes on to list some quotes from the movie which served as inspirations for the voiceover in the advertisement. Apple later went on to use Dead Poet s Society again in their ipad Air commercial Your Verse (EveryAppleAd, Apple ipad Air ). In Your Verse Robin Williams performs a voiceover from Dead Poet s Society, in which he told his students to strive to find your own voice and seize the day (Dead Poet s Society). A clear target audience for this advertisement is the people who saw Dead Poet s Society because to them Robin Williams is not just a narrator, but he is Mr. Keating, the inspirational English teacher who opens the minds of his students. To those people, there is a

3 Van Hook 3 great ethos to the character as he has already proven himself exceptional in the movie. The references to poetry in the advertisement give the idea that the ipad provides poetry to life and meaning to medicine, law, business, engineering (EveryAppleAd, Apple ipad Air ). The asking of What will your verse be? forces the consumer to question the manner in which they will shape the world. Both of these commercials strive to bring forth the question of impacting the world to the consumer, while Apple steps in to answer the question they have posed. By setting up the question of changing the world, Apple creates a void which they may step into to place their product as the solution and thus advertise their product. These commercials do not strive to demonstrate the technical skills of Apple s product but rather work emotionally to appeal to a greater need of living life. In 1997 Apple faced the challenge of painting themselves as an innovator and convincing people to consider their products. One of the people who worked on the Think Different campaign remarked Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, To be great is to be misunderstood, and I always believed that was the general concept behind the Think Different campaign (Siltanen). The campaign was meant to show that Apple, while failing, was simply misunderstood, and it was an attempt to get people to give the company another chance. In Think Different Apple only inserts themselves into the commercial through the logo at the end, the rest of the commercial focusing on the famous people featured in the ad. However, in a metaphorical sense Apple is painting themselves as one of the crazy ones. They want to be seen as misunderstood innovators trying to do something new, trying to change their world for the better. Moreover they want to send the message that it is okay to be crazy, to be different, and buy Apple s products even if they are not the most popular at the time. The context is quite different for Your Verse because in 2014 Apple was not struggling, but was very successful and trying to sell a recently released product. Here Apple

4 Van Hook 4 instead inserts the product directly into the commercial by showing people living life in great ways with an ipad Air. By seeing others using the ipad in great places, people may get the impression that the ipad can help them live life and write their own verses, as Robin Williams tells them to do in his narration. Additionally, the people using the ipad act as an ethos as they are portrayed as experienced consumers able to make the most of the product and can function as a reliable source on the effectiveness and functionality of the ipad. Through these techniques Apple inserted themselves into the void they created with their inspirational message in both of these commercials, which both had the implication that Apple products could assist the consumer in making the most of their life, while they implemented the strategy in slightly different ways. There are some key differences between the two commercials which result from the time and purpose of each. One key difference is the ways in which Apple visually displays their products in the advertisements. In 1997 Apple did not have a new, innovative product, but was selling the brand as a whole, while in 2014 Apple was selling a small portable tablet which was easier to put into commercials, so Apple was better able to demonstrate their product directly in Your Verse while Think Different only contained the Apple logo. Additionally in 2014 the average American consumer knew what an ipad was when they saw one as Apple used the ipad to define the tablet market a few years prior, while in 1997 Apple was a relatively minor force in the industry. Apple was more able to rely on themselves and their products in 2014, while in 1997 they had to fall back upon the faces of famous people who came before them, relegating themselves to a logo at the end. Another note is that the purposes of the two campaigns were different. Think Different was an attempt to bring back Apple from the dead so it contained a broad spectrum of ideas and mediums that could appeal to a broad American audience with recognizable characters. On the other hand, Your Verse was meant to sell a single product and

5 Van Hook 5 could appeal to a more narrow audience while maintaining a similar message. The differences in the techniques reflect different situations and times, while the underlying message remains constant. Both commercials try to sell Apple s product, not with technical specifications or user reviews, but with an emotional appeal to a greater need a need to live life and to make a mark on the world. Used in times of struggle and times of success, this technique has recurred over and over, which speaks to its true power. Humanity yearns for a greater meaning to life, and Apple is able to effectively capitalize on this need in these commercials to inspire its viewers and sell its product.

6 Van Hook 6 Works Cited Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. Touchstone, DVD. Evans, Jonny. "The Untold Story behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign." Computerworld. Computerworld, Inc, 17 June Web. 23 Sept EveryAppleAd. "Apple ipad Air Ad - Your Verse Anthem (2014)." Online Video Clip. YouTube.YouTube, 12 Jan Web. 23 Sept EveryAppleAd. "Apple Think Different Ad (1997)." Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct Web. 23 Sept Gallo, Carmine. "10 Powerful Quotes from the Steve Jobs Movie and What They Teach Us About Leadership." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 13 Aug Web. 23 Sept Siltanen, Rob. "The Real Story Behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 14 Dec Web. 23 Sept