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History of Apple ads. A selection of the best of the best over the past 33 years

Amaya Toman
2

Over the decades of its existence, Apple has unleashed a nice line of advertisements into the world. Some managed to become cult, others fell into oblivion or faced ridicule. Advertisements, however, run through Apple's history like a red thread, and we can use them to observe the development of Apple products. Come and see a few of the most important ones with us.

1984 – 1984

In 1984, Apple introduced its Macintosh. He promoted it with the now legendary spot called "1984" from Ridley Scott's director's workshop, publicly shown during the Super Bowl. The ad, which the board of directors of the apple company was not at all enthusiastic about, went down in history, and Apple managed to sell 100 thousand computers in the first 72 days.

Lemmings - 1985

Apple was hoping for the same success as the "1984" spot with the "Lemmings" campaign created by the same creative team. Ridley Scott's brother Tony directed, but the video was a flop. The shot of a long line of uniformed people with blindfolds, who to the sounds of a melody from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs en masse throw themselves off a cliff, was not well received by the audience. Viewers called the video "offensive" and Apple had to lay off 20% of its employees due to poor sales results caused by the failed campaign. In the same year, Steve Jobs also left Apple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_9lT7gr8u4

The Power To Be Your Best - 1986

In the 1980s, Apple came up with the slogan "The Power To Be Your Best", which it successfully used for a decade. Although the campaign had to face some criticism from marketing experts due to the fact that it did not specifically emphasize individual Apple computers, it was overall very successful.

Hard Sell - 1987

In the eighties, Apple's main rival was IBM. Apple was understandably trying to expand its share of the computing market and to convince the public that it could offer better things than the competition. This effort is reflected in the "Hard Sell" spot from 1987.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icybPYCne4s

 

Hit The Road Mac - 1989

In 1989, Apple introduced the world to its first "portable" Macintosh. For promotion, he used a spot called "Hit The Road Mac" and tried to emphasize in the ad that Macs can be used even by those who know nothing about computers. However, the portable Macintosh did not meet with a significantly favorable response. The fault was not only the difficult mobility of the computer, which weighed about 7,5 kilograms, but also the high price - it was 6500 dollars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1bMBc270Hg

John and Greg - 1992

In 1992, Apple came up with an ad showing viewers two "regular" men, John and Greg. Those on the plane use their PowerBooks interconnected by cable without any problems. What we take for granted nowadays was a kind of small revolution in the early XNUMXs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usxTm0uH9vI

Mission Impossible - 1996

One of the common features of a number of Apple ads were celebrities and notables. In 1996, the action blockbuster "Mission Impossible" starring Tom Cruise was a big hit. In addition to Cruise, he also "played" an Apple PowerBook in the film. Apple also used action footage in its successful advertising.

Here's To The Crazy Ones - 1997

In 1997, Steve Jobs once again became the head of Apple and the company literally managed to rise from the ashes. In the same year, a spectacular TV and print campaign was also born, inspired by black and white portraits of important personalities such as Bob Dylan, Muhammad Ali, Gandhi or Albert Einstein. The campaign also became known to the public under the name "Think Different".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFEarBzelBs

Say Hello to iMac - 1998

Not long after the return of Steve Jobs to the position of CEO of Apple, new, completely revolutionary iMacs came into the world. In addition to an imaginative design, they also boasted great functions and simple but reliable connectivity. The arrival of iMacs was accompanied by advertising spots, emphasizing in particular the ease of connecting iMacs to the Internet.

Take California - 2001

Apple's first iPod was released in October 2001. To promote its new player, Apple used a video featuring the Propellerheads, a band that never released an album. Even before Apple made colorful animated silhouettes dance, the first iPod ad featured a dancing thirtysomething.

Get a Mac - 2006

The first ad from the "Get a Mac" campaign was released in 2006. By the end of the year, there were nineteen videos, and four years after the campaign came to an end, the number of videos was 66. Despite their poignancy, the ads featuring Embodied by "human" actors, Mac and competing PCs met with a very positive response, and received various variations and parodies.

Hello - 2007

In the list of important Apple advertisements, the "Hello" spot promoting the first ever iPhone must not be missing. It was a thirty-second montage of Hollywood actors in popular movies and series. The ad opened with a black-and-white scene from Hitchcock's 1954 Murder on Order and ended with a shot of a ringing iPhone.

New Soul - 2008

In 2008, the ultra-thin and ultra-light MacBook Air was born. Apple promoted it, among other things, with an ad in which the computer is pulled out of an ordinary envelope and opened with a single finger. Viewers were excited not only by the new and elegant Apple laptop, but also by the song "New Soul" by Yael Naim, which played in the commercial. The song peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.

There's an App for that - 2009

In 2009, Apple came up with an advertisement accompanied by the legendary slogan "There's an app for that". The main goal of this campaign was to point out that the iPhone has become a versatile, smart device with an app for every purpose and occasion.

Stars and Siri - 2012

Apple ads featuring celebrities are very popular in many cases. When Apple launched its iPhone 4s with the virtual voice assistant Siri, it cast John Malkovich, Samuel L. Jackson or even Zooey Deschanel in spots promoting this new feature. In the commercials, Siri responded brilliantly to the voice commands of the protagonists, but the reality was quite different from the commercial.

Misunderstood - 2013

Apple's Christmas ads are a chapter unto themselves. Completely naked, they try to squeeze as much emotion as possible from the audience, which they more or less succeed in doing. The spot called "Misunderstood" really did well. In it, we can follow a typical teenager who can't take his eyes off his iPhone during a Christmas family gathering. But the end of the spot will show that teenagers may not be who they seem to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_qOUyXCrEM

40 Years in 40 Seconds - 2016

In 2016, Apple celebrated its 40th anniversary. On that occasion, it released a forty-second spot with no actors, classic footage or images (with the exception of the infamous rainbow wheel) – viewers could only watch text on a monochrome background, providing an overview of Apple's most essential products.

Sway - 2017

The 2017 spot titled "Sway" takes place around the Christmas holidays. The main roles feature two young dancers, AirPods headphones and an iPhone X. In addition, Czech viewers will surely have noticed the Czech locations and the inscriptions "Aunt Emma's Bakery" and "Rollercoaster" in the advertisement. The commercial was filmed in Prague. And one more interesting fact - the main protagonists, New York dancers Lauren Yatango-Grant and Christopher Grant, are married in real life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lGHZ5NMHRY

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