8th
The thing about Apple marketing
“That’s the thing about Apple marketing. They don’t talk about how many gigabytes of memory or how many CPU cycles or how many apps (much). They aim for your heart, and show you how technology can make your life better during its most important moments.”
—Gina Trapani, via Daring Fireball
While I also think the new FaceTime video on apple.com is well-done and emotionally affecting, I’m going to call hogwash on the assertion that Apple marketing aims for the heart.
It’s been nine years since the commercial in which a young man tells his parents he has eloped, via DVD-R.
Even here, however, the Chiat\Day CleverSquad™ undercuts the emotion of the spot with a throwaway joke about the father’s cluelessness.
But what advertising or marketing have we seen since then that emphasizes the ability of Apple technology to “make your life better during its most important moments”?
In print and television advertising we’ve seen silhouetted dancers, fingertips, and now the tops of thighs interacting with Apple products, but no actual people with, you know, faces.
I recall the initial launch of iChat AV (Beta in 10.2 Jaguar, built into 10.3 Panther), which used as its central image a mom and child videochatting with a distant dad. By the time Tiger was launched (in 2005), its ability to create four-way videochats meant the visual narrative of one-to-one connections vanished from Apple’s marketing.
Meanwhile the one medium that did highlight lifestyle imagery—the graphic panels in Apple retail stores—began to phase it out (starting in 2005) in favor of giant photographs of the products displayed on the tables below (a trend which continues today).
Humans appeared only in screenshots—within photographs and video footage inside iPhoto and iMovie libraries or projects, or in iPod/iPhone photo galleries. These people were no longer interacting with (or through) technology, but were living active lives—swimming, boating, camping, apple-picking, snowtubing, walking the streets of the European Old World.
All this time there was still the opportunity to aim for the heart—to illustrate the power of sharing photos and video using iDVD, a .mac homepage or slideshow, photo books, AppleTV, even photocasting (anyone?).
As early as 2006 the pieces were in place for me to edit a video of my infant son in iMovie, post it as a podcast using iWeb, and for his grandfather half a continent away to find it downloaded through iTunes to his video iPod the next morning.
My family was able to watch my son grow in this magical way, but you’d never have known it was possible by reading Apple’s marketing materials at the time.1
This isn’t intended to be a knock against Apple’s marketing decisions, which seem to have suited them fine thank you much.
It’s more to highlight how unusual the FaceTime video is, in its depiction of human beings employing Apple technology in relevant situations with meaningful emotional stakes.2 It’s perhaps the obvious solution given the feature, but that makes it no less remarkable to be coming out of 1 Infinite Loop.
Kudos to Apple’s underheralded, brilliant, often sleep-deprived video team3 for another job well done.
[Minor update: An astute reader reminded me of the Errol Morris-directed “Switcher” campaign of 2002-2003, featuring human stories related by actual customers. Great ads, but: told, not shown.]
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1It’s understandable how this kind of narrative could have been omitted. a) This was still far from a one-click operation; b) The teams responsible for marketing iLife and iPod/iTunes don’t really work with each other (for reasons of secrecy and expedience more than politics), so there’s no one who could own an end-to-end narrative; c) By this time Apple wanted to highlight MOVIES and TV SHOWS as the primary use for your iPod; and d) When you’re trying to deliver a simple, clear message in your marketing, some narratives will have to be cut.
2Typically our only opportunity to relate to an aspirationally imagined Apple customer is through the screen shots depicted on the devices. Have you ever read these emails/text messages/calendar entries? <Seinfeld> Who are these people? </Seinfeld>
3Have you also seen the new “Story behind the apps” video? Outstanding.
