Apple - A History of Advertising

When someone mentions the words "Apple" and "foundation", one might immediately think of Steve Jobs. However, Steve Jobs didn't launch this company all on his own. Together with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, Jobs established Apple Inc. on April Fool's Day in 1976. They named the company Apple because Jobs was just coming back from working on an apple farm and he thought the name was "fun, spirited and not intimidating".

The Evolution of Apple's Logo

Unlike other companies like Coca Cola, Apple Inc. has had only three logos since the company's foundation.
The first logo was designed in 1976 by co-founder Ronald Wayne and shows Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree and an apple hanging down a branch. On the outside border of the logo, there is a phrase saying: "Newton... A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought ...Alone". Since the first logo was poorly recognizable, it was replaced by the second logo only a few months later. Designed by Rob Janoff, who became quite famous for designing the "rainbow Apple", the logo shows a colorful apple with a bite taken out of it. Steve Jobs and his designer Rob Janoff didn't want people to confuse the apple with a cherry or a tomato, which is why they added the bite to the apple. Additionally, Job suggested to put the green color on top to make it look more like an apple. The third logo was introduced in 1998 as some said the colorfully striped apple would look ridiculous on the new iMac. Jobs wanted to keep the Apple, so they simply changed the color to grey.

If Jobs & Co. hadn't decided on changing the color to grey in 1998, the MacBook would probably look like this today. I guess Apple made the right choice.

 

Apple's History of Advertising

 

Apple I

Back in 1976, when Apple was just getting off the starting blocks, its founders introduced the Apple I, a personal computer, and sold it for $666.66. When you have a look at the advertising on the left hand side, you can see that there is a lot of text, one low-quality picture and Apple's first logo. What do you think about this advertising? Does it look appealing to you? Well, to me, it doesn't look attractive at all. You can't even make out what's on the picture on the top right corner. At least I can't. For me, there is way too much text on this ad. Imagine this advertisement as a poster next to a sidewalk. Would you stop walking in order to read it? Would you be able to tell at a glance what this ad is about?

Apple II

Only one year after Apple's foundation, Wozniak invented another computer called Apple II. Although it had the same processor in and run at the same speed like Apple I, the Apple II was way more popular than the first one.
The advertisement on the right hand side looks a lot more concise, don't you think? There is very little text and just one photo of a specific fruit. Guess what, it's an apple! Still, I believe that the apple is photoshopped. Just look at its colors! It looks like the apple from Snow White. That's at least what I think.

Apple III

Although Apple II was quite a success, they decided to invent a new model with an even better system. The Apple III was proudly introduced in 1980, but it soon became apparent that the system wasn't as good as expected. Jobs didn't want the computer to have a cooling fan since it was "too noisy and inelegant". Therefore the motherboard of the computer got really hot after a while which resulted in system malfunctions. In addition to that, there were some other softwares that didn't work properly. So Apple replaced these "bad" Apple IIIs and introduced another version of Appe III, which, unfortunately, still had some problems.

What do you think about the advertisements? There was a series of these posters and each of them was dedicated to an American entrepreneur. Even though the ad contains a lot of text, I really like the idea of referring to notable inventors like Edison or Ford. When reading the heading, one might think: Ok, so what makes Apple so exceptional to even compare themselves with Edison or Ford?
 

Apple Lisa

The Apple Lisa is not only named after a girl (Steve Jobs' daughter's name was Lisa), but also stood for "Local Integrated Software Architecture". What made Apple Lisa so special? It was the very first Apple computer to have Graphical User Interface (GUI). That means that you were able to point and click with a rolling device called "mouse". Before that, the computers were text-based, which means that one had to type in commands in order to make the system respond.
Have a look at the video-ad below. I don't know about you, but I think this video is creepy! Just see for yourself.

Macintosh

Introduced in 1984, Macintosh was a line of personal computers developed by Steve Jobs. Like the Apple Lisa, Macintosh had GUI and a mouse.
Have a look at the advertisement. On the bottom left corner, there is a picture of someone using a mouse. The text in the pic says "If you can point, you can use Macintosh." Also, on the bottom right corner, where you can see the colorfully striped Apple logo, it says "Soon there'll just be two kinds of people. Those who use computers and those who use Apples." Well, this is quite a self-assured statement, don't you think?

"Think Different"

The advertising campaign "Think Different" was introduced in 1997 and mainly used for TV commercials and print ads.

The commercial as well as the ad show several personalities of the 20th century who, according to Jobs, "thought different" and "changed things": Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Edison, Mahatma Gandhi or Pablo Picasso. Have you ever seen this ad before? What do you think about it?

"Get a Mac"

Another campaign created by Apple's advertising agency was "Get a Mac". The TV campaign, which ran from 2006 to 2009, tells the story of a PC and a Mac being compared to each other. One guy dressed in casual clothes and personifies a Mac and the other one is dressed more formally and represents the (Windows) PC. The commercial was broadcasted in almost every English speaking country as well as in Japan. It was even dubbed into Spanish, German and Italian.
The actual ad lasts about an hour or so, so it gets a bit boring after a while. However, here's a shorter version that shows the ten most humorous statements. If you haven't seen it before, you should definitely watch it. It's hilarious.

Sources:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/story-behind-apple-logos-evolution-11672
http://webexpedition18.com/articles/evolution-apple-ads/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Apple_Inc.#Apple_IPO 
http://oldcomputers.net/ 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac

Image Sources:
(1) http://famouslogos.net/images/apple-logo-evolution.jpg
(2) http://edibleapple.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/maacbookcolor.jpg 
(3) http://webexpedition18.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/1976apple01.jpg
(4) http://webexpedition18.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/1977apple05.jpg
(5) http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/Apple-II-III-ads.jpg
(6) http://webexpedition18.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/1984apple34.jpg
(7) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvBw6zNAMTDPkFhumJfHhHwmHNK0lGPFKyVey9Iyh2oSyJr4-9AeYdK3KWsnixXxQyowce5NlB10sJxEU9I4-VG7Df_ClWhEzyqb_XKLaHTvLg_UjYxKnQeKNwzJrXPSErLweAPu0YMiw/s1600/Think_Different_Apple-1998-771623.jpg