Reshared post from +Tom Anderson

Here's a one-page scrolling view of Apple's advertisements from the late 70s until now. (http://bit.ly/pSZ8XA ) It's pretty interesting to see how Apple ads started and ended up at the same place.

The very first ad shows the Apple in a very personal setting / evoking the feelings of family. Apple is just part of your peaceful domestic life. Doesn't that remind you of the latest Apple ad that suggests you'll do all the things you've always done in life, but they're made better with iPad?

Here's the 2011 Apple ad I'm referring to: http://bit.ly/qPyrJ5 And the text from the video: "We'll never stop sharing our memories, or getting lost in a good book, we'll aways cook dinner and cheer for our favorite team, we'll still go to meetings, make home movies, and learn new things. But how we do all this, will never be the same."

In between 1979 and 2011, Apple ads tried to convince us of a few things:

1) the utility of owning a personal computer — are these things really useful?
2).using an Apple makes you a revolutionary / inventor (like Edison)
3) using an Apple means you're counter-culture (boo IBM! yay hippies!)
4) using an Apple marks you as different / individualistic

Remember that first Apple ad was before the IBM PC even existed, let alone a credible threat. Now Apple's just back to being that loving part of your family. Is this a sign that Apple is supremely confident again? Since Apple's on the rise, it doesn't need to advertise from the position of the underdog anymore. Apple is no longer the radical, revolutionary outsiders machine — it's the dominant player. Just part of the family.

With a move towards software in the "cloud" the main reason to use a PC is declining (software). Most privileged kids will grow up with iPads & iPhones. For those that need a keyboard, they're more likely to use an Apple product instead of Windows based one. Or, perhaps, and Android based one… ? The real battle for the future of "computing" may be Android vs. iOS — whether that war is on tablets, phones or lap/desktops.

It'll be fun to see if the next 30 years is a battle of advertising between Google & Apple, instead of Apple & "IBM/Windows". (Thanks +Bill Gross for posting this on Twitter this morning which got me to thinking about it.)

Embedded Link

The Evolution of Apple Ads | Webdesigner Depot
Apple first started advertising its products in the late 1970s. The 80s showed a wide variety of ads, some of which served to convince consumers that they

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 18th, 2011 at 6:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized.