Apple Psyop in the 2000's against everyones hated windows version (vista)
Psyop: someone or something used by the government/power to influence the population’s opinions and attitudes. That is the definition taken from the Merriam Webster Dictionary.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psyop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eEG5LVXdKo
Apple psyop in the 2000s against everyone’s hated Windows version (Vista) (at the time), based on the damage of these commercials. In 2006, Apple released a lot of these fun commercials about 30–45 seconds long. Almost “Vine” inspired infomercials. Crazy to see how companies even were pushing short form content back then.
The purpose was to educate people and persuade them to buy their products like any other commercial would do. But this was different. This was a whole campaign about bashing Windows (Vista) to the public.
It also didn’t help that Vista didn’t have a good start, and it reminds me of the launch of Fallout 76.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Windows_Vista
TLDR: There were a lot of issues and headaches.
From May 2006–Oct 2009, 66 commercials were aired throughout the globe, causing this shift, in not only how we consume media but make them (commercials)
If companies still continued to make these in a fun way, I’d be on board, but it has to be done right. Not like Duolingo, which jumps on a trend— (then fire its human workers and replace it with AI) - it’s very artificial feeling the same goes for companies which gets the youngest member of staff with the company social media, like the Norm of the North Movie Twitter account that's just funny, It wasn't persuasive enough to make me watch the movie before or after but respect it more: https://x.com/NormOfNorth?lang=en.
I believe Apple was successful because it knew its target and made this specially crafted infomercial to grab people from any level of computing to the apple ecosystem. “If you’re advanced and more tech-savvy, you’ll love it because you’re not limited by Windows shitty software.” or It would target the people who only use a computer for work (business users) by basically saying something like “HEY Y’ALL-... WE HAVE A MICROSOFT WORD TOO.” or the opposite crowd “if you like editing photos or just making videos, Mac can do that without a headache.”
This tactic inserts the idea of: “Hey, Mac is capable and better than PC.” Making these things accessible means more people would use it and grow a “relationship” with it.
Not only do they say this in “words”, but the way it’s portrayed and how the characters are played and even dressed. The wardrobe is also a key factor. Mac is portrayed as a guy who is more casual and calm, mentioning small features like a skill or talent. Like “I can connect with this Japanese camera (another person portrayed as the camera) easily" and then he speaks Japanese like the skill of being bilingual.
The Mac guy isn’t shown being mean in any way, because he is representing the company. He’s written to be just a “chill guy”, and that makes him likable, while the PC guy is portrayed as this uptight, bloated (foreshadowing) person in a suit who is the butt of the jokes, like a Tom and Jerry dynamic but technology.
It also helped that many of these were targeting college students, and if they hooked this young crowd, Apple knows it’ll have a forever profit stream since they will get their kids, and their kids, and the cycle will repeat.
I’m not saying Apple wasn’t already popular thanks to the iPod and iPhone being groundbreaking not because it was the first one, or else we would’ve seen an alternate history where BlackBerry is the new Apple—but they were always good with commercials.
They are very recognizable and good at this- I guarantee you that you have seen these or seen something inspired about it and I’m not talking about modern skits they do or shining a light in a black room with the new device and flashing the specs. I mean real old commercials, These are the most recognizable and famous commercials they have produced:
“Think Different” - In black and white film, starting with "Cheers for the crazy ones who are going to change the world ... .you must be crazy enough to think different …. Already off to a good start, these figures are people who are creative and are role figures who changed the norm paying tribute for their cause/affect: John Lennon, Jim Henson, MLK, Gandhi, Alebert Einstein, directors, makers of all fields and art or activism was shown. Wanting you to better yourself and push the envelope to think different and to do that is with an apple product…
“Silhouette” - i remember this one alot and is a memory in my childhood but only one section which was the Gorillaz “feel good section” I remember wanting an iPod after that - -Apple could release a similar or the same one now and it has everything to succeed now, simple [check], fast paced [check] colorful [check] dancing [check] shortruntime [check], now old nostalgic music as bait [check], post that on TikTok or instagram reels and i guarantee people would eat it up. It's ironic now to see people truly enjoying their technology and not worrying about spyware or security issues, just peace of mind of listening to music and expressing that enjoying through movement.
“Big Brother/1984 Apple Macintosh / Think Different / Super Bowl” - This one is the most iconic of them all and I didnt even see it air originally I saw it when I was into 1984 and wanted to delve deeper into this idea george orwell writes in his books that show so much life/pain and ALMOST A parable into his view.
Then I watched a couple video essays and found Apple made a "parody" of it and it worked so well invoking so much emotion and really brought this idea of apple is different and would change your life which is a direction they still use.
Breaking away from this dystopian ruled power that sees and watches you always doesn't allow you to have free will and prevents you from being you and expressing yourself just being controlled and manipulated
1984 is such a statement to a overcontrolling government that does not allow you to express yourself and prohibits external or different thinking - such an deep topic i love to ponder and think about but its too much, there are course and studies about this that are amazing and well put, I highly recommended this book and really understand and take away from what it tells us.
From Wikipedia and Youtube here's the entire commercial played out -
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfqw8nhUwA
Wikipedia - "Transcript"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(advertisement)
Heres a TLDR of the ending:
Big Brother speaking “Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on Earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!”
The runner, running away from “thought police”, hurls the hammer she is carrying, the hammer hits the giant telescreen. In a burst of light and smoke, the screen is destroyed, and a wave of dust and smoke covers the shocked audience.
The commercial ends with a voiceover by actor Edward Grover, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984".
The screen fades to black as the voiceover ends, and the rainbow Apple logo appears.
…Actually fucking cinema…
THIS WAS TOO SELL THE FUCKING MACINSHOSH TOO NOT SOME OVERTHROWING THE GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA IT WAS TO SELL THE MACINSHOSH, IT DID SO WELL IT SOLD SO MANY AFTER.
Would it also shock you that Steve Jobs backed and funded Pixar.
They changed their image so well. It's this tech company that is rebellious and for the people, not like other tech companies and the products are “easy/simple and attractive”. That's the formula.
Apple stores and products are built like modern art pieces: all white or silver, which psychology tells us that things like white diamonds, white BMWs, white suits , the colour white or silver are now associated with luxury.
In the study: Colour Design: Theories and Applications by Janet Best, Elsevier Science & Technology, 2017. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=4875084.
Here's some quotes or sections that how we associate colour specifically white:
Popular names: ivory, oyster, cream, pure white • [Association] Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity, cleanliness, simplicity, sophistication, efficiency • Isolation, sterility, coldness, barriers, unfriendliness, elitism
“Similar is the belief that white signifies high purity.”
Automotive Color Trends report that 35% of vehicles sold around the world are white.
“White has enormous benefits for many industries that need to adapt products for specific requirements including labelling, packaging, security, luxury, pharmaceutical, auxetics, or dental markets.”
White in art and even media can be used to convey ideas of good standing. Like in cartoons the lightbulb above someone’s head is white and shows light or brightness.. When a king is being crowned, there’s a beam of white light that shows its greatness or importance—little subtle things that can influence how we think.
Like how many people were brainwashed into thinking that cigarettes and cigars are healthy good because of advertising, social pressure, and early lack of public awareness. Or When Pearl Harbor was attacked many Japanese-AMERICAN communities and families were attacked and divided or even deported, whole generations were sent to work camps or prison because the association being Japanese - These Americans were targets and victims being called spies and a “threat” to the nation was a big misstep from the Rooselvet Cabinet - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans.
it’s all a chess game and we are only pawns.
Got a bit sidetracked whoops.
So heres the numbers, since thats what its all about. After these commercials aired the number was an increase of 200,000 Macs sold, Apple announced that it had sold 1.3 million Macs.
It was a success. It was so effective. Steve Jobs was seen as this “never-wrong” figurehead that should’ve never been forced to step down because all his ideas were great, which I can give some credit to. True, Steve Jobs was the reason Apple was revived and why it’s successful now, and he used his arrogant but effective ways to push products and advertise to make Apple a giant in the tech sphere. But he’s also the reason why it failed in the first place as well: his failed or rushed products/projects made Apple look like overpriced and low-quality trash, when in reality his ideas were just getting so much scope creep and were too ambitious. His treatment of employees too, and his intense leadership style, were also factors in the power struggle that led to him losing control inside Apple and leaving in 1985. Separately, his family situation was complicated in public (especially early on with his daughter), and the Lisa name is widely seen as connected to her (with the acronym explanation coming later). And years later, his health issues are also part of why he stepped down as CEO in 2011. A great example was the Apple Lisa computers: it flopped. It was very expensive and was considered the highest cream of the crop, but it was so limiting because of the price that it made the public lose interest in it—and it got buried, not in a “forgotten” way, but about 2,700 unsold computers were physically buried in Utah.
So when researching fro this I found more of this “series”, and Its funny to see Windows try to fight back with their Im a PC series too, trying to flip the script of Mac being a chill guy instead is PC, or showing impressive feats like one is a engineer another is a diver becvasue we are all PC not this rigid idea of it which was enteranintg to watch but not enough o save Windows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrmF-mPLybw
In 2021 Intel did a better job in making it more informative and entertaining buy literally “copying” apples commercial tey even rehired the dude who played mac (justin) telling us how hes changed and get a intel laptop since it has more screens more colors options, more powerful with the newest intel chip, its literally called - Justin Gets Real: Having Choices - Its also funny because apple recently starting to switch their devices cpus to their own custom chips instead of intel so i guess intel had some bitter taste in their mouth. Which even more ironic that intel hasn't made a well developed chip since they overhead and become more more slower compared to AMD and Apple Silicon Chips and Qualcomm Snapdragon , and Apple making the best chips for their laptops for a while and making it as efficient as possible if only apple made their products repairable and cheaper and wasn't such a bitch to develop for it'll be my favorite, at least intel made a surprisingly high quality intel arc gpu, so excited about that involvement
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