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Apple's videos from WWDC 2013 keynote: 'Intention,' 'Our Signature'
Apple has made two of the videos from yesterday's WWDC 2013 keynote available on YouTube. The first is the video that launched the keynote event, titled "Intention." The new advertisement that began showing last night, touting Apple's signature "Designed by Apple in California," is also available for online viewing. The narration with the ad is lyrical and makes the point that the company strives to create the best products it can. This is it. This is what matters. The experience of a product. How will it make someone feel? Will it make life better? Does it deserve to exist? We spend a lot of time on a few great things, until every idea we touch enhances each life it touches. You may rarely look at it, but you'll always feel it...this is our signature, and it means everything. The new ad is the next part of the current Apple campaign that started with the "Photos Every Day" ad and continued with the "Music Every Day" ad. The campaign is a collaboration of Apple and longtime ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, and focuses more on the quality and reliability of Apple products than attempting to do head-to-head comparisons with the Android ecosystem.
Ad exec Scott Trattner returns to the Apple fold at Media Arts Lab
Most of the hiring talk today is about Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch joining up with Apple, but there's been another interesting job switch in the Apple-sphere recently. Ad exec Scott Trattner has returned to work for the Media Arts Lab ad agency, after a short stint working for the design firm 72 and Sunny. The Media Arts Lab is part of ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day, and the group is responsible for some of the most iconic Apple ads, including the famous Switcher ads, as well as the iPod ads, Think Different and even the classic "1984" commercial. Trattner was responsible for a few big Apple campaigns, including the "Get a Mac" series with John Hodgman and Justin Long. He had transitioned over to 72 and Sunny, a company that is actually working on ads for Samsung at the moment, but now he's back at the Media Arts Lab, as of last month. Apple's recent ads haven't been quite as exciting as some of the ones we most love and remember, so maybe Trattner's return will help get things moving along again. He's back in his Executive Creative Director position, and reports say he's back at work on Apple already.
All 84 iPhone ads available in one place for your viewing pleasure
Yesterday we pointed you to an amazing compendium of Steve Jobs videos. Now Adweek has beat that by putting all 84 iPhone TV ads that have been released so far into one spectacular article. All of the ads were created by TBWA (branded in the U.S. as TBWA\Chiat\Day), with the first of the series broadcast during the Academy Awards broadcast in 2007. While that ad was a teaser for the first iPhone that came out in June of 2007, most of the spots have focused on the capabilities of the iPhone as it has evolved over the years. Looking through the videos, it's not only fascinating to see how the technology rolled into the iPhone has changed, but how consistently they stay "on message." The first ads showed the abilities of the iPhone and really pointed out how different it was from the other phones of the day, while a second series in October of 2007 had iPhone owners talking about how the phone had impacted their lives. The 30-second spots are a blast to watch and a great way to catch up on your iPhone History 101 if you're new to the world of Apple. To whet your appetite, here's one of the vintage ads that aired on June 4, 2007 -- just 25 days before the first iPhone debuted. Thanks to Tim from Adweek for the tip.
One of tomorrow's announcements? iPhone HD (Update - it's a fake)
Pursuitist claimed to have photos from a "European insider at TBWA/Chiat/Day," the advertising agency for Apple worldwide. We'll send you to Pursuitist to view the photos in deference to their find, but we are showing you a photo (above) snapped inside of Moscone Center that displays the iPhone HD. Pursuitist also notes that the device will be offered in all white and all black, although the Moscone photo appears to show the phone in a rainbow of colors. Other features include a front-facing camera with video chat and an upgrade to iChat, better battery life, a camera with higher resolution (and a flash), and advanced apps management and multitasking with iPhone OS 4.0. Of course, this could be a last-minute "leak" to throw off all of us bloggers, but the consensus seems to be that the new iPhone will carry the iPhone HD moniker. Only during tomorrow's WWDC keynote will we know for sure. Update: As numerous commenters are noting, the photo we're showing above has apparently been around for awhile. We receive so many faked images every day that it's sometimes hard to keep 'em straight. Sorry! However, you may want to still take a look at the Pursuitist post to see the gallery of photos that they're displaying, which may be just as fake.
An interview with the man behind the name "iMac"
This is a cool interview over at Cult of Mac -- you've heard of Steve Jobs of course, you know who Jonathan Ive is, you might have heard of Rob Janoff, but do you know Ken Segall's name? He's a former creative director from TBWA\Chiat\Day, and he has two claims to Apple fame: he worked on the "Think Different" campaign, and he's responsible for coming up with the one letter that may have defined the modern-day Apple as we know it. That's right, he named the iMac. The writeup is fascinating, even if you get the sense that we're looking through the lens of history, and things may not happened quite as stylishly as they seem. Jobs apparently showed the Bondi Blue iMac to the ad team, and while he originally "hated" the name, he obviously came around -- though Segall apparently never got the satisfaction of official approval. He closes with an interesting sentiment about the company, too: at Apple, it's always about moving forward to the next big thing, and everything is product-centered, not number-driven. Segall says he was around for a few Jobs "flare-ups," but if there was a fit thrown, it was always in trying to keep the company moving forward as quickly as possible. Interesting stuff. It's quite a legacy, too -- the iMac was originally called so because it was a Mac that connected to the Internet, but obviously since then, the i has become symbolic of many other things, all the way up to iLife, the iPod, and the iPhone. You tend to forget, after all of the millions of dollars and the culture and promotion, that it all came from the head of a guy in a conference room looking at a computer Jobs just pulled the cloth off of.
New Apple Switcher-Cam ad will take over online media
The newest Get A Mac, ad from Apple will take over the front page of a number of sites this month. Created by TBW\Media Arts Lab, the ad takes over the page as PC chases switchers through various switcher-cam displays. Thanks to Ivan for sending it in, and Ads of the World for hosting it.
Sony America drops ad agency of 13 years -- now?
Advertising Age reports Sony Computer Entertainment of America kicked their ad agency of 13 years to the curb yesterday. TBWA/Chiat/Day was eliminated from the review of the $150 million PlayStation account. After all the numerous incidents over the years and the disastrous PS3 launch ads, the company finally turned things around for this holiday season. Looks like it was a day late and $150 million dollars short.There's still some questions that'll probably be clarified when an official announcement of the new ad agency is made. For example, all information on the issue speaks directly to Sony America, however TBWA is also responsible for the twisted, disruptive, ridiculous, and sometimes racist, European ads as well. Sony has yet to comment.[Via GameDaily]
Adgadget: Apple - flattered and photocopied
We're pleased to introduce a new column today, Adgadget, a periodic editorial by Ariel Waldman about the advertising behind consumer technology: Functioning to flatter, Apple's marketing department continues to imitate their inspiration. While a bit lack-luster, Apple's recent commercial for the up and coming iPhone is a far cry from the originality of the product itself. As some may have seen, it was soon found that the iPhone commercial that had originally aired during the Oscars was a cut and dry ripoff of a film that had come out more than a decade earlier. While seemingly scandalous, this incident was no coincidence. Apple had approached the filmmaker earlier for permission to use the concept; no stranger to being turned down -- and similarly to the battle with Cisco over the very name of the product -- Apple went ahead and used it anyway. This time the muse happens to be experimental artist / musician Christian Marclay, who in 1995 produced Telephones, an abstract film of absurd and fragmented conversations cut up from phone scenes in movies. The film focused to comment on the relationship between sound and image by way of video; intrigued by the phone-movie mashup, Apple approached Marclay to use his work. Marclay, of course, refused Apple's advances, but Apple took advantage anyway. Since asking the source had short-circuited, Apple instead took to using extremely similar footage, making the iPhone commercial nothing short of a complete color copy of Telephones.Reminiscent of the earlier Intel chip commercial outcry that clearly ripped out scenes from Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" music video, content confiscation is nothing new to Apple. There was also the iPod incident in 2005, where blogs everywhere threw up screen grabs and expressed shock over the extreme similarity between the then recent Eminem iPod commercial and a Lugz commercial from 4 years before. But it wasn't always this way.
