Tech Ads
Selling the machines. 1984 and Think Different, the iPod silhouettes, Get a Mac, Intel Inside, and the launch films that replaced the commercial.
Part of Advertisements
9 moments in this segment.
- - Apple "Think Different". September 28, 1997. TBWA\Chiat\Day's "Here's to the crazy ones" + "Think Different" Apple campaign. Saved Apple from near-bankruptcy. Won the 1998 Emmy + Effie Grand. Reframed Apple as the brand for creatives.
- - Apple iPod Silhouette Ads. 2003 onward. TBWA\Chiat\Day's silhouetted-dancers iPod campaign, bright colours, black figures, white earbuds. Defined Apple's 2000s aesthetic; the campaign that confirmed the iPod as a cultural phenomenon.
- - Apple "Mac vs PC". 2006-2009. Justin Long + John Hodgman as Mac + PC. 66 ads over 3 years. Defined Apple's cultural positioning against Microsoft for a decade.
- - Samsung "Growing Up" Anti-Apple Ad. November 2017. Samsung's "Growing Up", 90-second ad mocking iPhone limitations through a switcher's journey from 2007-2017. Most-discussed brand-vs-brand attack ad of the decade. Universally praised for execution.
- - Mr. Beast Becomes a Distribution Channel. 2020 onward. Mr. Beast's reach (~300M subs) makes him a single-person mass-media platform. Brands sponsor his videos at $1M+ per integration. The first true post-broadcast advertising model.
- - Coca-Cola "Create Real Magic" (AI). March 2023. Coca-Cola launches the first major brand AI-image generator (built on Stable Diffusion + DALL-E). User-submitted Coke-themed AI art rotated through Times Square billboards. The first Fortune-500 brand to commit publicly to generative AI.
- - AI-Generated Ads Mainstream. 2024. Coca-Cola's "Create Real Magic" (already in loreline), Mango's fully-AI-generated campaign, BMW's "M-Mobility" generative-AI ads. The first year AI-generated imagery routinely shipped in brand advertising; major industry pushback from photography unions.
- - Apple Vision Pro Launch Ad. February 2024. Apple's "Hello Apple Vision Pro", sci-fi-cinematic launch film for the most-hyped tech-launch of 2024. Universally praised as an ad; mixed reviews on the product. Showcase of Apple's post-iPhone launch-ad template.
- - Figma Config Keynotes as Marketing. 2022-2024. Figma's annual Config conference keynotes became their primary marketing channel. Apple-keynote-style production for a design tool. Demonstrated SaaS branding could live entirely outside traditional advertising.
