During my life, there have been many iconic marketing campaigns – the Shake & Vac comes to mind (Google it) – but Apple have definitely mastered the art. Their 1997 Crazy Ones campaign comes to mind …
Why mention this today?
Well, some friends have been posting about these ads including Bloomberg (are they a friend?) who talk about the legacy of the 1984 Super Bowl advert.
During the third quarter, as 80 million football fans watched the Los Angeles Raiders pull away from the Washington Redskins, the defending champions, a commercial showed a column of uniformed men with gray faces and shaved heads marching into a theater. There a looming Big Brother figure on a giant telescreen shouted about the “glorious” unification of society into a “garden of pure ideology.” That was until a young woman sprinted forth and hurled a sledgehammer through the screen, silencing the dictator. “You’ll see,” a narrator intoned, “why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”
If you haven’t seen it, their 1984 Superbowl ad …
… was a gamechanger, and created the Apple we know today.
Apple is meant to represent the crazy ones who think different, and was driven closely by Steve Jobs, the then newly reinstated CEO, Steve Hayden and some guy called Ridley Scott.
Apple has always been positioned for the rebels whilst Microsoft is for the boring business people; Apple is for the creatives, whilst Microsoft is for the mundane; Apple is for the libertarians, whilst Microsoft is for the statists. Need I go on?
The thing is that, today, Apple is the corporate statist, isn’t it? With a value worth $3.4 trillion, more than any other company in the world, its 2023 revenue (almost $400 billion) makes it about as big as the entire economy of Denmark or the Philippines.
I find it funny as Apple influence almost every corner of our lives, which is why their bold play on privacy makes it a true front runner.
This came to a head three years ago when the firm actively blocked US government authorities from accessing the San Bernardino shooters iPhone. Do you remember this? A quick reminder.
On December 2, 2015, a terrorist attack, consisting of a mass shooting and an attempted bombing, occurred at the Inland Regional Centre in San Bernardino, California, United States. One of the two terrorists mobile phones were caught by the FBI, who demanded Apple unlock it. Apple said no. This became a struggle which Apple claimed was moral. The FBI believed Apple should help it obtain information to investigate the terrorist attack. Apple believed that creating a back door into the phone would weaken security and could be used by malicious actors. The FBI sought a court order to compel Apple to help the government.
This has now extended further. From Apple’s website today, here is what they say about privacy.
Privacy is a fundamental human right. It’s also one of our core values. Which is why we design our products and services to protect it. That’s the kind of innovation we believe in.
These are the rebels. These are creatives. These are the libertarians. And this is what makes Apple the richest company in the world (but watch out for Aramco).
Postscript:
It makes me wonder what Apple’s position would be regarding rapes, pedophiles and murders.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
