

Before you condemn Apple again... - wells-riley
http://blog.wells.ee/before-you-condemn-apple-again

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freehunter
So basically, before you condemn Apple, remember all the good ads they had
before? All the ads they had with a real point, showing something that was
clear to the viewer?

The reason Apple is being condemned right now is because this ad _isn't_ a
Think Different ad. It isn't a Here's to the Crazy Ones. It isn't a Mac vs PC.
It's not memorable, it's not unique, it's not defining a culture. It's simply
an ad. That's very un-Apple.

Maybe before you defend Apple again, make sure they have a defensible
position. "They had good ads in the past" is a non sequitur, and honestly if
your argument is "yeah it's not good, but let's just forget about it", you
might not be thinking clearly.

~~~
tptacek
No, the opposite. Before you condemn Apple, remember that bad ads are nothing
new for them.

You should read these things before you comment on them.

~~~
freehunter
Did you read it? No where does the author say "Apple makes bad ads". He said
Jobs made cheesy, empty ads. "Genius" isn't a cheesy, empty ad. It's just bad.
In an article that starts with "Apple makes great ads", continues onto
"everyone else makes poor ads", reaches a conclusion of "Apple hasn't made a
bad ad since the G4 and Powerbook were hot" and finishes with "Apple's
advertising is getting worse, but you can't blame them for that", the last
thing on my mind at the end was "Apple always has bad advertising". Because in
the last 5-10 years, that just hasn't been true.

------
tptacek
Nit: "marketing" is not a synonym for "advertising". Advertising is part of
promotion, which is in turn part of marketing, but it is not the most
important part of marketing (normally, that's pricing and market
segmentation).

Steve Jobs was, by all appearances, a master marketer across the board. But
Chiat\Day didn't do much of Apple's marketing work.

