Unremarked yet vital.

When Albert Einstein penned his theory of relativity, working as an obscure patent office clerk in Switzerland, he used pen and paper. Not a computer in sight.

When Maria Callas was hitting high Cs in her large operatic oeuvre, no computers were involved in creating the greatest vocal timbre of her generation.

Dylan and Lennon used much the same equipment found in Einstein’s toolbox.

And you can be sure as heck that Picasso would have laughed at the idea of a computer, if he even knew what it was.

But the one universally unremarked keystone to much of Apple’s success – now that everyone is writing on the change in CEOs – is the work of the company’s long time advertising agency, Chiat/Day. (‘Shy-at/Day’)

Their early ‘Think Different’ campaign featured images of all of the above geniuses and made it subtly but perfectly clear that dumb people used something other than a Mac, though the computer was nowhere to be seen. There was not a green eyeshade to be found among Apple’s pantheon of ‘crazy ones’. So the subliminal association with genius conferred on every Macintosh owner was clear. The campaign remains one of the classics of advertising.

“Think Different – because the people who are crazy enough
to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Click to view.

Yet Chiat/Day’s most famous piece is without doubt the ‘1984’ ad for the first Macintosh which ran just once during that annual orgy of steroid driven machismo and big money, the Superbowl. A strange venue for a cerebral product, but its vilification of IBM as Big Brother and the related message that PCs were for the unthinking masses, was clear. (Oddly, most of the attendees at that same Superbowl had likely arrived in corporate jets with their flight and seats paid for by their shareholders). Running it just the one time sealed its fame and it plays as well today as it did in …. 1984. The related implicit presumption is that none of the machine men in large corporations using IBM’s megatrons had even heard of George Orwell, let alone read his book. Likely true.

1984. Click to view.

I was lucky to find myself in Chiat/Day’s Santa Monica office in 1988 and still fondly remember that visit as showing me a new kind of workplace, one in which traditional offices and cubes were notable for their absence. The ceilings of this cavernous warehouse were high and people seemed to mill around in free form. Models and photographs were everywhere and video played on many screens. It was an incredibly inspirational environment, just ripe with creativity and intellectual freedom.

Chiat/Day’s most recent Apple commercials are the ‘Get a Mac’ series which ran through 2010, and they reflect the changing positioning and audience for Apple’s products. Whereas when ‘1984’ and ‘Think Different’ were made only a lucky few owned Macs, and the iPod was nowhere in sight, by 2006 when ‘Get a Mac’ started to run everyone owned an iPod. The iPod, which has now morphed into the iPhone and iPad, was a perfect introduction to the world of Apple’s computers. Accordingly, this campaign was targeted at a different audience. Intellect and relative affluence had given way to the mass market of poverty and a situation comedy mindset, and it’s not for nothing that these ads were miniature sitcoms. The intended audience, after all, watched little else. The campaign made John Hodgman, the poor schlub with the pocket protector and suede shoes an instant star. He was the nerd whose PC was always locking up and prided himself on the amount of storage and complexity of setup. By contrast, the Mac character, played by Justin Long, comes over as a sententious prig, just this short of curling up a contemptuous lip at the poor loser that is Hodgman. Unconsciously, Apple was cocking a snoot at the corporate world it so little cares about, yet when it comes to having a beer with one of these guys, it sure wouldn’t be the Mac dude that first comes to mind.

Get a Mac.
Click to view.

This is one of my favorites. The contrast between the nerdy numbers guy and the artsy hipster could not be greater and the humor and timing are splendid.

Chiat/Day is one of the many unsung heroes who contributed mightily to the success of Apple and their work is an education in photography, film making and pop culture.