|
The Future Of Fruit (5/30/00)
|
 
|
| | |
Apple's marketing has historically been a very... bipolar experience. There have been some very successful campaigns over the years (the "Think Different" commercial, the legendary "1984" ad), but there's also been a lot of absolute dreck; that disturbing Performa infomercial in which Gramps uses the family Mac to get a girlfriend limps immediately to mind. There's no question that in the Second Steve Dynasty Apple has become consistently stronger on the marketing front, but there's always room for improvement. And that's why we're slightly concerned about how Apple's missing the boat when it comes to the last great frontier of "be everywhere" advertising: fruit stickers.
See, according to MacAddict, the same philosophy that gave the world "3Com Park" and the "Viagra Bowl" (well, if there isn't one, there will be) has led mind-share-hungry companies to start advertising on fruit. Specifically, Ask Jeeves-- a site, incidentally, using technology patented by my old artificial intelligence professor, who somehow apparently managed to secure a patent for "web stuff that doesn't work"-- is apparently now trying to get the brand visibility of Chiquita by slapping Ask.com stickers on bananas. Now, whether or not you consider the corruption of fruit stickers with capitalist propaganda to be the final sign that western civilization is about to collapse under the weight of its own greed, you have to admit that Apple's missing out on a golden opportunity, here.
Come on... what could be a better match than Apple stickers on apples? Just imagine: every schoolkid with a bag lunch would finish off the PB&J and pull out a shiny Granny Smith, and there's the Apple logo staring up at him from the sticker. Talk about reclaiming the education market! And what does one do with fruit stickers? Well, we don't know about you, but we stick them on whatever's handy. (There's a "Washington Certified Organic Red Delicious #94015" on our monitor right now.) So now you've got these schoolkids sticking Apple logos all over the lunch tables, their textbooks, and each other. Now that's the path to mind share, baby. Hey, maybe some of the more "issue-prone" Wintel manufacturers should start advertising on lemons...
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (2325)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/30/00 episode: May 30, 2000: Firmware! Getcher red-hot firmware here! Meanwhile, an Apple subsidiary scores a devious coup by taking over the National Fish and Wildlife Service, and Apple has yet to jump on the "advertising on fruit" bandwagon...
Other scenes from that episode: 2323: A Matter Of Trust (5/30/00) It's time to play everyone's favorite game, Update Your Firmware! Yes, firmer than software but softer than hardware, it's firmware-- that ball of code that sits in read-only memory and makes your Mac tick, at a very guts-level level. Without working firmware, your modern-day Mac would never get so far as the disk on which you keep your operating system; it'd be little more than a dead chunk of polycarbonate... 2324: The Seat Of Power (5/30/00) Slowly but surely, Apple's making headway on its covert plan to take over the U.S. government. Until now, the most visible moves in Steve Jobs's master plan have been confined to the military; last year the Army moved its web site to a Mac running WebSTAR, and more recently rumors surfaced that Steve himself was involved in talks with the Navy to lift its ban on the purchase of Mac systems...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
