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Crass Commercialism (8/13/98)
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But radio is just the start, according to far-flung sources from Nome to Norway, and confirmed by an Apple press release. Apple has indeed allocated over $100 million to spend on advertising the iMac. We're pretty sure we've heard that Apple's been spending about $150 million a year total on advertising, so the iMac advertising budget isn't just huge-- it's the single biggest ad campaign in Apple's history. Which is only fitting, as it's pushing the single biggest product release (we hope) that Apple's ever had.
There are no big surprises in the press release regarding Apple's ad plans; in addition to the radio spots, billboards and magazine ads will show the iMac in all its Aquafresh-colored glory. The 12-page magazine insert that we've heard so much about will apparently be quite widespread-- over 15 million copies will be distributed in major magazines this quarter, which is more than twice as many as Apple has used in the past. (If that includes the PowerBook G3 pullout, then we're talking about a lot of iMac inserts, because we've got a stack of those PowerBook ones thick enough to stun a llama. Not that we condone the maltreatment of llamas in any way, shape, or form.)
The iMac television commercials will debut this Sunday, during-- surprise, surprise-- the Wonderful World of Disney on ABC. (Nothing like having an interim CEO with Pixar ties to Disney, hmmm?) No touchy-feely "Think Different"-style ads here; Apple claims that the focus of the ads is on the iMac's speed (and Apple's really pushing that point hard, as you can see in another press release about iMac performance), easy Internet access, and overall simplicity, compared to the relatively complicated world of PCs. We can't wait to see what Apple and TBWA Chiat/Day have come up with. And whatever it is, kudos to Apple for deciding to run it during South Park, "family values" be damned. Sweeeet.
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SceneLink (935)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 8/13/98 episode: August 13, 1998: Apple has infiltrated major radio stations all across the country and seized the airwaves for purposes of educating the masses about the iMac. Meanwhile, video plots to kill the radio star this Sunday when Apple premieres its first iMac TV commercial, and Apple Recon has a thing or two to say about Cringely's "11% failure rate" iMac comments...
Other scenes from that episode: 934: Radio Radio (8/13/98) Apple has taken the airwaves hostage and is subverting radio's noble purpose by turning it into nothing more than a vehicle for iMac propaganda. And it's about bloody well time, eh? For years it's been nothing but Pentium ads... 936: He Said They Said (8/13/98) Hey, remember last week when Robert Cringely claimed to have inside information on the iMac's production run that was less than complimentary? He had said that as of the week before, Apple had only managed to crank out 5,000 iMacs...
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