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Hello Goldblum Voiceover (8/18/98)
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As for iMac promotional campaigns that Apple's actually running, well, we'd have to say that the television commercials are probably the most important. Sure, the twelve-page brochure destined for the pages of Newsweek and the like are nice and attention-getting, and it's great that we'll soon see the iMac's sleek curves on billboards sprinkled throughout our fair city, but TV is the omnipresent and omnipotent controller of all. (If you disagree with that little sentiment, you're not watching it right.) Plus, if your AtAT staff is any indication, the iMac has a definite and possibly inexplicable design appeal for those who stare at the tube way too often. It's soothing, inviting, and also just plain sexy.
So yeah, we're thrilled to see that Apple's advertising the iMac on television. And better yet, they don't have just one commercial, they've got four. As much as we liked all of the Pentium-bashing commercials from the "Think Different" campaign, the fact that Apple generally released them one at a time meant we got kind of sick of each one, because it was the same thing over and over again. Hopefully all four of these iMac commercials will be in the mix at the same time, which will keep them from getting stale too fast.
As for the commercials themselves, if you haven't seen them, they focus tightly on the iMac's simplicity with respect to other personal computers, and to a lesser extent the iMac's beautiful design (primarily simply by showing the systems side by side). All four iMac commercials are posted in QuickTime format at Apple's iMac page, though we were unable to download more than three-quarters of the "Traffic" one-- but it's enough to get an idea of what they're doing. We consider them a must-download, if for no other reason than to keep Jeff Goldblum's cool voiceovers for posterity.
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SceneLink (949)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 8/18/98 episode: August 18, 1998: Alas, the iMac Golden Ticket promotion has shuffled off this mortal coil. Meanwhile, Apple's pushing its new consumer machine with a healthy mix of four Goldblum-voiced TV commercials, while desperately trying to crank out enough machines to meet demand...
Other scenes from that episode: 948: Goodbye Golden Ticket (8/18/98) Sadly, it's time to mourn the loss of a marketing plan that never got off the ground-- though, ironically, it made bigger press than most of Apple's marketing plans could hope to. Yes, friends, the Golden Ticket promotion never happened and presumably never will... 950: Cranking 'Em Out (8/18/98) Of course, it doesn't do a whole lot of good to advertise something that you can't sell. Concerns about iMac availability continue to cast a pall over the celebrations, as most retailers put up the "Sold Out" signs before the iMac's debut weekend was through...
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