am- THESIS JANIE SHOARDApple 2002 iMac Commercial ‘Window Shopping’-A commercial presenting the new Apple iMac G4. Broadcast in 2002. Transcript: ‘Advert i shot whilst dark, probably late evening, Happy, jinaly musicis played throughout. (Music toThink- Benny Golson) Camera pans in from right to show busy sidewalk. Everyone is walking away from the camera apa from one man, “The man isthe key focal point, secondary sa shop window with abrightlightcoming fiom it Inthe background thereisa smoking pipe coming from what looks ike some roadworks. Second shot isa semi close up of a Macintosh computer, Camerais placed behind the computer inside the shop display window. A the previously identified character welks past the window, the flexible ‘arm’ of the mac follows his movement. ‘Theman is fixated on the computer, surprised to seeit follow his movernent. He tops, and seems to look around to see ifanyone else has noticed, Long shot of the man standing in front ofthe windows illustrating that no-one else is looking or taking in- terest. The shot makes the man look lonely. Short sequence where the flexible arm ofthe Macs shown off. ‘Theman tolls his head around to seeifthe computer imitates, it does, He looks surprised and challenges the computer to imitate another movement by angry jumping to Fight. Again, the computer follows Lessaggressively, he jumps from side'to side and watches with interest at the computers response. Camera's placedso that the man and computer both take up exactly 50% of the screen each, both leaning forward towards each other. Close up of the man making a sily faceand sticking his tongue out comically The Mac amusingly follons this by opening its disk crve, ‘The man begins to laugh. An elderly woman can be seen walking up to him. He notices the woman and the camerais moved to close up of his face, lockinga bit embarrassed. Cut back to alow angle shot of the mac raising its arm so the monitor is standing tall. Itlooks prestigious and expensive againsta wel it plain white backdrop. Voice over informs audience about the new iMac. END. ‘According to Apple, the release of the ‘new iMac’ introduced the public to revolution- ary new technologies and experiences. The press release revolved around the ‘stun- ning’ new digital LCD Screen, replacing old CRT’, and the ability to create and edit media, using the Apple suite of Software. In a still extremely PC dominated world, it was with the iMac G4, that Apple began their technique ofoffering a cool’ alterna- tiveto their rivals. ‘Thesis Analysis: Itishard to think of acommercial by Apple inc. that isn't either memorable, thought provoking, funny, in- teligent,ora combination of all these things. \With the 2002 introduction of the mew iMac, apple released another successful piece of advertising in the form of the Windovr Shopping'commercial. Looking back on the advert today, perhapsit would not seem so exciting as it was eight years ago, but atthe time, this was a major release for Apple. The iMac G4 super modem and creative shell was unlike any computer produced before, breaking away from the stereotypical CRT monitor and large tower format The sightof this alone is akey contributing factor to the commercial, which would not be so noticeable today, cue to similar and even more moclem de- signs (though pethaps none quite so unicue). With the iMac, Apple had started ajoumey to bring their products to the masses, and to gain some of the hugely dominated marketshare. To this day, they til go by the approach they began in 2002.| be lieve this is a combination of several usually solitary factor. They attempted to break the border be- tween fun, cool, simple products, and powerful revolutionary prestige ‘These factors can be seen heavily throughout the commercial in different forms. The ide of prestige is represented through the presentation of the product. The iMac sits alone ina window clsplay,ona white backdrop, itfrom several angles asifitwere the subjectof aphotoshoot. With nothing else around, itap- pearsto stand up tall and dominate the space surrounding it. The use of white was also something that had not really been done before in the technology field. Prior to the iMac. predominant colours went through various trends of cream, grey, matte black, glossy black and silver. The dazzling white was some- thing unique in the market, combined with strong build quality it successfully started a trend (as Apple often does) of white technological products. So from the very start, the viewer is aware that this com- ‘mercial is not trying to appeal to their wallets, but instead attempting to wow them, Prior to this however, within the fist 5 seconds, a comic factors introduced that sets up the restof the plot The first shot shows a man walking down the street, towards the window display. interestingly, a large amount of people can be seen walking inthe opposite lirection, this manis the only one walking towards the display). As the man walks past the window, the iMac s seen to copy his movement by ad- justing its flexible arm one ofthe more unique visual aspects ofthe product The way this was directed and the expression of the actorimmediately creates ight hearted fun atmosphere. Combine this with the previous pointregarding prestige, and Apple has successfully achieved their desired public ind set within 10 seconds of footage. Asthe commercalrollson, the computer continues to play mirror with the man and ends with an amus- ing comparison with sticking your tongue out and opening a cisk drive. Obviously the iMac isnot actu- ally capable of doing anythingin this avert without someone physically moving the joints, butitis what itrepresentsthatis important Firstly, the movernent of the’arm shows off the practicality and flexibility of the screen, something thatis yet to be rivalled today. | own a Gé thats sadly horrbly inadequate for Use, butts sill damn good fun to play with. Im probably never going touse itagain, btican'tsee myself throwing itaway anytime soon, you don't see many clunky PC's from 2002 still around! today. Seconaly,s mentioned earlier, the iMac G4came with oneof the ist digital CD screens, better quality than Analogue LCD, and much simmer and easier on the eyes than huge CRTS. The flexing iMacin the advert successfully shows this off from many angles. So what seems to be some light hearted Computer/Human interaction tums out also to be a clever way of giving the viewer a good lookat the aesthetics and practicalities ofthe product.‘Sowe have established that a large partof the thesis behind this commercial is to show of the new fea- {ures and design of the product. But so farithasnit really told us much about who it might appeal to and ‘why we would wanta Mac ifwe weren't already enticed by the modern aesthetics. The rest of the com- mercial does not give alot of information about what you can actually do with a mac (unlike modem ‘Apple advertising), it instead informs the user about how it will feel tobe the owner and master of one. ‘The majority ofthe thirty seconds of footage consists ofthe game between the man and the Mac. The man becomesincreasingly elaned with the strange phenomenon and stars to challenge his new friend ‘to make more and more complex movements. The expressions of the man suggest to viewers that he is having fun, andl doing something he has notdone before. talso suggeststhathe was notexpecting this, thedesign mightbe attractive, butitis still obviously a computer, a device that the general public cannot Use for much more than word processing, light media and the internet. Tis is pethaps the fstteration ‘ofa computer made purely for enjoyment. Lastly, Apple was trying to break the stereotype, similar to the one above, that computers are without ‘lifeThis may be true in a sense, butt is more the idea that anything done on a computer canttbe a in- teresting or fun as eal lif’ Apple used ths technique again recently to highlight the contrast between Mac and PC, trying to portray the Windows based machine as one that acks excitement and real user ex: perience. Those who looked into the new iMac G4 after seeing the advert would have read about Steve Job's claim that this product was designed with user generated content in mind, such as the ability to make custom DVD's and CD's, something notoriously difficult with older PC's The ‘ife ofthe iMac was subtely represented in the interaction withthe man and its responses him, ‘The thesis ofthis commercial was that the iMac was revolutionary in both the design, and what could be achieved by ts use. It was a product that was fun to use, yetretained a great sense of prestige and power. Iwasa product your friends would be jealous of it would make you stand out from the crowd {walking in the opposite direction). Antithesis Analysis | willbe exploring the idea of Antthesisfor this weeks projec, using the Apple commercial as my starting point. Instead of creating a dec antithesis of the iMac ad, i have discovered an interesting tony be- tween this exampleanda previous Apple commercial. Ihave decided to base my project around ths, as {think provides amore thought provoking outcome to what would be achieved by reversing Window Shopping. My project wil make reference and use content from the most famous of all Apple commercials, re- leased in 1984 to signify the release of the Macintosh. This was an extremely highly praised advert, i- rected by a post Blade Runner Ridley Scot. It cost over $900,000 ands considered to be one ofthe best pieces of advertising in television history. The advertisheavily based on the Book Nineteen Eighty fourby George Orwell which depictsa oligarchi- «al society running a dysotopian world in which surveillance, war and mind control are key factors The advert also references scenes from the im Metropolis a futurist depiction ofa similar world dominated bby machines. When Apple commissioned this piece, the computer market was dominated by IBM, who \were increasingly looking ike they were becoming the masters ofthe working world future. Businesses, were controlled by their computers, not liberated, said Apple. This commercial represented the Macin- tosh as freedom for the user, empowerment. IBM was the'Big Brother’ ofthe year 1984 according to Apple. On January 24th, | ‘Macintosh. And youl see Sowhy am using this example, created by the same company, as an example of Antithesis? Well, to be hhonest, my proposition is more of alight hearted observation, i don't seriously believe that Apple has tutnedinto whatit was tying tofightoff inthe first place. Despite tis here ismyintentionforthisweeks project. When analysing the 2002 Mac advert concluded that there were several factors that defined the over- allfeel and message putacross to viewers. found that ifyou took these things away, jt was interesting to rote the alteration inthe interpretation people might have of the commercial.'Windows Shopping’ isa piece of happy advertising itinvolves fun and games, based around a product thats designed to cate entertainment. But of course users can only find this out by using an iMac, so Apple had to portray this via other meth= (ods. This was achieved by use of positive music, creating a childlike sound for the viewers to listen to. Positivity is also displayed in the mannerisms and expression ofthe actor interacting with the product. Heis laughing and smiling ashe plays with the Mac. The movementof the Macitselfisalso fluid and life like, rather than robotic. ‘But what happens when we take this away? | found that without these elements, the resulting footage appears quite differently:Decoded Antithesis We seea man walking down a street by himself at night, suddenly, he is stopped in his tracks by some- thing he sees in the corner of his eye. He cautiously tums around to see what it was, it was something he had never seen before, some form of computer. Ashe stood there, alone, he realised that this machine was analysing his movement somehovs, probably byuse of some surveillance camera. Every time he tried to move, the computer would follow, stopping him in his tracks by surprise and fear. Who was watching? What would happen ifhe tried to escape? He jumps to the side in an army lke attention’ pose. The computer again moves, but nothing else hap- pens. The tension is building up inside of him. A woman appears to the viewer over the man’s shoulder without hhisacknowledgement. He see's herand is startled, his expression drops. ‘Onceagain we see the computer, but this time raising up on its somehowanimatedarm,risingabove the ‘wo individuals, preparing for... something. ‘Tome, this interpretation ofthe plot conjures up quite an Orwellian scene. We have the iMac represent- ing the all seeing telescreens that constantly observe individuals to stop any potential conspiracies, against the government. The way that the iMac follows the man, suggests that it too, is watching him and taking note of his movement. The scene itself can also be seen as quite dysotopian, itis dark and. gloomy (presumably to highlight the glory ofthe product in the original thesis) with not many people about after the first shot. Prior to this all we see isa large group of people moving together in one direc- tion notdssimilarto the Metropolis reference in the 1984 advert. There salso smoke Vsiblein the back- {ground, emanating froma large pipe, which looks a bit Blade Runner-esque in its styl. Being familiar with the Apple 1984 ad previously, noticed this irony shortly after seeing this commercial. Where in the past, the Mac had represented the way to fight back against an all powerful, controling force, ithad now become a remnant of that same concept. Some might argue that Apple is genuinely ‘becoming a bit more like The Party’in 1984 with its increasing market dominance in some fields, but think that thisis abit ofa stretch, hence iam simply making an observation, nota hypothesis! Project Outcome For my project this week | attempted to recreate the scene | set in my Antithesis. | did this by use of the criginal advert audio from the 1984 advert and text created in Photoshop with party slogans from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. difficulty iencountered was the act that icouldn’talter the expression of the man, which isannoyingly positive and cheerful throughout, this s probably not how he would have reacted if my Antithesis was, in place. To get around this, i decided to change the overall colour and texture ofthe footage, i made it sepia tone, almost completely unsaturated, and added some noise. This gave it a CCTV surveillance, ‘minimalist corporate feel which significantly altered the mood. also slowed down the footage slightly so that the movements of the computer looked less iflike and more robotic and creepy. {replaced the entire cheerful backing trackto the soundtrack of the 1984 commercial, which isthe voice Cf Big Brother preaching to his lifeless drones about the success of the party and hate of the enemies. ‘This was also slowed down slightly, but only to lengthen the track. Lastly iadded the three slogans that the government ives by in the novel. Waris Peace, Freedom is Slav- ery and Ignorance is Strength. These come with some dramatic boom effects for impact. Big Brother is Watching YOU. On his iMac.