Some brands do their best to encourage us to achieve more, to shift our perspective. Obvious achievement and accomplishment narratives are old hat and the traditional territory of financial services, heavy goods industries and telecoms belong to the past. Most brand stories are becoming more interesting, more complex and more subtle than prompting us to reach for the skies.
These brands inspire us with what is possible. They urge us to do better. They prompt us to re-frame our current situation into a more positive narrative and give up any existing internal negative plots for more positive paths. Whether it’s a glib shot-in-the-arm or a more meaningful prod to follow our dreams, these brands are offering a civil dimension to their communications. Encouraging brands provide the kind of stimulus we are looking for in times like this: where pessimism is running high and we are looking for an external sign that they can get better.
Apple has a reputation for closely guarding its secrets, so I cannot confirm if the vision I came across many years ago is true: “Man is the creator of change in this world. He should be above systems and structures, not subordinate to them”. Whether accurate or not, it does ring true when we examine the liberty-focused brand from California. Apple’s logo is a symbol of liberty (Adam & Eve eating the fruit of knowledge). They even flew a Jolly Roger pirate flag outside their office when launching a new product.
Apple ads have adopted a liberty/freedom based narrative in different ways over the years. The famous 1984 ad speaks directly to the libertarian narrative. Other ads, like the Jeff Goldblum series speak to the functional derivatives of man-machine liberty: ease of use.
Steve Jobs keynote introducing the infamous 1984 ad
Geoff Goldblum driving ease of use
What would you do to change the world?
Think Different campaign: Challengers of the status quo
Despite writing this post on a PC, I do very much enjoy the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” spots. Despite their great success, this is the best example of the real public mud-slinging campaign between Microsoft and Apple. It’s beyond reason, but Microsoft has responded with a positive spin on “I’m a PC”. I can’t imagine what the rationale for this response is, other than wanting to give Apple even more attention and look poor by comparison.
But beyond the frontal attack on all things PC, these ads do capture an ongoing battle that Apple has with Microsoft. It’s easy to understand that every revolution needs an enemy but Apple have, to date, created some of the most consistently good communications around. So, it begs the question of whether these comparison ads are really necessary to fuel the Apple culture for employees and customer devotees or whether they can simply focus on being great?
Civil Branding is about harnessing the power of brands to create social influence,
change the wider social agenda and increase brand difference. We're on a mission
to encourage marketing professionals to consider their brands' impact on society
to help us progress and to help create ever more worthy brands.
