Who is that person ‘Behind the Mac’ in Apple’s recent campaign? Of course, it's you.
The intelligent-looking, focused men and women - some young, some old(er), some black, some white, are YOU - in your office or moody-night-time-home-studio.
Hold on…sorry...I watched the hero video for the campaign and it’s not you, actually - it’s a bunch of celebrities that are ‘Behind the Mac’. It’s Billie Eilish, Spike Lee, Lady Gaga (with immaculate hair and makeup), that guy from Queer Eye, and…some Black Lives Matter supporters thrown in for good measure?
Given Apple’s well-earned reputation for excellent, consistent ad creative, it’s unusual to see a campaign as inconsistent in its positioning as 'Behind the Mac'; where across channels the tone oscillates from aspirational manifesto to cute reaction video.
The various billboards, still photos and videos show professionals adulting, kids getting into college, Grimes hammering away on a Macbook on her floor, and other celebrities kind of just hanging out looking cool, albeit near a Mac. It’s not clear this time whether the Mac is for ‘the crazy ones’ or everyone. And the grayscale treatment across (most of) the ads feels aloof and washed out - at odds with the vibrance and play of the campaigns Apple has in market at the same time.
When I started digging in on 'Behind the Mac' I had in mind a detailed, workmanlike breakdown of the campaign. What I found were hairline cracks in the consistency of Apple's overall branding, pointing to a slow fragmentation in brand strategy across their products and businesses.
What is going on?
The back story: Upstart, Imitated
Since the 80s, Apple has been setting the bar for transgressive, aspirational ad creative in the tech industry. Back in 1984 their primary goal was differentiating from Microsoft, whom they positioned as the ‘Big Brother’ of an Orwellian monoculture.
Over time this energy to differentiate evolved into a distinct brand identity, encapsulated in the marketing-famous “Think Different” commercial in 1997:
Apple aligned themselves with creative change-makers; shrewdly building a brand not simply ‘for’ creative people, but for everyone who aspired to be seen as creative and transgressive.*
Apple's last decade or so of ads have been characterized by clarity and simplicity. Rigorous style guidelines and creative restrictions for partners (T-Mobile, AT&T etc.) have enabled them to successfully maintain a clean, consistent aesthetic for “iPhone ads”, which the industry has summarily followed:
In recent history Apple has a string of highly effective and creative campaigns to be proud of - Shot on iPhone is a case study in how to “show not tell” the value of a product. And even Apple’s commercial failures - like the Apple Homepod - received high-concept, beautiful promotions - if you have a few minutes later today definitely watch the Spike Jonze-directed Homepod mini-movie.
So, with 'Behind the Mac' it was surprising to see Apple invest in a campaign and concept that lacks focus in its positioning and aesthetic, and feels off-key compared to the rest of its branding.
The ad(s):
The Flagship video for 'Behind the Mac (Greatness) is very much in the spirit of 'Think Different' from 1997. It borrows very heavily from its ancestor; aesthetically, and in how it lionizes ‘trailblazing, eyebrow-raising’ creative folks. And the Mac is ever-present in its role as envisioned by Steve Jobs’ - a ‘bicycle of the mind’ amplifying human ability and creativity.
Launched in 2018 and refreshed in 2020, the campaign already has a sense of messiness and decay, though. The tagline ‘Behind the Mac’ is in the corner of billboards, and in the end-frame of some of the videos, but inexplicably not on others. Grayscale is applied to the billboards and some of the artist feature videos, but not the promotional shots for the celebrity features.
This contrasts starkly with other Apple campaigns. After almost a decade of ‘Shot on iPhone’, for example, the aesthetic and concept still feels consistent and relevant.
Maybe 'Behind the Mac' is different because it's for a different audience? Workers and builders rather than selfie-takers? Let's see...
Who is 'Behind the Mac' for:
Apple seems to lay it all out for us quite clearly in Greatness:
There's a certain kind of person | Who doesn't take no for an answer | They don't walk in quietly | They parade in | Trailblazing, eyebrow raising | Status quo breaking | Grazing greatness | Braving hatred | Taking up space | Never got a seat at the table, so they can’t sit and behave | They'd rather defy the rules, and amaze…Doesn't wait for greatness, they make it.
I imagine the brief for ‘Greatness’ was an attempt to update 'Think Different' for our current political climate. Where the insight for the 1997 campaign was something like “Apple can amplify creativity, not just productivity”**, today's video seems closer to “Apple helps amplify the creative voices of the marginalized, not just the mainstream”.
But this doesn't really work for the billboards:
They feature a slightly diverse group of people (the billboards I could find featured black AND white men AND women) who mostly look serious; working away in their offices or homes. Not really ‘eyebrow raising’ or ‘status quo’ breaking.
And the ‘amplify marginalized voices’ concept also doesn't extend to the rest of the “Behind the Mac” videos. Behind the Mac: Headed for College opens with a young lady in a BLM t-shirt, but has nothing to do with creativity or marginalized voices - it’s just a sequence of reaction shots of happy kids***.
Positioning and goal:
Strategically, 'Behind the Mac' seems a defensive move by Apple - an attempt to reinforce the notion that if you’re not on a Mac, you’re not creative and cool. It is an attempt that relies on Apple’s existing and hard-won reputation as a tool for creative folks, as well as celebrity product-placement. There isn't really anything new and credible in terms of Apple's actual products.
There's also a strong sense that Apple is trying to be politically relevant. However, stacking photos of black artists, gay TV stars, BLM activists and #MeToo supporters feels like a somewhat low-effort and cynical means of aligning Apple with these groups, their communities and allies. It sends a clear message, but gives the sense that Apple is racing to attach itself to what’s relevant, rather than leading or truly supporting.
The broad targeting (featuring celebrities from Billie Eilish to Gloria Steinem to Lisa Simpson), coupled with an 'aloof' grayscale visual style and messy positioning, point to something of an identity crisis for the Mac team, as well as fragmentation across Apple overall. It's hard to believe that the below visuals (for the Mac and Homepod respectively) are from the same company in the same year:
Fragmentation or segmentation?
I have a lot of respect for the creative powers of the Marketing team at Apple and, historically, their strategy and consistency. I must also admit a lower-than-usual familiarity with the marketing culture and decision-making process at the company - I’ve never worked there, and the company is tight-lipped about its work compared to other Silicon Valley behemoths.
I do feel, though, that the creation of “Behind the Mac” suffered from 1) a lack of clear insight and focus for the campaign itself, and 2) a lack of coherence with Apple’s broader brand and marketing strategy.
Behind the Mac veers away from the 'show don't tell' philosophy of the Shot on iPhone billboards; leaning heavily on contrived celebrity endorsement to make its point (what exactly is Lady Gaga doing on that Mac?). The low-fi nature of the hero video ‘Greatness’ feels at odds with the glossy treatment on the billboards, and both of these feel at odds with the highly colorful, artistic style that Apple adopted to market the rest of its products, which confuses Apple’s overall brand.
It is also interesting to see that Apple’s recent (2021) ‘Portraits Shot on iPhone’ billboards also ditched full HDR color to feature grayscale portraits of pets. You could call it experimentation on Apple's part, but it brings inconsistency into customers' visual understanding of what Apple is.
Why is this happening?
It could be an indication that the company overall may be moving in a more toned-down direction. More likely though, is that this increasing incoherence is a symptom of an ever larger company struggling to retain focus and consistency as large teams more and more do their own thing.
Apple business units continue their infamous secrecy and organizational segregation from one another, bored creative folks rebel against pushing out the same kind of ads year in year out, and Apple products themselves no longer differentiate quite as much from the competition, leading struggling marketing teams towards celebrity endorsements, rather than benefit-led messages.
What would you do if you were Apple?
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* Luxury sports car companies have long used a very similar strategy - making ads for a mainstream audience, with the goal of conveying status on a tiny minority (their customers).
** If you’re interested in nerding out on 'Think Different', Rob Siltanen - who worked on the campaign - has a fascinating recollection of the creative process, and how the concept was a reaction to IBM’s “Think IBM” campaign.
*** Also, in a brand-hierarchy decision that makes my marketing skin crawl, ‘Headed for College’ modifies the campaign tagline in the closing frame to ‘New Beginnings: Behind the Mac’. If you weren’t confused about the positioning before, you are now.
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