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Credit to @Stammy on Twitter who shared this over there. Thought everyone here would find this pretty cool. I'm a sucker for this era of advertising. This is a

by gdubs 4y ago

Credit to @Stammy on Twitter who shared this over there. Thought everyone here would find this pretty cool. I'm a sucker for this era of advertising. This is a particularly beautiful spread, and super cool to see a snapshot of that moment in time and how Apple was positioning this brand new product.

klodolph 4y ago
Also a sucker for this kind of advertising. Advertising used to have a lot more copy. I have a book full of this stuff from Taschen called, appropriately, “The Copy Book.”
- pcurve 4y ago
  The copy heavy ad style also seemed to have influenced Korean PC magazine ads in 1980s https://www.comworld.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=48910 https://www.comworld.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=48910 80s was really exciting time for PC because it was pre-mainstream. You savored everything that you can about it, including ad copies. Good times.
  - rl3 4y ago
    You might like Ted Nelson's Junk Mail Cartons: https://archive.org/details/tednelsonjunkmail https://archive.org/details/tednelsonjunkmail
- ghaff 4y ago
  As I recall (it's been years), David Ogilvy's Confessions of an Ad Man has a bunch of examples of this. Yes, a lot of advertising used to be very copy heavy and that's almost disappeared (or at least migrated to other forms like content marketing).
- boraoztunc 4y ago
  Book noted, thanks. I also enjoy reading: How to Create Advertising That Sells Ad by David Ogilvy [1972] https://borakaizen.medium.com/how-to-create-advertising-that-sells-ad-by-david-ogilvy-1972-a1b4af7b848c https://borakaizen.medium.com/how-to-create-advertising-that...
PStamatiou 4y ago
Thanks for sharing! I’m also a fan of ads from this era and had to tweet about it
- samcheng 4y ago
  Worth reading "Ogilvy on Advertising" if you're into this stuff. I know Ogilvy & Mathers (famous advertising firm) had Apple as an account in the mid 80s.
  - Cockbrand 4y ago
    Is this a fact? I know that Ogilvy & Mather did a lot of famous work for IBM, while Apple's main agency was Chiat/Day for years, if not decades since at least 1983. Chiat/Day created the iconic "1984" TV ad as well as the "Think Different" campaign, among lots of other famous Apple ads. There's a great book "Chiat/Day - the first twenty years" with a lot of ads for Apple and other brands.
    - Anon4Now 4y ago
      I was curious about the sales impact of the 1984 ad, so I did a little googling. It turns out you're right (see [1] and [2]). Steve Hayden created the 1984 ad while at Chiat-Day. He later went on to work for Ogilvy, so that's probably where the mis-attribution came from. What's interesting is that he's the same person who created the Lemmings ad a year later. The 1984 ad resulted in a huge boom in sales. The Lemmings ad did just the opposite. Apple closed a bunch of plants and had a big layoff. Then Jobs left Apple. weird turn of events. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hayden#From_first_jobs_to_Steve_Jobs_(1969%E2%80%931994) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hayden#From_first_jobs_t... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2012/02/02/the-super-bowl-ad-that-almost-killed-apple/?sh=719ed87e488b https://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2012/02/02/the-supe... Edit: fixed typos
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - samcheng 4y ago
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
Agreed! I was also reminded how Apple's marketing has been so good for nearly 40 years - if you look at other tech ads from the early 80s, they're nearly always overloaded with tech jargon and don't nearly speak as well to the "what can I create with this?" question that Apple does. Also, though, it's always interesting to reflect on the ways society has changed. I am 100% sure no copy editor would allow "Goo Goo Gai Pan" to be the name of their fake baby food today, nor lines like "Yuppie generation now breeding like bunnies."

by gdubs 4y ago

klodolph 4y ago

Also a sucker for this kind of advertising. Advertising used to have a lot more copy. I have a book full of this stuff from Taschen called, appropriately, “The Copy Book.”

pcurve 4y ago
The copy heavy ad style also seemed to have influenced Korean PC magazine ads in 1980s https://www.comworld.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=48910 https://www.comworld.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=48910 80s was really exciting time for PC because it was pre-mainstream. You savored everything that you can about it, including ad copies. Good times.
- rl3 4y ago
  You might like Ted Nelson's Junk Mail Cartons: https://archive.org/details/tednelsonjunkmail https://archive.org/details/tednelsonjunkmail
ghaff 4y ago
As I recall (it's been years), David Ogilvy's Confessions of an Ad Man has a bunch of examples of this. Yes, a lot of advertising used to be very copy heavy and that's almost disappeared (or at least migrated to other forms like content marketing).
boraoztunc 4y ago
Book noted, thanks. I also enjoy reading: How to Create Advertising That Sells Ad by David Ogilvy [1972] https://borakaizen.medium.com/how-to-create-advertising-that-sells-ad-by-david-ogilvy-1972-a1b4af7b848c https://borakaizen.medium.com/how-to-create-advertising-that...

PStamatiou 4y ago

Thanks for sharing! I’m also a fan of ads from this era and had to tweet about it

samcheng 4y ago
Worth reading "Ogilvy on Advertising" if you're into this stuff. I know Ogilvy & Mathers (famous advertising firm) had Apple as an account in the mid 80s.
- Cockbrand 4y ago
  Is this a fact? I know that Ogilvy & Mather did a lot of famous work for IBM, while Apple's main agency was Chiat/Day for years, if not decades since at least 1983. Chiat/Day created the iconic "1984" TV ad as well as the "Think Different" campaign, among lots of other famous Apple ads. There's a great book "Chiat/Day - the first twenty years" with a lot of ads for Apple and other brands.
  - Anon4Now 4y ago
    I was curious about the sales impact of the 1984 ad, so I did a little googling. It turns out you're right (see [1] and [2]). Steve Hayden created the 1984 ad while at Chiat-Day. He later went on to work for Ogilvy, so that's probably where the mis-attribution came from. What's interesting is that he's the same person who created the Lemmings ad a year later. The 1984 ad resulted in a huge boom in sales. The Lemmings ad did just the opposite. Apple closed a bunch of plants and had a big layoff. Then Jobs left Apple. weird turn of events. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hayden#From_first_jobs_to_Steve_Jobs_(1969%E2%80%931994) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hayden#From_first_jobs_t... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2012/02/02/the-super-bowl-ad-that-almost-killed-apple/?sh=719ed87e488b https://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2012/02/02/the-supe... Edit: fixed typos
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - samcheng 4y ago

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

Agreed! I was also reminded how Apple's marketing has been so good for nearly 40 years - if you look at other tech ads from the early 80s, they're nearly always overloaded with tech jargon and don't nearly speak as well to the "what can I create with this?" question that Apple does. Also, though, it's always interesting to reflect on the ways society has changed. I am 100% sure no copy editor would allow "Goo Goo Gai Pan" to be the name of their fake baby food today, nor lines like "Yuppie generation now breeding like bunnies."