Roger Fingas
Apple's latest "Behind the Mac" ad, "Test the Impossible," is another effort at manufacturing a lifestyle image, in this instance targeted at college students.
The 38-second spot depicts students in activities like photography, programming, and fashion design, in each case with a MacBook as their companion. A narrator posits that "the rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them."
Apple is presumably hoping to influence students and/or their parents in the run-up to the fall school season. The company is already running its annual Back to School promotion, and several states are offering sales tax holidays this weekend. Either could potentially save hundreds of dollars.
Though perhaps secondary to iPhone advertising, the Behind the Mac campaign has garnered some attention, for instance through a video with artists like Paul McCartney and David Bowie. One spot, "Make Something Wonderful," has been nominated for an Outstanding Commercial Emmy.
Amber Neely
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
4 Comments
Test the impossible - Buy a mac without having any money to do so. It has been shown in numerous polls and studies that for students money is an issue.
The withdrawal of programs like Apple on Campus and related are quite telling.
Genius.
...additionally would offering macs that are user upgradable for things like storage, ram and graphics cards also appeal to those starting on a modest budget, or perhaps if 'lightening strikes' needing more capacity for a specific project in suit...?
Actually making students buy Apple Products is currently hurting Apple as Students would lose the image of long-lasting products, lower TCO and high flexibility they associate with the Mac Products that used to be more reliable around 2012-2015 and before. And when lightening strikes, the keyboard stops working properly or some other seemingly random issue pops up.