APPLE ICONOGRAPHY: MARKETING THE METAPHYSICS OF MEDIA by BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON (Under the Direction of Anandam Kavoori) ABSTRACT Since the advent of the electronic age, new media technologies have frequently been described in religious terms. New media technologies have been imagined as both liberating tools with utopian promise and revolutionary forces with eschatological implications. The religious rhetoric used to describe these technologies is part of a “technological mythology” - a narrative form in which technology is assigned a spiritual significance. Technological mythologies are evident in science fiction literature, film, academic scholarship and the rhetoric of inventors and entrepreneurs. However, very little attention has been paid to the representation of technological mythology in American advertising. This dissertation considers the intersection of technology and the American religious imagination in the advertising of the Apple computer company. Through evocative visual metaphor Apple advertisements combine technology promotion with metaphysical themes – making Apple ads icons of the information age. INDEX WORDS: Apple, advertising, media, religion, technology APPLE ICONOGRAPHY: MARKETING THE METAPHYSICS OF MEDIA by BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON BA, University of Notre Dame, 1997 MMC, University of Georgia, 2001 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2011 © 2011 BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON All Rights Reserved APPLE ICONOGRAPHY: MARKETING THE METAPHYSICS OF MEDIA by BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON Major Professor: Anandam Kavoori Committee: Carolina Acosta-Alzuru Janice Hume Nathaniel Kohn Thomas Lessl Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2011 iv DEDICATION For my family v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I was told early on that a dissertation is an exercise in endurance, not brilliance. A marathon analogy might seem fitting here but considering the fact that the first marathoner died delivering his message to Athens, I am wary of the parallel. Fortunately, Athens, Georgia has been a lot kinder to me than Athens, Greece was to Pheidippides. The individuals that share in this accomplishment are many. I owe an extreme debt of gratitude to my advisor Andy Kavoori, who inspired me in a seminar long ago and saw this project through to the end with his trademark humor and wisdom. His concern was not merely academic but for the whole person. Whenever I reached an impasse, he refused to let me wallow in intellectual hand-wringing – he told me to go for a run. And it worked. It seems the race analogy may be most fitting after all. My committee members, Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Janice Hume, Nate Kohn, and Tom Lessl were expert guides through the morass of cultural studies, history, technology, religion and rhetorical theory. More than mentors, they constantly reminded me that they were fellow sojourners and that they preferred to run alongside rather than stand idly by. I am neither the first nor the last that they will have inspired in their distinguished careers. My current colleagues at St. Vincent College Mary Beth Spore, Phyllis Riddle, Melissa Cook, Rebecca Dinning-Brinkmann, Ron Davis, Michael Krom and George Leiner gave me every reason to believe that I could finish this project, even with a full teaching load and a baby on the way. Marlo Verrilla in the college library patiently tracked down every interlibrary loan request that I sent her way. If not for their prayers, help, guidance and encouragement this would vi have been a much more harrowing journey. Instead, their support buoyed me and permitted me to find joy in the process. For those who encouraged me to pursue the idea that media technology and religion are intimate bedfellows, especially Curt Wanner and Read Mercer Schuchardt; your ability to bring Walter Ong, Neil Postman, and Marshall McLuhan to life through your writing and our discussions is a wonder I never tire of witnessing. To the members of the Pittsburgh Catholic Writer’s Group whose discussions in the basement of the Sharp Edge Creek House remain reminiscent of the ancient Catholics in the catacombs (if the Catholics in the catacombs had a nice selection of Belgian beers). Especially Bob Lockwood, Craig Maier, David Scott, Mark Shuttleworth and Mike Aquilina who first pointed me to the idea that McLuhan’s “medium is the message” aphorism contained a heavy wink toward the Eucharist. I would especially like to thank my family who made this all possible. My parents Tom and Aileen Robinson provided every form of support imaginable and for that I am most grateful. While my mother remains skeptical of most people with Ph.D.’s, she enjoys telling people that her son is a doctor, just not the kind that helps people. Thank you mom for recognizing that antagonism can be a great motivator as long as it is done lovingly. Dad, thank you for your stoic wisdom and the example of patience and humility in the face of adversity. To my wife, Danielle, who delivered two of our children while I completed my graduate work. What I have produced pales in comparison to the precious lives that you brought into the world. You are a constant reminder that changing culture is not something that happens ‘out there’ but in here – in our home, our children and our hearts. Thank you, lambs. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 A Lack of Critical Distance .....................................................................................4 Religion and Media Technology ..............................................................................6 Why Study Apple Advertising? .............................................................................10 Religion-Technology Rhetoric...............................................................................12 Tech Visionary and Mystic ....................................................................................17 The Brand Cult .......................................................................................................24 2 Theory, Method and Literature Review .......................................................................28 A New Underground Religious War......................................................................31 Media Ecology Theory ..........................................................................................33 Identifying Religious Communication in Technological Discourse ......................38 A Theory of Metaphor ...........................................................................................40 Advertising and Commodity Fetishism .................................................................43 Religious Narrative in the Apple Brand Community ............................................52 Doing Cultural Studies ...........................................................................................55 The Case Study Approach .....................................................................................61 viii Reading Representation .........................................................................................64 Verizon ‘Rule The Air’ ..........................................................................................68 AT&T ‘Rethink Possible’ ......................................................................................70 Sony ‘PS2’ .............................................................................................................71 Apple ‘1984’ ..........................................................................................................74 Apple’s Gnosticism ................................................................................................77 3 iMac .............................................................................................................................80 Window ..................................................................................................................81 Get a Mac ...............................................................................................................88 Bach .......................................................................................................................96 She Comes in Colors ............................................................................................100 4 iPod ............................................................................................................................103 From Audiac to iPod ............................................................................................105 Semiotic Analysis of iPod Ads ............................................................................112 Hey Mama ............................................................................................................114 Listen to the Music...............................................................................................119 Behind the Mask ..................................................................................................121 Ride ......................................................................................................................124