Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

The analysis of Apple Advertisement “1984” and “Bulbs”

Cao Lin (Kaarina) 838289

Tutorial Time: 12pm-1pm, Friday

Apple, the world's largest information technology company by revenue, is so successful not only because of the qualities of the products, but also because of its successful advertisements. According to Interbrand's annual Best Global Brands report, it has been the world's most valuable brand for 4 years in a row; the valuation in 2016 was over $178 billion (Chen, 2015). Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a big fan of the ad, and he posted more than 60 ads in one year. Now, Apple is like a symbol of luxury and taste of life. People are willing to pay for it to satisfy their spiritual needs. Some big fans will even collect every product from Apple. Indeed, this kind of need or idea is not generated from the customers autonomously but led by the advertisement campaign. According to Bignell (1997, p. 27), advertisements use verbal and visual signs to generate messages which can stimulate the public to consume their products by nature. Saussure (1983, p. 78), the most significant semiotician, also proposed that signs are not secondary to the reality, by contrast, they can shape our perceptions. This paper will choose two computer advertisements of Apple in different period, ‘1984’ in 1984 and ‘Bulbs’ in 2016. It will use the semiotic method to analyze the difference signs they use to influence our ideology and use critical theory to compare them and reveal what is behind the advertisements. It will also propose an argument to remind the consumers to keep a critical eye on the culture industry and give suggestions to the company to market their products better. Saussure (1983, p. 23) drew a distinction between two features of signs. One is the ‘diachronic’ sign, which means the evolution of signs through the time, the other one is the ‘synchronic’ sign, which means how the signs exist at a specific time. He also proposed that there are two components to every sign, the ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified.’ Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

The signifier presents the outside pattern of a sign and the signified is the concept of a sign. Pierce，cited by Bignell (1997, p. 14) stated that the sign can be classified into three different kinds: symbolic signs (like red means exciting), iconic signs (like the cat in a photo itself) and indexical signs (a physical causal relationship like a cat’s meow when it’s hungry). Roland Barthes, also cited by Bignell (1997, p. 11), defined the two functions of signs, which are denoting something and connoting something. He also proposed the concept of ‘myth,’ which is to bring together of signs and their connotations to form a narrative (Bignell 1997, p. 25).

The first advertisement, “1984,” was produced for the first personal computer without a programming language, Macintosh. It was the first Mac in the world. The advertisement first aired in the third quarter of the 1984 Super Bowl in front of millions of people. The advertisement begins with a gray tunnel from a far view, then the camera turns to a clear view of the inside. There is an array of poker-faced men with glazed eyes, wearing the same gray suits, marching in the same precise steps like they are being mind-controlled, with some small computer screens around them. The men go into an assembly in which a lot of poker-faced men seat there to ‘listen’ to a Big Brother figure (the British actor and voice artist David Graham) on the screen droning, “Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives….” During the marching, the scene flashes to a short-haired girl wearing red shorts and a white tank-top. She dashes up alone, with a sledgehammer in her hands, chased by some men dressed like riot police. The girl tries her best to swing and throw the sledgehammer to Big Brother while he just finishes the sentence “We shall prevail!” before the ‘police’ come. The screen is crushed and the shockwave spreads to every man. In the meanwhile, there is a sentence rolling in the screen “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you will see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

Sources:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfqw8nhUwA

In this advertisement, there are a lot of signs used to signify the theme as Macintosh and independence. There is a set of signifiers like the color gray, poker-face men and a dull voice that are used as a code, which refers to the different signs in a group that present the same meaning (Bignell 1997, p. 10). They signify a society under centralized control. The signifier Big Bother on the screen is a symbolic sign of controlled mass ideology, obviously associated with IBM. Under this kind of brainwashing and control, the men walk the same pace with no emotion on their faces, wearing the same gray suits and bald heads. Even when the girl runs around them and crushes the screen, they do not move. Therefore, they are an indexical sign of moral feeling that they do not realize they are turning into a work machine. As the only colorful pattern, the girl, with a mac computer sign on her tank-top signifying the girl is Apple, shows strong color contrast to stress the importance. She throws the hammer against the Big Brother, which signifies that Macintosh would defeat IBM, lead a new trend of technology, and become a hero. She looks firmly and actively. That also connotes a spirit of anti-fashion, rebellion, individuality and anti-power. The last sentence is brief, only tells three points such as the name Macintosh, the time to market, and that it can change the world, confirming again the signified of the signifiers.

The signifiers that Apple chooses to use is all related to the era background because the signs are synchronic. By the year of 1983, Apple was suffering a hard situation because of its competitor IBM, which was the biggest computer company at that time. Moreover, America was under the Cold War against the Soviet Union in the 80s, so people were afraid of standardization, centralization and hierarchy. They were also afraid information technology may be used as a tool (Hummon 1990. P. 108). Barthes (1976. p. 38) suggests the function of myth is to make particular ideas seem natural. Therefore, they use the people’s fear of technology to promotes a spirit of freedom and individual resistance to make the myth more attractive and natural. Science fiction dominated Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

American culture at the time. That’s why the advertisement presents this myth within the science fiction genre. The whole advertisement lets us believe Macintosh is not only denoting a new computer, but attaching the connotations of freedom and rebellion, suggesting a mythic meaning in which the Macintosh is part of an independent way of life. According to Zheng (2012, p. 38), when the advertisement was aired, it astonished every American and won a big market for Apple.

The other advertisement is the newest advertisement of Macbook Pro called “Bulbs,” which was produced in 2016. The advertisement starts with a man trying to light a spark, and a light bulb glimmers. Suddenly, the first bulb bursts, following which a big fire is lit. Then we can see a lot of bulbs getting burst in a row through the streets like dominos. The rhythm of music plays along with images of 50 innovations that flash from the past until now. At the music’s end, the last bulb bursts and words appear in silence ‘Ideas push the world forward’. After that, the music begins again with the image turning to a bulb on a new MacBook pro screen with the title ‘Introducing a tool for all ideas to come.’ A finger slides across the new function ‘touch bar’ to adjust the bulb light, and it blows up with the appearance of ‘The New MacBook Pro.’

Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

Sources:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROEIKn8OsGU

In this advertisement, the use of these 50 signifiers depends on their belonging to a code (innovation and discovery) recognized in our culture. For instance, the friction signifies the idea of controlling fire and the falling apple connotes the story of Newton’s discovery of gravity. These innovations not only encompass big technological innovations like the innovation of steam power, rockets, wind power, planes or robots, but also cover the innovations related to our daily life like zippers, toilet paper, microwaves, paper clips and electronic packs. In particular, all the innovations of Apple are mingled in as well, such as the first mouse of Apple, Macintosh and Iphone. The Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

innovations show up with bulbs bursting in the time sequence, so that the sign ‘Ideas push the world forward’ appears naturally and intelligibly. Then the myth ‘a tool for all ideas to come’ is proposed. It eliminates all other oppositional and alternative ways of thinking, to create a ‘dominant ideology’ to make the public no doubt believe owning a MacBook is the best way to create ideas. The transition from the row of bulbs to the touch bar is so natural and impressive that it helps people remember. In addition, it leads the viewer’s feelings up and down to make the myth coherent by mixing the visual and the background music perfectly.

As Bignell (1997, p. 24) stresses, the myths which are generated in a culture will change over time. Therefore, the myth in 2016 advertisement is no longer about independence like the one in 1984. Compared to that time, Apple has already become the biggest computer company in the world with amount of fans. People like it because of the simple design and the innovation it presents. Moreover, the society now is more diverse than 1984, so people have more desire to create and explore. That’s why the advertisement is simple and uses 50 signifiers to suggest just one theme of ‘creation.’

Barthes (1976, p. 82) proposes that myth serves the ideological interests of ‘the bourgeoisie,’ which refers to the class of people who gain power to control the economy or politics in society. This idea is also supported by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School. The school proposed the concept of ‘culture industry,’ which means that creative work now can be produced in large quantities because of contemporary technical capabilities as well as economic and administrative concentration. Therefore products are manufactured more or less to stimulate the public to consume(Strinati 2014, p 56). Advertisement is one of their tools to control the customer’s ideology to create a ‘false need’. According to the School theory, the ‘true need’ should be based on the desire of people to be creative, independent, in control of their destinies and free. By contrast, the ‘false need’ is the need created by industry for selling, which means using Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

some strategy to make people believe they need something they do not need. (Strinati 2014, p 52)

Returning to Apple, these two advertisements, ‘1984’ and ‘Bulbs,’ both create false needs to persuade people to consume, and bond it to different true needs that the society required at those times. The first advertisement, Macintosh, creates a false need that people need to escape from the technology nightmare and the only way is using Macintosh. While, indeed, people controlled by the computer is just imagined. Even if people buy the computers from IBM, everything still will be fine. Furthermore, the advertisement distorts the concept of independence into what the product signifies as independence, making people believe they need to own a Macintosh to achieve their desire to be independent. This is totally a false need as well. However, ‘1984’ is still able to meet people’s true needs. As the first computer without a programming language, people would be willing to buy it because of the use value. The advertisement also promotes a positive spirit acquired by the society about independence, freedom, and fighting for themselves. Over thirty years later, a new computer called MacBook Pro was born with good fame and a big quantity of fans, and the society was more focused on the passion and creation of life. So in the advertisement ‘bulbs’ in 2016, the theme turns from rebellion to creation. To be creative is a true need, but Apple distorts it and mixes in the products, concocting a false need that people need to buy a MacBook as a tool to create new ideas.

Based on the analysis, there are some suggestion to both public and company. These two advertisements,‘1984’ and ‘Bulbs’, they both create a false need to persuade people to consume. The reason why it can be so much more successful than other brands is because it abstracts its features precisely and bonds them to people’s true needs, so that people lose the sense to figure out whether it is a lie. Strinati (2014, p 52) states the false need only can be satisfied temporarily, and people will not even realize their true need has been ignored. Living in a capitalist society, advertisements and myths for Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

selling cannot be avoided. Therefore, people need to realize that no true need can be filled in easily by consuming, and deliberate whether they really need it before buying. As for the company, good qualities and attractive ideas are foundations of a successful product, so they need to know how to make their traits fit in one of the people’s true needs, like Apple did.

In conclusion, the two Apple advertisements‘1984’and‘Bulbs’ use the semiotic theory as different signs and connotations create a natural myth about buying. Simultaneously, they use critical theory to create false needs based on the trait of the product and the true needs in that period. From the analysis, people should learn to recognize the fraud in the marketing and the company should learn to use their features to combine with people’s true needs to promote quality products.

(2438 words)

References

Bally, C., Riedlinger, A., Saussure, F. and Sechehaye, A., 1983. Course in general linguistics, Duckworth, London.

Barthes, R 1976, Mythologies. Vintage, London.

Chen, Liyan , M 2015, The World's Largest Tech Companies: Apple Beats Samsung, Microsoft, Google, viewed 20th March 2017,

Hummon, MD 1990, Commonplaces: Community Ideology and Identity in American Culture, State University of New York Press, Albany.

Assignment 1 CAO Lin (Kaarina) 838289

Strinati, D 2014, The Frankfurt School and the Culture Industry, Routledge, London

Zheng, Xiaojuan 2012, ‘A semiotic Analysis of Apple’s Classical Advertisements’, Design Your Brand, vol.32, no.4, pp.29-41.

1984 1984, video recording, Apple, America

Bulbs 2016, video recording, Apple, America