Apple’s advertising gaffe

15th August 2007

Apple’s advertising gaffe

posted in Body Image, Eating Disorders, Pop Culture |

The historical series will continue, but I thought I’d interrupt with a brief commentary on Apple’s latest advertising gaffe. The I-Mac blunder comes on the heels of Intel’s latest faux pas, with an advertisement showing dark-skinned athletes “bowing” to a white “master.” Intel has since apologized and removed the ads. To my knowledge, Apple has done neither.

Apple: You can never be too thin or too powerful

While I’m sure Apple meant no harm in its approach and some hip, young advertiser in a cubicle somewhere thought this tagline to be a clever play on a popular phrase, it’s still somewhat disturbing in its implications.

Because it is possible to be too thin:

and too powerful:

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1 On August 15th, 2007, Chicken Girl said:

Maybe I’m a little too geeky for my own good, because I’m unable to work up any moral outrage over this. Sure, with people that kind of thing would be unquestionably beyond the pale. But with a computer, hey, it’s true! Mmm, thin, powerful iMac. Too bad I’m not a Mac kind of gal.

posted on August 15th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

2 On August 15th, 2007, Penny said:

Oh please. The part about being too thin, OK, maybe apple was being a little tactless. But when you invoked the nazi card you hurt your own argument because that’s an absurd parallel.

posted on August 15th, 2007 at 2:33 pm

3 On August 15th, 2007, Rachel said:

Perhaps Penny, but to quote from another popular adage, to each his own.

posted on August 15th, 2007 at 3:51 pm

4 On August 15th, 2007, Two Knives said:

Good for you for taking a stand on this. I think you were polite with the word “gaffe.” This is the best they can come up with? Which women were nodding their heads around the table when someone said, “Oh, let’s use you can never be too thin!” Sometimes I think marketers get so immersed in their world they can’t see anything else.

posted on August 15th, 2007 at 4:36 pm

5 On August 15th, 2007, Melinda said:

I am a fat girl and I love macs. When I first saw the tag line, I also thought, “no, actually you can be too thin.” And then I thought – it appears that apple doesn’t want fat people for customers. Because they are too savy and smart to have not considered the implications. But, think of the iMac ads – the slim, pretentious hipster versus the every-man, portly office guy. I think they have decided on their demographic and are going with it. Of course, now I need to decide if I should continue to buy their products.

posted on August 15th, 2007 at 8:43 pm

6 On August 15th, 2007, Rachel said:

I worked in the graphic design field for years Melinda and I too prefer Macs over PCs. I’d like to think this was all an innocent move on Apple’s part, but as you noted, they reinforce the fat = evil concept in their commercials, also.

posted on August 15th, 2007 at 9:26 pm

7 On August 15th, 2007, twilightriver said:

Weighing in as a fat girl who is sensitive to the thoughtless things people say about fat, I saw this add and thought only of how great it is that technological gadgetry is getting slimmer every year and that computers are continually getting more powerful. I don’t miss the days of 28.8 baud modem and having my computer choke if I had too many windows open.

I thought it was great to take that highly negative statement and show that it can be used positively when given a completely different context.

posted on August 15th, 2007 at 10:04 pm

8 On August 16th, 2007, Mary Garden said:

Oh my god – that Intel ad! And the comments, my god, the comments over at penciledin.com! It’s been a while since I’ve read what I’m guessing is a sampling of average, more-or-less-educated young white people on the question of racism, and I was seriously dismayed. The arguments were so wilfully stupid, and parroted over and over with very few people bothering to poke a finger through the big, gaping holes…’if it had been a bunch of white guys bowing to a black guy, no one would call it racist!’ well, no…duh. Anyone who is not a complete and utter fool can see that whites are still one up and blacks still one down in America. Not exactly ancient history. But hey – a bunch of white people on the internet say that racism’s over, which must mean it’s true! The warranty has run out on our obligation to act sorry when Those People are insulted. Thank god – now *finally* we can relax.

Sorry for the off-topic rant, Rachel!

I’m a graphic designer too, and this ad was kind of interesting to me. It looks like they spent a lot of time on the image and almost no time on the tagline, which I had to look at the ad three times before I even noticed. The thin thing is annoying, but i can’t muster much anger over it, because it’s so rote – like hearing someone repeating the old saw that black is ‘slimming,’ or seeing you dressed up for a party and saying “you look terrific! Have you lost weight?”

I find it interesting that they paired ‘thin’ with ‘powerful.’ ‘Thin’ is equated with a lot of other desirable things, but usually not power. After all, the whole deal with having real power is that you don’t have to give a damn about how pleasing or sexually attractive you are (hence the Dick Cheney sneer). But then, that’s only true for men. So I started thinking about how it really is becoming a lot more important for men to be thin – not buff, not ‘in shape,’ but really, truly *thin.* My sister has a band, and these young, hipster guys I see at her shows (definitely the Mac demographic) are skin and bones.

A closer look at the ad makes it even clearer that the ad is targeting young, hipsterish white men (photos on screen include a sexy blonde in a strapless dress, a cutie hipster cowgirl doubled over laughing, a bunch of hipster dudes engaged in extreme sports and man’s best friend, all of whom are young and white – including the dog). So I guess what’s so interesting to me is that this line, a variation of one of the canon of tired old jokes women tell to eachother, is being used to market a computer to hip, young men.

posted on August 16th, 2007 at 1:36 am

9 On August 16th, 2007, B said:

I blame marxism. You see in 1969 Tim Leary invented marshmellows, marshmellows being white produce a sense of outrage and power unkown to M&m’s, Its a proven fact that M&ms are the basis for all socialist economies. Eating too many M&ms will cause a farmer to gain weight gaining weight makes the farmer unable to rise up against the marxist overlords. The overlords, want you to gain weight to keep you weak. Therefore weakness= Thin, therefore you can never be too thin. You see its all about Marxism.

posted on August 16th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

10 On August 16th, 2007, Meowser said:

If it’s really true you can’t be “too thin,” I’d love to see them come out with a monitor no thicker than a sheet of paper and see how well they do.

posted on August 16th, 2007 at 4:12 pm

11 On August 20th, 2007, M said:

I think the tagline is inappropriate. Sure there have been worse elsewhere. Maybe alter it a bit to not focus on the size aspect. Just a thought.
Peace.

posted on August 20th, 2007 at 3:11 pm