Former Apple ad man Ken Segall talks Steve Jobs, simplicity in Time interview
The interview, a special presentation at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, was conducted by Time editor-at-large Harry McCracken, with much of the time focused on Segall's work at both Apple and NeXT as well as his book Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success.
Segall is in a unique position to offer insight into the inner workings of Apple's advertising process after being involved in the company's ad campaigns for 12 years. Among his team's accomplishments are the naming of the "iMac" and the "Think Different" campaign, the latter kickstarting Apple's initial rise following the return of cofounder Steve Jobs. Segall has done subsequent work for large tech companies Dell and IBM.
During the interview, a wide array of topics were covered, including personal interactions with Jobs and an inside look at the "To the crazy ones" spot. Segall tells an entertaining story about directing Phyllis Diller for the ad, though Apple ultimately went with Richard Dreyfus' take.
Apple's design ethos was also brought up, and naturally the discussion turned to Jobs, who was a huge proponent of simplicity.
Segall was recently critical of Apple's newest "Genius" ad blitz launched during the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games, saying on his blog, "These ads are causing a widespread gagging response, and deservedly so." He added that the three-spot series looks like something produced by Best Buy or Dell, not the classically simple style of past Apple ads.
"There's no excuse for a campaign like that," Segall said. "Apple's momentum is fueled by the enthusiasm of its core customers. The last thing it wants is to win new customers at the cost of looking ridiculous to its enthusiastic supporters."
It was announced Tuesday that Apple would no longer run the "Genius" spots during the remainder of Olympic coverage.
12 Comments
At least apple listened that these ad sucked.
"There's no excuse for a campaign like that," Segall said. "Apple's momentum is fueled by the enthusiasm of its core customers. The last thing it wants is to win new customers at the cost of looking ridiculous to its enthusiastic supporters."
Hopefully Cupertino is listening.
I know the whole article as well as Apple Insider's coverage of it is intended to lionise this guy and make his criticisms seem "of the moment" and of great import, but he comes across entirely the opposite way to me. Some of the things he frames as sort of self-evident seem to me more like knee-jerk "old thinking" that he hasn't analysed very deeply at all. Especially the criticism of the genius campaign. I think he confuses "don't like" with "isn't good."
By his criteria for instance, the whole "I'm a Mac" series would be in the same boat as these new genius ads. They aren't "simple" in the way he describes at all, yet they are some of the most powerful ads in recent memory. He says "The last thing it wants is to win new customers at the cost of looking ridiculous to its enthusiastic supporters," but if you think about it for a second, it's not really clear that this is true at all. The newer customers are by far the bigger group and perhaps even the more important group to hang on to at the moment, and what really *is* self-evident is that the true believers will hang on no matter what Apple does and no matter which ads they run.
As a long time Apple user and supporter I understand and appreciate the sentiment, but I don't think much of what he says is particularly logical or knowledgeable at all. I think Apple could certainly execute better ads than the genius series, but the actual content and intent of them seems smart and effective to me.
This interview is just so darn uncomfortable!
This interview is just so darn uncomfortable!
I second that.. I ended up listening to it instead of watching it.