Category Archives: Advertising

The New Monopoly: Apple vs. Microsoft

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By Caitlin Clevenger, caclevenger@vassar.edu

“Apple is a schizophrenic company: a self-professed revolutionary closely allied with both of the greatest forces of information, the entertainment conglomerates and the telecommunications industry”, writes Tim Wu in The Master Switch (273).

Of Microsoft, he writes, “Even if Windows was never as advanced or well designed as Apple’s operating system, it enjoyed one insuperable advantage: it worked on any computer, supported just about every type of software, and could interface with any printer, modem, or whatever other hardware one could design” (279).

The Microsoft-Apple feud has become a major staple of American culture. More so than your choice of Verizon over AT&T, your choice of cable television over satellite, or even your choice of Pepsi over Coke, your choice of Mac over PC classifies you and tells the world something about your personality.

This is now:

This is then:

Apple started as a revolutionary company- this was not just a marketing strategy. In 1983, IBM (running a Microsoft OS) and Commodore owned the lion’s share of the market, and the Apple II had just 8%. But in 1984, it created the Macintosh and ran this ad during the Super Bowl.

It was the first major computer with a desktop interface- the icons and mouse we’ve come to know and love. Apple had sacrificed open-source programming and open architecture for user-friendliness. This has been its policy ever since. But what this has meant for Apple has been vertical integration. No one but Apple can make a Mac OS compatible computer, and there are severe limitations on how much you can alter the code on any Apple product. This is why there are no Mac viruses, and also why there are companies who make a profit off of “jailbreaking” iPhones.

It’s also why by the 1990’s, Apple products were failing. I would go into my elementary school computer class, filled with Macintoshes, and groan in frustration when I couldn’t right-click, or bring in the PC game that had come with my cereal box.

In 1997, Macintoshes accounted for just 3% of all computers sold, and PC’s accounted for the other 97%. Apple was close to failing when, at a conference, Steve Jobs revealed a groundbreaking partnership.

Had Apple failed, Microsoft would have held a monopoly and likely been broken up by antitrust laws. By adding an infusion of capital to Apple, Microsoft saved its own majority status. Apple, in order to save its company, stopped fighting Microsoft, but instead welcomed it.

PCs still account for the majority share in personal computers, but Apple owns the market in MP3 players (75% in 2008, versus Microsoft’s 3%). Apple has almost triple Microsoft’s share in the Smartphone market. Macs have a huge share among young consumers, too, so much so that Vassar students with PCs stand out and in effect become rebels. It seems as if Microsoft and Apple, as the only remaining players in the computer game, have entered into a cycle in which they will inevitably reverse roles. Is Apple’s 25 year marketing strategy as a rebel company expiring?

The Semiotics of Superbowl Commercials: Darth Vader and Eminem

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By Andrea Fahmy (anfahmy@vassar.edu)

I bet you’ll never guess what happened this Sunday.

Well, you’re wrong. It was the Superbowl, of course!

I thought since we’re all taking this lovely class on Semiotics and Mediation, it would be cool to unpack our favorite part of this famous American pastime–the commercials.

The Chrysler 200 and the Volkswagen 2012 Passat both came out with successful commercials this year. Looking through the linguistic lens Chandler provides for us, we can see how semiotics plays an integral role in the effectiveness of advertising.

Check out these videos and keep reading:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuhQdQov6IQ

Chandler says, “While images serving such communicative purposes may be more ‘open to interpretation’, contemporary visual advertisements are a powerful example of how images may be used to make implicit claims which advertisers often prefer not to make more openly in words” (49). In chapter two, he addresses how advertisements mediate between reality and the representation of reality: “As advertising, propaganda and commodification set in, the sign began to hide ‘basic reality’. In the postmodern age of ‘hyper-reality’ in which what are only illusions in the media of communication seem very real, signs hide the absence of reality and only pretend to mean something” (81).

Keeping these two quotes in mind, what “implicit claims” are these advertisers making through the representation of their product? Why is it more effective to hide explicit meaning and rely on tacit signification? If we agree with Peircian’s triadic model of the object (what is represented), representamen (how it is represented), and interpretant (how it is interpreted), we follow the assumption that meaning derives from interpretation. So, to what interpretation do these commercials lend themselves?

First, both of the commercials feature iconic (not in the semiotic sense), well-known characters—Eminem and Darth Vader. It’s not just any man driving the Chrysler down the street, it’s the worldwide-famous American rap artist, whom a vast majority of the population is going to recognize. The ad is drawing on Eminem’s pre-established value as a sign, just like the Volkswagen commercial uses the reputation of Star Wars’ Darth Vader as a “worldwide pop culture phenomenon” to promote their product. Neither of these characters are inherently linked to either car brand, but the automakers create those associative ties in order to sell not just their product, but an ideology. “People attach ‘symbolic values’ to television sets, furniture and photograph albums which are not determined by the utilitarian functions of such mundane objects” (55). The objects themselves do not provide interpretative meaning–this is culturally prescribed in a conventionalized sign system. In this way, the material entity of the car is transformed into the sign of a status symbol.

Besides the characters, what other sign devices do the advertisements employ to market their products? The commercials combine a variety of factors to flesh out the aesthetic nature of the ad–like music, word choice, and images. Music, in particular, I think is a fascinating topic of discussion. Chandler classifies music under the category of “imputed contiguity,” an emotionally-evocative, non-referential sign. How is music used in these commercials and for what purpose?