Advertising the Archive: Nostalgia and the (Post)national Imaginary

Abstract

Monochrome portraits of a diverse pantheon of "heroes" and mavericks appeared around the world in news magazines, on billboards, wrapped around forms of public transport and pasted imposingly onto hordings and walls.The campaign was an ambitious marketing strategy aimed at reinvigorating the flagging fortunes of the Apple brand.It was no doubt pleasing to agents of The Gap that Picasso and Earhart were still seen wearing their khaki pants.While Gap lauded "legendary writers, actors, adventurers with style," the ad agency TB WA Chiat Day created for Apple a paean to "the crazy ones... the ones who see things differently."Both companies sought to construct a tradition for the particular values associated with their brand; archival celebrity portraits gave a historical pedigree to their respective versions of corporate esprit.For The Gap, monochrome "legends" galvanized its selling of the fashion classic.The "Think different" campaign was less product-driven than geared towards a symbolic reclaiming of company values.Misguided investments, quality control mishaps, poor inventory management and unfocused marketing had, by the mid-1990s, caused a defection of Apple customers to the Windows/Intel platform.Between 1993 and 1997, Apple's market share dropped from 12.1 percent to 3.5 percent.In 1997, losses totalled $1.5 billion, leading Business Week to profess gravely the "death of an icon."Drastic measures were required to prevent calamity and, inspired by the return of Steve Jobs as interim CEO in July 1997, this led to a new communications strategy."Think different" heralded a branding blitzkrieg that tried to re-establish connections between computer technology-in particular, Apple's new iMac-and the creative individual, values that had defined Apple ever since it launched the Mac in 1984.Versions of individuality were central to