httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXS5VHw7rwA
We stumbled across this rare video of Steve Jobs at the CAUSE 1998 Conference in Seattle. In the short clip, Steve Jobs gives a particularly comedic and lighthearted talk about the PC and TV.
The video quality is pretty awful, but what’s said in the talk is very interesting. In the video, Jobs says, “TV turns your brain off, PCs turn your brain on.” What most don’t know is that Jobs was quoting a failed campaign for the original iMac.
Ken Segall, a former creative director who coined the name “iMac” and helped dream up Apple’s famous “Think Different” campaign, explains the history behind the tagline Jobs used in the above video:
Right after we signed Jeff Goldblum, we shot a number of iMac commercials in which Jeff repeatedly drove home the point that iMac was for turning your brain on, while TV was for turning your brain off. In one spot, Jeff walked a path littered with old TVs as he spoke. In another, he sat with a bunch of children on the floor, all gathered around an iMac. The theme of the campaign was “iMac. It’s not TV.”
Why did the ads never run? In the end, they just weren’t good enough. Fortunately, on our last shooting day, when we were beginning to feel like we might need a Plan B, we wrote a quick script and shot a test spot featuring Jeff speaking directly to the camera. It worked great. With Steve’s enthusiastic approval, we grabbed a new director and shot the Jeff Goldblum spots that ultimately did run.
I was unaware that Steve had ever used the “brain on, brain off” argument publicly until I saw this video. I’m glad he was able to find a good use for it — especially since it cost him a pretty good chunk of cash.
You can read our exclusive interview from 2009 with Ken Segall to learn more about Apple’s advertising strategy during the early days.
