Can Apple protect their ad style against copycats?

filmmaker2002 · July 5, 2003 9:51PM

I just saw a Time Warner Cable commercia in which a customer stands in a completely white background and complains about how he can't get satellite to work right, etc. It even had the quirky music in the background. This is an obvious ripoff of switch commercials. Too bad their advertising agency isn't creative enough to figure out their own stuff

johnq · July 5, 2003 10:34PM

Wow, you must have been like, having a life for the last 2 years.

You need to watch more TV.

But then maybe I watch too much.

:

I've been groaning to myself for about 2 years while dozens of various lazy ad producers rip off that style with abandon.

Apple should do what they do best. Be smug in knowing they set the standard, then move on to creating a new one, letting the rest scamble to again copy them.

macusers · July 5, 2003 11:05PM

i think the IBM psychiatrist commercials are like the only original commercials out there

filmmaker2002 · July 5, 2003 11:27PM

Quote:

Originally posted by johnq

Wow, you must have been like, having a life for the last 2 years. You need to watch more TV. But then maybe I watch too much. :

I've been groaning to myself for about 2 years while dozens of various lazy ad producers rip off that style with abandon.

Apple should do what they do best. Be smug in knowing they set the standard, then move on to creating a new one, letting the rest scamble to again copy them.

Yeah, I've been busy. I have noticed that Hershey's ads are very similar as well. Oh well. I guess if you can't create...copy. Just more proof that everyone wants to be like Apple, they just don't want to admit it.

macusers · July 5, 2003 11:29PM

even Hershey's wants to be like Apple.. wow

ast3r3x · July 6, 2003 12:43AM

not that its an original thing but i like IBM's commercials where they use different things people are saying to create a flowing statement that rhymes

buonrotto · July 6, 2003 9:53AM

Apple's "style" in its commercials is based on the oldie VW billboard and magazine ads of the early 60's anyway.

pscates · July 6, 2003 11:21AM

The best commercials on TV right now are those infomercials for The Firm workout system.

HOT 30- and 40-something soccer mom vixens...

matsu · July 6, 2003 12:47PM

I hear they're putting Meredith Viera in one of those firm commercials, haha....

wrong robot · July 6, 2003 1:00PM

Yeah it's true, so many people both online and offline have ripped on the switch ads, or made parodies, or whatever.

I am quite fond of those IBM ads with the magical business solutions.

dave k. · July 6, 2003 4:38PM

No.

The trendsetters always are copied. Nothing anyone can do about it.

macsrgood4u · July 6, 2003 5:13PM

TechTV did a whole bunch of commercials parodying the Apple spots. There have been several other similar white background spots for other advertisers.

pscates · July 6, 2003 7:33PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Matsu

I hear they're putting Meredith Viera in one of those firm commercials, haha....

Oh, how I wish...yummy

curiousuburb · July 8, 2003 10:51AM

US implementation of Copyright Law includes a specific exemption for parody - so legally Apple can't protect ads

in Canada, no such exemption for derivative/ironic "copying" of ideas, but less of a "sue-everybody" legal culture, so it nets out a similarly few lawsuits.

still... just proves (to all but Groverat) the old adage...

Apple Innovates, everyone else Imitates.

many agencies and clients are creatively bankrupt and steal from a few original winners, but i don't know if David Ogilvy's 60's VW ads could be considered the model of the modern white wall Apple ad. Good use of white space and elegantly functional products from a little known firm with a reputation for great engineering and design are a few of the only similarities.

pscates · July 8, 2003 11:31AM

I think it?s VERY safe to say that we?re living in an era of ?rehash? and ?copycat? and - probably for reasons of corporate/financial/economic/marketing natures WAY beyond my feeble grasp - there ain?t an original idea floating around out there for too long before others jump on it.

All that ?imitation is the sincerest...? stuff aside, fact is all you have to do is flip the TV on to see, firsthand, how an idea - good OR bad - gets replayed.

To think: things started out calmly enough 3 or so years ago with some show with idiots running around on an island, screwing each other over on a weekly basis. Thanks to ITS success, we?re no bombarded with nightly ?Who Wants To Go On A Wild Police Chase With My Stepson?? bullcrap.

A recent sig of mine highlighted the trend also: ?Trading Spaces? becomes a nice little hit and a watchable, fun show. Before you can blink, there are 12-15 other ?let?s take some foo-foo designers and pair them with Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sixpack and let them redo their house or that of a friend?s?. Honestly: CMT, VH-1, MTV, Discovery, Style, TBS, HGTV (and probably more if I could remember) all have jumped on the ?Trading Spaces?/let?s do a before-and-after remodel with regular people? bandwagon.

Just stands to reason a quirky ad from Apple might get the ?hey, us too!? treatment.

ringo · July 8, 2003 1:33PM

Lets not forget "Monster House".

I actually enjoy that show, though. They do some pretty insane stuff to these people's houses.

ibrowse · July 8, 2003 5:05PM

Cingular has a lot of ads that are very 'Apple Style', I saw a poster outside one of their stores once that said "Think Wireless" in a very 'Apple' way. I've noticed a few commercials on TV with aqua looking bubbles and stuff in them. Oh well.

Can Apple protect their ad style against copycats?

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