Apple Inc. is the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, with over 72 million Macs and 600 million iOS devices sold to date, and over one million people visiting an Apple retail store each day of which there are over four hundred spread throughout fourteen countries (Stangel). But more than these impressive numbers, Apple has evolved into a household brand with a religious following. Karl Marx describes religion in a utilitarian sense, as, “…The sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people” (Marx). Without a doubt, Apple has evolved into an opium for the masses through their ability to educate the public about personal computing, in both practical
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The first television advertisement from then Apple Computer, Inc. aired in 1984 to introduce the Apple Macintosh 128k during Super Bowl XVIII. The advertisement, entitled “1984” is reminiscent of George Orwell’s popular novel 1984. In the ad, a young woman is being chased by four police officers, presumably the Thought Police from Orwell’s novel, as she runs towards a large screen with a man giving a speech to a large mass of emotionless prisoners, oddly reminiscent of Big Brother. As the heroine, wearing a Macintosh t-shirt, throws a mallet and smashes the screen, she reveals a bright white light. The light serves to metaphorically demonstrate the power of the Macintosh as a revolutionary new tool of individual expression, instead of an indoctrinating Orwellian dystopia which many people at the time had feared would come out of advances in technology. This first advertisement by Apple set up the religious like salvation of the oppressed, in a heartless and soulless 1984-like world, that would later revolutionize the culture of technology and their …show more content…
Apple has effectively created an opium, which continues to draw new and old followers of the brand even close to its nucleus. They have brought relief to the seemingly oppressed, heartless, and soulless world of information technology, satisfying Karl Marx’s utilitarian description of religion. Apple has simultaneously provided an outlet of creativity and productivity, uniting the values of its employees with its followers, to create a common and growing evangelistic passion. In doing so, Apple ads have become icons of the information age, and play a central role in developing that religion that surrounds the
The first television advertisement from then Apple Computer, Inc. aired in 1984 to introduce the Apple Macintosh 128k during Super Bowl XVIII. The advertisement, entitled “1984” is reminiscent of George Orwell’s popular novel 1984. In the ad, a young woman is being chased by four police officers, presumably the Thought Police from Orwell’s novel, as she runs towards a large screen with a man giving a speech to a large mass of emotionless prisoners, oddly reminiscent of Big Brother. As the heroine, wearing a Macintosh t-shirt, throws a mallet and smashes the screen, she reveals a bright white light. The light serves to metaphorically demonstrate the power of the Macintosh as a revolutionary new tool of individual expression, instead of an indoctrinating Orwellian dystopia which many people at the time had feared would come out of advances in technology. This first advertisement by Apple set up the religious like salvation of the oppressed, in a heartless and soulless 1984-like world, that would later revolutionize the culture of technology and their …show more content…
Apple has effectively created an opium, which continues to draw new and old followers of the brand even close to its nucleus. They have brought relief to the seemingly oppressed, heartless, and soulless world of information technology, satisfying Karl Marx’s utilitarian description of religion. Apple has simultaneously provided an outlet of creativity and productivity, uniting the values of its employees with its followers, to create a common and growing evangelistic passion. In doing so, Apple ads have become icons of the information age, and play a central role in developing that religion that surrounds the