Apple has some of the most ingenious marketing that I’ve ever seen. They turn spending way too much money on an Apple product into joining a club of cool, becoming part of the elite, and in turn trick people into proudly displaying the Apple logo, which is free advertising for the corporation masking as personal pride. Apple wants to make people proud to parade the glowing Apple logo signaling that they, too, are elevated because of this piece of metal and plastic in front of them. They are also very adept at convincing folk to buy more gadgets than anyone needs; Many friends of mine have been sucked into this vortex, and I have as well in the past.
So you paid over $3k for a Macbook Pro? Hell, even I did! I never said I was innocent. Apple is the only company with OS X, which is why I bought one, but let’s take a closer look at things here:
> A Macbook Pro is made of exactly the same parts as a PC. Same processor, DVD-RW drive, monitor supplier, memory, same almost everything depending on what brand of PC we’re talking about. Now compare the price of a similarly equipped PC — appreciably less, and even then the PC companies are still making a good profit. So what exactly are you paying for? Among other things, you’re paying for the logo. That’s right, the logo. Many of us prefer OS X and the Mac look, but don’t fool yourself — there’s nothing much more here than that, and a Mac isn’t worth anywhere near the amount of money you just paid.
Similarly, if you take apart an iPod
you can see that it’s made of cheap parts, yet Apple used to charge close to $400 for one! Apple makes you think that paying an embarrassing amount of dough is somehow worth it — the billboards show silhouettes of young hipsters groovin’ out on iPod earbuds against a modernistic color background. Unfortunately for us, we will not be instantly transformed into the impossible model of hip that the ads project. We will merely be listening to music on cheap earbuds through a cheap music player; which is fine, of course, but won’t get us any closer to nirvana.
They also inculcate many of us into the false premise that we need to constantly buy more and upgrade our equipment every couple of years. This is part of what contributes to the colossal and repulsive waste of the modern industrial world. Take heed: your 2005 Macbook Pro will still work fantastically in 2010 with a little easy maintenance; think before proceeding.
> The Apple Store is where Apple ups its game even further: The Genius Bar, the color scheme, the carefully prepped staff, and the accessories department where we can be fooled into thinking that spending $85 on a power supply for our Macbook is somehow right because it looks cool.
> Apple has many people falling in line that aren’t even able to accept criticism of the company. This is exactly the same thing as not being able to accept criticism of, for example, George W. Bush or Obama. If someone doesn’t like Apple, are they in turn are criticizing you personally? Nope — in reality, they are only criticizing something made of plastic and metal that is manufactured by a giant corporation and that you happen to own. Who cares if a Mac is better than a PC? Apple wants you to feel supreme, superior, and god-like compared to the lowly PC user — it’s Marketing 101, just take a look at any of their meticulously crafted TV ads that people eat up like candy. They have managed to do an amazing job with this over the years with a great deal of help from brilliant yet subversive advertising.
You are NOT what computer you use, what music player you own, or what computer logo you like to show off. These are simply products that may be great to own and enjoy, but they do not remotely define you as a person. They’re made by a corporation that wants to make profit off of you, like any rational corporation would. Just something to think about before you reach into that pocketbook at the Apple Store…
