Happy 25th, Macintosh

The Ridley Scott Superbowl spot for Macintosh is still electrifying, after all these years. Had never seen Steve Jobs’ keynote address unveiling the spot in Fall, 1983. Also electrifying. Was happy to have found this at Guy Kawasaki’s blog.

File this under “How to Present with Utter Command and Conviction.”

What I Learned from the Arnell Design Brief

 

 

 

 

 

Image via.

 

OK, I am officially never going to worry again — ever — that the presentations I write are too high-concept or academic.  Thanks to my esteemed colleague Lee, I had a chance to behold the joy that is the Peter Arnell “Breathtaking” Design Brief for the Pepsi rebranding. (Check it out here.)  This feels ever so slightly…high-concept and academic. 

I’m inspired to try a new torture test — would any presentation I write hold up to ridicule if exposed online? It’s fine to be smart and provocative (and yes, sometimes strategic explication requires sophisticated diagramming and fancy-pants words), but a person can go too far.  

All that said, I am a big admirer of much of Peter Arnell’s work.  He is among many other things the man who gave us the iconic DKNY billboard that graced the Soho landscape for nearly two decades (see below).  I was an assistant in Donna Karan’s office at that time (now there’s fodder for blog posts) and truly loved my work.  I was 24 with my first Big City Job, working in the epicenter of this crazy company just beginning to explode with growth, serving a woman who can credibly be called one of the design geniuses of our time — and this billboard made me burst with pride every time I saw it. 

It  never felt like advertising.  It was like Donna and Peter’s love letter to the city.  For that alone I’d forgive Arnell the Pepsi/Golden Ratio/Mona Lisa silliness. 

DKNY at 600 Houston Street, R.I.P.

 Image via.

From the “What The…?” Files

Heineken, you are mighty lucky John Turturro is who he is because he is SELLING this silliness.  I have a very good sense of humor — really I do — but I don’t see what his mad soliloquy has to do with beer. I know I’m not the target (though as I’ve said many times, stamping feet, girls drink beer too), but I’m guessing even the target is confused by this ad. At least, the big Russian target lounging on the sofa in my TV room (a.k.a. my husband) who mused aloud upon watching, “What egg-zecktly is Heineken compass to? To headache?”

More on the “Give Yourself a Good Name” campaign here at msnbc. This was only part 1 of a multi-phased campaign (part 2 aired on the Super Bowl) and am curious to see how Heineken connects the dots from “destinating your destination” and so forth to “giving yourself a good name.”

Side note that I continue to be tickled by beer advertising that doesn’t talk about taste.  (Taste as in — mmmmmm — not taste as in — lack of.)