The ads’ cleverly implied “Which guy would you rather be?” message and visceral punch have created love-’em/hate ‘em camps, probably roughly split between people who consider themselves innovators versus those struggling to keep up with new technology. In other words, precisely the dynamic that Apple–renowned for keeping its marketing strategies as close to the vest as its product plans–presumably had in mind. The instantly iconic campaign quickly spawned satiric takeoffs (“The Lost Mac Ads”) on VH1.

At one time, I was a cool mac guy. A long long time ago in college I owned an Apple MacIntosh SE. No hard drive. But I loved it.

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“The word Africa doesn’t usually make one consider shopping, but our (RED) Community Barcode ties together Africa and consumers in a striking symbol that’s instantly iconic. The barcode is composed of images of a community of people resembling African warriors, and is set up to be a working barcode.”

If you don’t know, (RED) was created by the iconic Bono and Bobby Shriver “to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world’s most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)^RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)^RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.”

I truly hope that the (RED) brand and barcode become instantly iconic. People want to associate with iconic things. Which motivates them to buy things associated with the iconic thing. In this case, it’s a good thing.

Technorati Tags: (RED), AIDS, Bono, HIV, Instantly Iconic, brands, iconic brands

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