When the iPod launched in 2001, it was a Mac accessory with a high price, and early advertising focused on explaining it: how many songs it held, how small it was. By 2003 Apple needed something bigger. The iTunes Store was about to launch, a Windows version of iTunes was coming, and the iPod had a chance to become a mass-market product.
The idea
At TBWA\Chiat\Day, art director Susan Alinsangan came up with a design that stripped almost everything away. Each ad showed a person as a solid black silhouette, dancing against a single bright color: lime green, yellow, fuchsia, bright blue or pink. The only thing drawn in detail was the iPod in their hand and the white earphone cable running up to their ears.
Alinsangan developed it with Lee Clow, the agency’s creative leader, and James Vincent, a former DJ and musician. She worked on the print campaign with artist Casey Leveque of Rocket Studio in Santa Monica.
Jobs wasn’t sold
When the team presented the concept, Steve Jobs did not like it. He was not sure silhouettes would work, since they did not show the product up close or explain what an iPod did. The designers pushed back, and James Vincent suggested adding a simple product tagline, “1,000 songs in your pocket,” so the image had something concrete to anchor it.
What made it work
- Anyone could be the dancer. A silhouette has no age, face or fashion, so every viewer could picture themselves in it.
- The product became the logo. With everything else in black, the white iPod and white earbuds were the brightest thing in the frame. On the street, those white cables became an instant signal that someone owned an iPod.
- It sold a feeling. The ads were built around energetic rock, pop and hip hop, and moved from explaining the device to selling the joy of music.
- It was everywhere. The same design ran on TV, in magazines, on billboards and on the sides of buildings, which made it impossible to miss.
How it evolved
The original spots used solid black figures on solid color backgrounds that changed with every camera angle. Later versions added highlights and shadows, and after the iTunes Store opened in 2003, the ads promoted the music and the store as much as the device. The style carried through to later iPod models, and Apple returned to it for a silhouette-style ad that ran during the 2007 World Series on Fox.
Legacy
The silhouette campaign ran for roughly five years and became one of the defining images of the 2000s. It helped turn the iPod from a gadget into a fashion item, and it made a small design choice, white earphones instead of the usual black, into a status symbol. Apple has used the same principle ever since: make the product instantly recognizable from across the street.