The Apple iTunes Beatles billboards are a poor implementation of a bad concept — or more likely lack of concept. The extremely high resolution gargantuan images up in the sky seem intended to prove Charles Manson’s belief that the Beatles were the angels of the Apocalypse.
A much better and more interesting plan would have been to use highly-pixelated contemporary newspaper photos or album covers. Grainy pictures from early ’60s TV also would work. The AARP crowd (who saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, bought the 45 vinyl records, went to the Shea Stadium concert, etc.) would immediately relate to these images. Plus, those over 50 might not now be in the habit of listening to MP3s and are unlikely already to have a hard drive full of peer-to-peer download Beatles songs. Properly reintroducing the Beatles would be opening the virtual doors of the iTunes store for the original Beatles fan demographic.
- Pictures of the Apple iTunes Beatles billboards at the Lincoln Tunnel
- Pictures of the iTunes Beatles billboard with the Empire State Building in the background
Every morning for the past three weeks I’ve been driving past the huge Beatles/Apple billboard on the connector section of 101 in San Francisco, thinking to myself, “Gee, doesn’t that look GREAT? Isn’t that just the coolest photograph, the coolest billboard ever?” I’m gonna think that tomorrow morning too.
I want to add one thought to my earlier note. The plain fact is, the Beatles don’t need any fancy-schmancy marketing gizmos or concepts or over-thinking. A simple photo of the four of them says, in the most eloquent way possible, “great music is here; come and get it.” Thank God this fact is recognized by Apple Corps. and Apple Inc.
The fact is that frivolous people want frivolous things.
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“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want.”
Steve Jobs
The Wired Interview