On the eve of the iMac launch in 1998, the Apple brand was hanging on for dear life. Hoping to regain the faith of the Mac community, then-returning CEO Steve Jobs enlisted ad agency TBWA.
"You gotta buy me six months [to get] Apple back on the radar," Jobs told then TBWA-Los Angeles President Tom Carroll. The ad agency came to the rescue -- in the form of the now-renowned "Think Different" ad campaign.
Carroll, currently the vice chairman of TBWA/Worldwide, spoke to Penn students yesterday about his career in the advertising industry.
Before an audience of approximately 100, Carroll stressed the importance of big ideas and powerful brands.
"Brand [has been] the biggest conversation in marketing and advertising in the last 20 years," Carroll said. "Every time the consumer touches the brand in any way, it has to [convey] the experience they see on television."
A veteran of advertising campaigns for Adidas, Nextel, Nissan and Sony, Carroll showed a reel of his company's creative commercials.
Before each commercial, Carroll discussed each company's difficulties and grinned as he described how the companies often adopted the slogans of TBWA campaigns as their management philosophy.
Carroll also noted that the current generation of teenagers and college students is becoming harder and harder to reach, as they spend more time playing video games and using computers than watching television.
"[We] can't reach you guys," he said. "You're the target audience that nobody knows how to get to."
College sophomore Lauren Saul noted that the creative process of advertising cannot be learned in a classroom.
"Advertising," she said, "is not an academic subject."
Many attendees were impressed with Carroll's ads.
Wharton senior Seher Sikandar even reported having studied Carroll's Sony Playstation ad in a marketing class.
The event was sponsored by the Marketing Undergraduate Students Establishment.
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