APPLE ICONOGRAPHY: MARKETING THE METAPHYSICS OF MEDIA by BRETT THOMAS ...

201 Pages·2011·0.95 MB·English

APPLE ICONOGRAPHY: MARKETING THE METAPHYSICS OF MEDIA
by
BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON
(Under the Direction of Anandam Kavoori)
ABSTRACT
Since the advent of the electronic age, new media technologies have frequently been
described in religious terms. New media technologies have been imagined as both liberating
tools with utopian promise and revolutionary forces with eschatological implications. The
religious rhetoric used to describe these technologies is part of a “technological mythology” - a
narrative form in which technology is assigned a spiritual significance. Technological
mythologies are evident in science fiction literature, film, academic scholarship and the rhetoric
of inventors and entrepreneurs. However, very little attention has been paid to the representation
of technological mythology in American advertising. This dissertation considers the intersection
of technology and the American religious imagination in the advertising of the Apple computer
company. Through evocative visual metaphor Apple advertisements combine technology
promotion with metaphysical themes – making Apple ads icons of the information age.

INDEX WORDS: Apple, advertising, media, religion, technology
APPLE ICONOGRAPHY: MARKETING THE METAPHYSICS OF MEDIA

by

BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON
BA, University of Notre Dame, 1997
MMC, University of Georgia, 2001

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2011
© 2011
BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON
All Rights Reserved
APPLE ICONOGRAPHY: MARKETING THE METAPHYSICS OF MEDIA

by

BRETT THOMAS ROBINSON

Major Professor: Anandam Kavoori
Committee: Carolina Acosta-Alzuru
Janice Hume
Nathaniel Kohn
Thomas Lessl

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
May 2011
iv

DEDICATION
For my family
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I was told early on that a dissertation is an exercise in endurance, not brilliance. A
marathon analogy might seem fitting here but considering the fact that the first marathoner died
delivering his message to Athens, I am wary of the parallel. Fortunately, Athens, Georgia has
been a lot kinder to me than Athens, Greece was to Pheidippides.
The individuals that share in this accomplishment are many. I owe an extreme debt of
gratitude to my advisor Andy Kavoori, who inspired me in a seminar long ago and saw this
project through to the end with his trademark humor and wisdom. His concern was not merely
academic but for the whole person. Whenever I reached an impasse, he refused to let me wallow
in intellectual hand-wringing – he told me to go for a run. And it worked. It seems the race
analogy may be most fitting after all.
My committee members, Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Janice Hume, Nate Kohn, and Tom
Lessl were expert guides through the morass of cultural studies, history, technology, religion and
rhetorical theory. More than mentors, they constantly reminded me that they were fellow
sojourners and that they preferred to run alongside rather than stand idly by. I am neither the
first nor the last that they will have inspired in their distinguished careers.
My current colleagues at St. Vincent College Mary Beth Spore, Phyllis Riddle, Melissa
Cook, Rebecca Dinning-Brinkmann, Ron Davis, Michael Krom and George Leiner gave me
every reason to believe that I could finish this project, even with a full teaching load and a baby
on the way. Marlo Verrilla in the college library patiently tracked down every interlibrary loan
request that I sent her way. If not for their prayers, help, guidance and encouragement this would
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have been a much more harrowing journey. Instead, their support buoyed me and permitted me
to find joy in the process.
For those who encouraged me to pursue the idea that media technology and religion are
intimate bedfellows, especially Curt Wanner and Read Mercer Schuchardt; your ability to bring
Walter Ong, Neil Postman, and Marshall McLuhan to life through your writing and our
discussions is a wonder I never tire of witnessing. To the members of the Pittsburgh Catholic
Writer’s Group whose discussions in the basement of the Sharp Edge Creek House remain
reminiscent of the ancient Catholics in the catacombs (if the Catholics in the catacombs had a
nice selection of Belgian beers). Especially Bob Lockwood, Craig Maier, David Scott, Mark
Shuttleworth and Mike Aquilina who first pointed me to the idea that McLuhan’s “medium is the
message” aphorism contained a heavy wink toward the Eucharist.
I would especially like to thank my family who made this all possible. My parents Tom
and Aileen Robinson provided every form of support imaginable and for that I am most grateful.
While my mother remains skeptical of most people with Ph.D.’s, she enjoys telling people that
her son is a doctor, just not the kind that helps people. Thank you mom for recognizing that
antagonism can be a great motivator as long as it is done lovingly. Dad, thank you for your stoic
wisdom and the example of patience and humility in the face of adversity.
To my wife, Danielle, who delivered two of our children while I completed my graduate
work. What I have produced pales in comparison to the precious lives that you brought into the
world. You are a constant reminder that changing culture is not something that happens ‘out
there’ but in here – in our home, our children and our hearts. Thank you, lambs.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v
LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................x
CHAPTER
1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1
A Lack of Critical Distance .....................................................................................4
Religion and Media Technology ..............................................................................6
Why Study Apple Advertising? .............................................................................10
Religion-Technology Rhetoric...............................................................................12
Tech Visionary and Mystic ....................................................................................17
The Brand Cult .......................................................................................................24
2 Theory, Method and Literature Review .......................................................................28
A New Underground Religious War......................................................................31
Media Ecology Theory ..........................................................................................33
Identifying Religious Communication in Technological Discourse ......................38
A Theory of Metaphor ...........................................................................................40
Advertising and Commodity Fetishism .................................................................43
Religious Narrative in the Apple Brand Community ............................................52
Doing Cultural Studies ...........................................................................................55
The Case Study Approach .....................................................................................61
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Reading Representation .........................................................................................64
Verizon ‘Rule The Air’ ..........................................................................................68
AT&T ‘Rethink Possible’ ......................................................................................70
Sony ‘PS2’ .............................................................................................................71
Apple ‘1984’ ..........................................................................................................74
Apple’s Gnosticism ................................................................................................77
3 iMac .............................................................................................................................80
Window ..................................................................................................................81
Get a Mac ...............................................................................................................88
Bach .......................................................................................................................96
She Comes in Colors ............................................................................................100
4 iPod ............................................................................................................................103
From Audiac to iPod ............................................................................................105
Semiotic Analysis of iPod Ads ............................................................................112
Hey Mama ............................................................................................................114
Listen to the Music...............................................................................................119
Behind the Mask ..................................................................................................121
Ride ......................................................................................................................124
Cubicle .................................................................................................................128
5 iPhone ........................................................................................................................134
Touching is Believing ..........................................................................................135
Calamari ...............................................................................................................141
Shazam .................................................................................................................144
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6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................149
Communication and Benedictine Values .............................................................157
Wimmer’s Mission...............................................................................................161
The Religion of Informationism ..........................................................................166
A Catholic Theory of Media ................................................................................171
Time and Media ...................................................................................................176
A Fruitful Environment........................................................................................178
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................184