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The Formulation of a New Cultural Cellular Reality: iPhone as the Only Phone Philippe Meister University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

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3 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE Abstract The study of rhetorical techniques used by the mobile phone industry prior to the iPhone would put most of its readers to sleep, but the story of Apples iPhone advertising is nothing short of a cultural revolution. Five years ago the use of phones was limited to calling, text messaging, and calendars. iPhones were the break out technology of 2007 and set a new precedent for cell phone use that has become so prevalent in our society that 50.4% of cell phone users have smart phones (Fingas 2012). The number of people in the Smartphone culture continues to increase as they become more affordable and become increasingly integrated into our culture as a necessity rather than a luxury. The launch of the original iPhone was the beginning of the cultural phenomenon; hailed as the Jesus phone, it was a shock and an excitement to the world. The marketing strategies, and rhetorical situation used to advertise the iPhone were analyzed to see how it because the social phenomena it is. I used ideological criticism to point out the commodification of communication in iPhone advertisements. I found that a strong argument for the commodification of communication is supported through the visual rhetoric of the first four iPhone commercials.

4 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE The Formulation of a New Cultural Cellular Reality: iPhone as the Only Phone The study of rhetorical techniques used by the mobile phone industry prior to the iPhone would put most of its readers to sleep, but the story of Apples iPhone advertising is nothing short of a cultural revolution. Five years ago the use of phones was limited to calling, text messaging, and simple calendars. iPhones were the break out technology of 2007 and set a new precedent for cell phone use that has become so prevalent in our society that 50.4% of cell phone users now have smart phones (Fingas, 2012). When the iPhone finally launched in June 2007, consumers lined up for days for the chance to purchase one and over 500,000 units sold on the first weekend. Since that time millions of iPhones have been sold making it one of the most successful mobile phone products ever launched. (Laugesen & Yuan, 2010) The number of people in the smartphone culture continues to increase as they become more affordable and become increasingly integrated into our culture through more practicalities in daily use. The launch of the original iPhone was the beginning of the smartphone cultural phenomenon; hailed as the Jesus phone, it was a shock and an excitement to the world. Not only could it make calls, but it combined the music storage of an iPod, the navigation of a GPS, was one of the first mobile video viewers, and allowed people to access the internet over wireless signal everywhere and any time. The text analyzed will be the four original iPhone TV commercials. The first of which aired during the Oscars in February, 2007. The others were periodically released and aired in the 4 months prior to the release of the iPhone on June 29, 2007. The original contexts of these ads were TV commercials, but for the purpose of this exploration they will be accessed through the internet five years later. All four original versions are available to watch on youtube.com. These

5 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE commercials were aired on television in a time when cell phones were used for calling and texting. The iPhone combines a digital camera, cell phone, iPod, web browser, calendar and more features that people use on a daily basis. The commercials enlist a number of rhetorical messages to the consumer some of which include the bandwagon of consumerism, the idea of buying power and status, and eminence and importance of technology. The advertisements appear so simple to the consumer that they would be ineffective if there were no heavy indirect rhetorical appeals being made within the commercials. To understand how Apple created an advertisement that essentially created the demand, we must first look into the cultural setting iPhones were brought into. Reported by the 2010 U.S Census about, 75% of people have internet access (U.S Department of Commerce). About 44% of the total U.S population has internet access in their residences. This means that more than one half of the population has consistent, accessible internet. The cultural popularity and usefulness of the internet continues to increase as it becomes more accessible and the platforms are easily accessable. The internet is a space of sharing and culmination of knowledge. Since access points are the physical restriction to the internet, access points become goods that commodify access to the internet. The differences between stationary internet access at home and stationary access at a nearby location are not too difficult to manage. Users are still able to check their email regularly, do internet research or word process documents. The iPhone is the first real device to create a dynamic between those who have privileged access to the internet and those who do not. The iPhone being expensive technology essentially creates an internet power dynamic in which those who can afford the access points are able to utilize the resources, and those who cannot afford the access points cannot. Accessing the internet with a personal mobile device creates opportunities for those to access resources which are not available to those who access the

6 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE internet at a stationary access point. The commercial directly states, This is your music. This is your The iPhone is introduced to a digital age where society is looking to condense our material possessions to create a simpler and easier lifestyle, a lifestyle where a connection to society can be created through an iPhone. The commercials suggest that the consumers life will soon be run through their iPhone and their life will be simpler than their life previous to the iPhone. Keltgen, Mickalowski, and Mickelson, authors of the article Appless iPhone Launch: A case Study in Effective Marketing (2008) describe the marketing strategy which enforces the new presence of the iPhone. Apple's advertising schedule appears to reinforce the iPhone's presence in media during times when the buzz or free media has tapered off. This combination of paid and free media gives consumers the impression that the iPhone is a constant presence in the popular media. The uninterrupted presence of the iPhone on the market was rhetorical message convincing consumers that the conception of the iPhone was the only event that necessarily preceded the iPhone becoming an imperative part of life. This media hype shaped the foundation and supported the rhetorical perspective Apple chose to apply to the iPhone marketing. It effectively increased the audiences perceived credibility to the marketing messages which increased marketability. Access to the internet and mobility of resources is important today because it dictates how much control over communication one is able to have, and how much they can expect from others. Business emails, social networking, news, availability to phone calls, electronic organizers that sync with one another; the list of potential social and business advantages of an

7 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE iPhone are unrealized. In the 30 months from its launch in July 2007 to December 2009, Apple sold over 42 million iPhone units ( Laugesen & Yuan, 2010 p. 91). iPhone units were not the only product Apple was selling, Apple sold approximately $1 million in applications each day during its first month of operations. By December 2008, it was estimated that 300 million software applications had been downloaded (p. 91). The Apple App Store is the recognized leading mobile application source and should be taken into consideration when looking into the marketability of the iPhone. Lev Grossman, in his TIME Magazine online article Invention of the Year: The iPhone, says the iPhone is the invention of the year for five reasons. Of this list, number four is the reason the iPhone pioneers communication realities. 4. Its not a phone, its a platform reads Grossmans section header. In this section, he explains how Apple effectively created a device in which users believe the OSX software found on Apple computers will work in the mobile handset. One of the big trends of 2007 was the idea that computing doesnt belong just in cyberspace, it needs to happen here, in the real world, where actual stuff happens Grossman says (2007). Methods . This paper will analyze the use of economic power struggles in the visual rhetoric of the commercials, the ability to advertise the communication as a commodity to be bought, and the effectiveness of the marketing strategy to encourage economic consumption. The original iPhone advertisements attempted to convince the audience that the iPhone was the tangible device that mobilizes and coordinates all aspects of their lives, which prompts the question; under what cultural context was the iPhone introduced? How did apple market the phone and why did Apple find this type of message to be an effective advertising technique? Apples rhetoric will be analyzed because of the larger than life iPhone persona Apple was able to create surrounding

8 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE their new phone. The overarching goal of this research is concerns the question, How did this cultural phenomena occur? This will be done through both a Media Centered critical perspective and a Marxist perspective. A Marxist perspective will be used because the research has revealed that the visual appeals function within the pre-existing economy of social interactions which are best represented through Marxist terminology. The human perception of their tendency toward seeking communication, when viewing the advertisements, is subtly manipulated through the complex imagery. The images effectively juxtapose the audiences desire and ability to communicate within society to the consumption of iPhones. The juxtaposition creates a situation where the visual appeals function as stand-ins for economic appeals. A Marxist term to describe how the iPhone integrated into our material culture seamlessly is signification. Signification refers to the meaning of objects within a defined social structure. Objects can have economic value, but they also obtain social meaning when they are placed into reality as cultural artifacts. iPhones have a high amount of signification, both in the values they encourage and the situations which they create. Signification is one of the most important tactics Apple used when marketing the iPhone, this idea will be analyzed in its use of marketing strategy. To what extent did Apple sell a signification of status rather than a material quality of the iPhone? To what extent does the iPhone create a signification that differs of coincides with the advertised signification? Signification was used in Apples commercials creating heavy rhetoric to create a very classist and elitist view of the iPhone. The use of social power structure is a large factor in the rhetoric of the iPhone commercials. The technology is new, and it allows people to do things that they cannot while out of the house. This new advantage gives the class of people with an iPhone more power to control their lives. People with iPhones are able to constantly use technology to advance and improve their lives in ways that

9 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE people without iPhones are unable to do. This creates a clear advantage when we look at who can afford the phone. iPhones were marketed with no price attached to the commercial. People who were able to afford the pricy iPhone, in addition to over two thousand dollars for the two year service contract, are people with well paying jobs. The emergence of the iPhone allows those people to further advance themselves in their careers and distance themselves as an even more privileged section of society. Apple knows that not all people are going to be able to afford this device and there will only be a limited number of them produced. iPhones are an advantage for the upper class because they can move at a faster pace than others. In todays world, technology is a progressive factor in communication of all sorts. If one is able to communicate better, then more doors of possibility open to him/her. Apple uses this concept of the device being an advantage because they portray it as a lifestyle device. The features they include in the commercial are things that people do every day. They are trying to create the all in one device for the modern person. The creation of a new type of lifestyle is one of the main components to the appeal of the iPhone. The perception of actual stuff is where the manipulation of the audience occurs. Media criticism will be used to explain the manipulation of perceptions visually, while the conditions that created a highly iPhone receptive culture can be best described through Marxist theory. Media centered criticism asserts the importance of analyzing texts with consideration to the medium in which they appear. For example there are sensual dynamics which influence viewers of television differently than listeners of radio. Media centered criticism is designed to identify and explain the variation between medium. The use of media centered criticism will focus on commoditization, realism, and intimacy. Commoditization will be used to describe the way material goods are normalized to the consumer. Realism is a term to describe the validity

10 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE assumed for visual images and how they influence the viewer. Intimacy refers to the personalized attention television is able to offer individual viewers while being broadcasted to millions of people at the same time. The importance of the visual significations as they are received by the market audience will be evaluated through Marxist theory. Marxist theory is part of a group of theories called Sociocultural theories. Sociocultural critics study all aspects of literature in the context of social reality, for their domain is the interaction between humanity and society (Stern, 1989). More specifically Marxism can be defined as an approach that is concerned with ideology, class, and the distribution of power in society. (Brummet, 1994). Marxism is an economic based theory which asserts that every concept or idea grows from material conditions and practices rather than the normative assumption that our economic culture is created because of our humanist concepts and ideas. The application of Marxist principles grows out of one main tenet, materialism. Materialism is the belief that everything that belongs to a cultural concept or idea grows from material conditions and practices. This is shown best through its contrast with idealism which is the more common belief that our human ideologies and values organize the conditions of our social realities. Materialism asserts that our practices grow out of our material conditions; while idealism asserts that our ideals shape the way we build our material conditions. Materialism used to analyze the impact of iPhones allows the culture to realize the impact the device had in shaping our cultural ideal (Brummet, 1994). The iPhone is a piece of material culture which was preceded by structures which set the groundwork for the iPhone to be received as a desirable commodity. The structures into which the iPhone enters are referred to in Maxist criticism as superstructures. Superstructure refers to the way in which the structures in our culture create and

11 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE support the same ideals. They create value systems, cultural practices, working conditions, social structures, ideological institutions, politics, and many other social constructions. Through the construction of power and ideas we see how the material world has shaped our own ideas (Brummett, 1994). The structures that most directly created the attraction to iPhones are our media and todays technologically driven consumption. The faster and more consistenely we are able to stay connected to the media, news, business, family, etc., the more consumers demand those capabilities. As one example, as Facebook became a common social media site online, the users started to use it more and more, which led to the use of the Facebook mobile app. Facebook was one online resource that was turned mobile with the emergence of the iPhone. A representative illustration of the superstructure of mobility of demand can be constructed from evolutions of newspapers. Newspapers as a physical entity were produced. Now they are becoming obsolete because internet news sources are able to be accessed more easily and are updated more frequently. Now many people use their phones to view news because they can be they can easily access the updates and the access to their phone is never interrupted. Instead of consuming newspapers the consumer must merely have an iPhone. Then they wont need to consume superfluous material goods anymore. It will be shown that the presiding superstructure supporting the iPhone is the value we place on our connection and communication with society. The visual appeals made in the advertisements support communication and interaction through the eye to eye presentation of the phone, the emphasis on the phones connectivity, and the emphasis on the phones ability to be your personal object. The advertisements use the visual appeals described later to create an experience for the audience. The experience, through visual rhetoric, asserts the importance of a

12 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE personal connection to society. The connection to society is done through the iPhone itself, and it is easier for people to believe visuals rather than a statement because visuals are perceived to represent reality. The iPhone ad uses this reality of images to assert the iPhone as a viable portal into society. Analysis Marxist criticism allows us to look at many aspects of the iPhone. In addition to the cultural superstructures and the materialist culture, the business model of the phone can be seen as one of the reasons for its success. Targeting the right population demographic can contribute to the phones success. The perceived gratification gained through and iPhone and the iPhone as a status symbol are large social factors Apple capitalized on. Apples marketing allows for the creation of an iPhone class. Like the upper class has access to resources and money, the iPhone class has access to society and mobile resources through technology. Just as the upper class lives differently than the lower class, the iPhone class is able to live differently than the old class. Apples price points and target market create this class. Apple priced the iPhone at a point where it was not affordable to many and they marketed it toward young business professionals who have disposable income. Not only does this marketing strategy enforce a system where money can buy resources, but it allows the business class to control the newest technology. In essence giving the power to the young business class, and subsequently enforcing the preexisting power structures. The initial release used power structures to Apples advantage. Apple released the phone knowing the purchasing power was restricted to a limited population. This population helped in creating the allure of the iPhone to the rest of the American populace. Apple then kept expanding the availability, affordability, and appeal in order to reach new target markets.

13 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE Apple takes advantage of the cultural circumstances which the iPhone entered and markets the phone as a lifestyle in the future. Although the iPhone is a material object to be consumed, one is able to argue that the rhetoric of the iPhone advertisements attempted to conceal the object as a commodity. iPhone advertisements assert the iPhone as a progressive product of material culture. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the article The Costs and Benefits of Consuming (2000) hints to a sophisticated advertising technique Apple employs. Csikszentmahalyi says, We already know that material possessions alone do not improve the quality of life. We know that excessive concern for material goals is a sign of dissatisfaction with life. We know that trying to avoid the mental chaos of everyday life by resorting to acquisitions and passive entertainment does not work very well. Yet we insist in the vain hope that we can achieve happiness through consumptionregardless of consequences. (p. 271) The content of the advertisements is purposefully sparse because Apple wants the audience to imagine their own reality. Apple doesnt want the viewer to think the iPhone is a product to buy; Apple is marketing the iPhone as a tool, and not a cultural commodity. Through the visual images and auditory language Apple juxtaposes the iPhone device with the viewers perception of life. In doing this, the phone is perceived not as a material good, but a device which allows the user to access the realities of life, the music, the photos, the people, that bring people happiness. Csikszentmahalyi continues in his article to describe a productive economy; an economy that transcends the material and focuses on intellectual capitol. He says, Craftspersons, chefs, athletes, musicians, dancers, teachers, gardeners, artists, healers, poetsthese are the workers creating goods that increase human wellbeing without degrading the complexity of the world. Is it impossible to develop an economy based on a

14 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE majority of workers of this kind? Where consumption involves the processing of ideas, symbols, and emotional experiences rather than the breakdown of matter? Apple is capitalizing on this idea. Apple is purposefully selling this idea to its consumer; although with one caveat. Apples caveat is that in todays society, the consumption of intellectual capitol must be done through material devices. Apples caveat indoctrinates the iPhone as a necessary tool to be an intellectual consumer. Pederson explains how this is conveyed through the visual rhetoric within the advertisement, Further, the iPhone hand is synecdochic for human work. While the iPod subject is liberated from work activity and has moved on to living in terms of music, the iPhone subject has been called back to work. The eccentric fingers work over email, calendarbuilding, navigating Google maps, and buying media content. The medium in which Apple chooses to advertise this message is television. Analysis of the message must be analyzed with consideration to the impact of visual rhetoric on the consumers perceptions of society through television. Television employs visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric refers to the ability of images to convey arguments, primarily through invoking an emotional response.(Ulrich, 2011) The Apple commercials show a pair of hands which manipulate an iPhone device. Viewers experience the commercial as a representation of a virtual reality (images on the iPhone) which is presented in the form of another virtual reality (television images). Virtual reality is a new, complex form of communication, and as in any other medium of communication, we can use rhetoric in virtual reality to convey arguments and change how individuals view the real world(Ulrich, 2011).

15 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE The visual image in the first commercial released is made up of a black background; in the frame, there is an iPhone and a pair of hands manipulating the features of the iPhone. As the user switches from feature to feature, email, music, videos, etc., there is a narrator commenting on the features. The narrator uses heavy appeals that make the device seem simple and comprehensive. The commercial shows one screen of each feature and the narrator says This is your email. This is your music The words in the first advertisement directly address the audience, personally engaging us to imagine all of those features at our fingertips. Isabel Pedersen summarizes this visual tactic with concision, The amputated hand acts as a synecdochic stand-in for a now-static body. Occasionally, the other hand points and touches the iPhone device in the television advertising, but the (imaginary) body stands still. The hand and device seem to form one entity that stares outward at the viewer, forming what Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) term a demand gaze (p. 118). The demand usually involves a depicted human subject locking eyes on the viewer; nevertheless, the frontal horizontal angle and the neutral vertical angle of the iPhone composition also form a demand, compelling the viewer to see an anthropomorphized being requiring action (Pederson, 2008) A solid black background was chosen to represent nothingness. Apple wants viewers to forget everything and focus on the importance of the iPhones features in their lives. Apple says email, music, video, calls, etc., the iPhone features are all that is important. The importance placed on the features of the iPhone contributes to the larger than life appeal. No device in the technological boom before the iPhone had offered all the features the iPhone did, and it offered them with a mobile network. It was the introduction of the personal computer that would work anywhere. The background urges the audience that the interests of the iPhone class are the best;

16 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE the commercial literally ignores everything other than the iPhone. The visual structure Apple utilizes to create visual and virtual realities allows Apple to feature the iPhone, but to advertise the iPhone indirectly through the commoditization of communication. The iPhone becomes the visual representation of access to the communication of intellectual information. The visual dynamics may be complex, but the visual rhetoric would not function without the social and economic structures in place for consumers to base visual assumptions on. The ability of Apple to create emotional rhetoric through visual imagery illustrates with an example the ability of the iPhone to provide the opportunity to an iPhone user to experience culture. The visual imagery intrigues the consumer, and it functions as a first hand testament of the connection to society an iPhone can offer. The appeals made by the Apple Corporation are both elitist and manipulative; but they are not unfair or unethical. Apple has made a remarkable campaign for their product. And although sometimes it seems as if they worked harder to promote the phone than to create the phone, the marketing strategy is creative and commanding. On a personal level I believe the intellectual capitol we dismiss in favor or material goods is a large problem in our society, but a commodity centered culture was not created by the iPhone. The iPhone is only a willing participant, and if I can say so myself, if is a remarkable product. The rhetoric was successful at presenting the vision apple had for the iPhone and through the marketing it is now a reality. The use of virtual rhetoric was very successful because it is not a concept most people are acclimated to, I think Apple timed their use of virtual rhetoric perfectly. Apple continues to make a name for its self, and will be remembered as one of the best brand marketing companies to play the game. Through the virtual rhetoric of the iPhone class, the portal to society and the experiential appeals Apple creates an advertisement that asserts the iPhone into the preexisting social

17 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE structures and supports the economic system in place. The visual appeals indicate ideas within Marxist theory that reveal the true rhetoric behind iPhone commercials. The assertion is levels deep, but in essence Apple is promoting the technology that allows for digital connections in our society. The appeal that digital connections are valuable was imposed on the viewer through visual rhetoric, but undeniably, the rhetoric is successful, and our culture has not shied away from smartphones, we continue to embrace them.

18 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE References Brummett, Barry. (1994) Rhetoric in popular culture /New York: St. Martin's Press. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (2000, Sept.) The Costs and Benefits of Consuming. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 27, No. 2 pp. 267-272. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/314324 Fingas, Jon (2012, May 7). Neilson: Over 50 percent of US mobile users own smartphones, Android and iPhone sitting pretty. [Web Posting] Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/07/nielsen-smartphone-share-march-2012/ Grossman, Lev. (2007, Oct 30) Invention Of the Year: The iPhone. Time Magazine. Retrieved fromhttp://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1678542_167789 1,00.html Heath, Alex (2011, Oct 3). How Far Weve Come: The Original iPhone Commercial. [Web Posting] Retrieved from http://www.idownloadblog.com/2011/10/03/original-iphonecommercial/ Iphone Commercials (2007, Jun 6). [Video of the four original iPhone commercials] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lZMr-ZfoE4 Keltgen, J. Mickalowski, K. Mickelson, M. (2008) Apples iPhone Launch: A Case Study in Effective Marketing. The Business Review. Retrieved from http://proxy.augie.edu/sites/default/files/u57/pdf/jaciel_subdocs/iPhone.pdf Laugesen, J. Yuan, Y. (2010) What factors contributed to the success of Apples iPhone?. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5494782&tag=1

19 Running head: IPHONE AS THE ONLY PHONE Nielsen. (2012 May 7) [Statistical Data on U.S. Smartphone consumers] Americas New Mobile Majority: a Look at Smartphone Owners in the U.S. Retrieved from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=31688 Pederson, I. (2008). No Apple iPhone? You Must Be Canadian: Mobile Technologies, Paticipatory Culture, and Rhetorical Transformation. Canadian Journal of Communications, Vol 33, No 3. Retrieved from http://www.cjconline.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2100/2023 Stern, B. (1989 Dec) Literary Criticism and Consumer Research: Overview and Illustrative Analysis Journal of Consumer Research, Vol 16, No. 3 pp322-334 Ulrich, M. (2011) Using the Rhetoric of Virtual Reality to Persuade. Young Scholars in Writing. Volume Nine. U.S. Department of Commerce. (2010) Computer and internet Use. United States Census. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/computer/publications/2010.html