"Nobody stands around the water cooler talking about print ads." Outside ad agencies, does anybody stand around the water cooler talking about TV ads? This reads to me as if Julia Ward Howe were to explain how she turned the tide of the Civil War after First Manassas...
If you lived in Silicon Valley, Apple had HUGE banners with their Think Different campaign that you could see from 280. I distinctly remember driving around there in 1997, and seeing the banner with Einstein's face, if I remember correctly, and getting goosebumps.
And this was when Apple was a laughingstock at the Brass Ring job fairs (if any of you remember those). I remember no one even bothering to line up for a job for Apple.
I have never lived in California. As to Einstein, the columnist Charles Krauthammer remarked that one common attribute of the notables depicted in the campaign--Einstein, Gandhi, etc.--was that none had ever used a computer, let alone a Mac.
In the 90's, yes, people talked about ads. The internet was too slow for anything other than light information and DVRs were an early adopter dream. People watched them and talked about them.
