• by Vincent Vassolo , October 6, 2011

One of the most influential Boomers in our lifetime died yesterday. Not only did he change the way we use technology, he also taught us a lot about making great advertising.

The wonderful thing about Apple is that they didn't waste a lot of time with stupid branding initiatives or awful "lifestyle" advertising. Steve Jobs instinctively knew that the best way to build a brand was to sell a great product to someone.

His advertising was just features and benefits on a simple white background. His advertising let you decide the product's importance in your life.

Thinking back to when the iPod hit the scene, at first, I had no intention of ever buying a digital music player.

How useless!

Even the name sounded uber-nerdy.

Yuck!

Then I saw the first iPod ad. It read, "Put a thousand songs in your pocket."

Simple.

Direct.

Powerful.

I bought one the next day.

I liked the idea of having my whole music collection wherever I went.

I'll miss Steve's great ad sense as much as I'll miss those great gadgets.

The world of technology will never be that same. And neither will advertising.