Apple to Unveil Aggressive Ad Campaign

Apple Computer Inc., beleaguered by rivals offering cheap and easy-to-use personal computers, will unveil an aggressive advertising campaign attacking the PC’s shortcomings. Distracted by massive financial losses and two restructurings in one year, Cupertino-based Apple has been on a yearlong hiatus from ads that poke fun at the intricacies of rivals’ computers. “Our advertising is fluff, soft and not very visible,” Apple Chairman Gilbert Amelio told investors Wednesday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. “We lost our edge in advertising. And that’s unacceptable. I told our advertising people that their job is to get the edge back.” So Amelio charged his advertising firm, the BBDO Worldwide unit of Omnicon Group Inc., to come up with a series that touts the Macintosh’s famed ease of use and multimedia capabilities.