A Life of Its Own
It started out as an idea that quickly grew and took on a life of its own. According to Allen Olivo, Appleâs director of marketing communications, ãSomeone said, ÎHey, wouldnât it be cool if we had a giant iMac blimp on the Apple Campus?â and the next thing we knew, we were doing it.ä

See It Everywhere
And not just at Apple, either. ãIt was such a cool idea that we made 39 of them,ä says Marie Moore, Appleâs director of targeted communications, who adds that you can see the iMac blimp at a number of locations in the U.S., including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix, and Syracuse, New York. The inflatable iMac is also showing up in Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, the U.K., South Africa, Turkey, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Created under the close supervision of fastidious art directors at CKS Partners, the inflatable iMacs bear a remarkable resemblance to the mediagenic original. ãThe guys at CKS were pretty obsessive about matching the color to the iMacâs Bondi Blue,ä says Moore. ãThey even airbrushed the fabric to get the look we wanted.ä

The Internet Made It Easy
The big iMac on the Apple Campus was made by the Boulder Blimp Company (ãWhere big ideas take shapeä).

ãThe Internet made it easy,ä recalls Kirsten McKay, who managed the project for Apple. ãOur international suppliers posted digital images online as work progressed, and we could check to make sure they got the details right.ä

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