In the past two decades, Apple Inc. has become appreciated for the "artistic" and free-thinking messages of its advertisements, which reflect a business plan of marketing their products to creative individuals. Their most significant ad campaigns include a 1984 Super Bowl commercial, which introduced their company as revolutionary, independent, and subversive, as well as the 1990s Think Different campaign, which featured major artists, and the "iPod people" of the 2000s, featuring several colorful, dancing silhouetted people. Apple's sensational portable music player, the iPod, has even been showcased as a piece of contemporary art in New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Since the original Macintosh Super Bowl commercial in 1984, which mimicked imagery from George Orwell's 1984, Apple has maintained a style of homage to contemporary visual art in many of its more famous ad campaigns. For example the Think Different campaign, which linked Apple to famous social figures--including artist John Lennon and social activist Mahatma Gandhi.

Apple has been criticized, however, for its sometimes questionable use of modern art as an inspiration for its marketing campaigns--at times re-creating a short film or music video shot-by-shot for its commercials. Some artists have documented entering into rights-negotiations with Apple, only to have Apple pull out of the discussions, then use the artistic imagery anyway. As a result, several lawsuits have been filed against Apple by artists and corporations alike, such as visual artist Louis Psihoyos and shoe company Lugz.

In 1997 the Think Different campaign introduced Apple’s new slogan, and in 2002 the Switch campaign followed. The most recent advertising strategy by Apple is the Get a Mac campaign.

Today, Apple focuses much of its advertising efforts around “special events", and keynotes at conferences like the MacWorld Expo and the Apple Expo. The events typically draw a large gathering of media representatives and spectators. In the past, special events have been used to unveil the Power Mac G5, the redesigned iMac, and many other Apple products.