“MasterCard is out with its latest ‘Priceless Surprises’ ad featuring Apple Pay with the help of artist Gwen Stefani,” Zac Hall reports for 9to5Mac.
“Like its previous World Series promotions, which put Apple Pay front and center, the new 30-second spot shows cardholders using the iPhone 6 and Apple Pay to checkout for purchases and being rewarded with various offers like golf trips, handbags, and concert tickets,” hall reports. “The chance to meet Stefani is also on offer with her latest single, ‘Spark The Fire,’ set as the ad’s soundtrack.”
Hall reports, “MasterCard’s ad joins Chase’s latest ad campaign featuring Apple Pay with Fun lead guitarist Jack Antonoff’s side indie band Bleachers and a focus on small businesses and the mobile payment option.”
Read more in the full article here.
Awful ad. Did I mention that I don’t like Gwen Stafani?
You know you’ve nailed the business model when your partners are throwing millions of dollars promoting your offering. Like the carriers before them, each banks is going to make sure you’re using your Apple products with *their* service.
No Doubt
I was going to reply to Yuck, but yours is better.
I liked No Doubt, but not a fan of Gwen individually. She was much better in the ska realm than chic pop, imo.
Didn’t she make a commercial for Microsoft a few years ago touting how much she loved her Windows Phone and much work she got done with it. She FINALLY just released a new song (with upcoming album) and now she is advertising an Apple product. Maybe she should have switched a little sooner.
Oh yeah.
The target audience here is going to soak this up. Contemporary young popular singers have rather powerful influence on wide swaths of consumers. None of us here (or very few, I’d guess) fall into this target group, but that doesn’t invalidate the ad; it will be exceptionally effective, I have no doubt.
I don’t know anything at all about Gwen Stefani, other than hearing the name out there. I’m vaguely aware that she is a singer. Therefore, I can’t pass judgement if she’s any good or not; I just know that she is quite popular, which is enough for the ad.
On the other hand, as one possessing boundless curiosity, and admittedly interested in everything, and uses his iPhone to learn about all of it, and as a former musician, you could easily learn about Gwen Stefani’s position in pop culture, and form a firmer grasp on the ad’s potential influence on young buyers. Perhaps your interests vary in their depth?
After seeing this ad, I had googled Gwen Stefani a bit. She appears to have had quite a successful career so far. I’m not sure I’m going to need more information on this; I’m not much of a fan of contemporary popular music, and there is only so much free time one has to satisfy one’s curiosity (and so many more interesting subjects than popular music)…
Does Gwen live in a cave? Is that all-over body powder? Is she an albino? Does she bathe in chlorine bleach? 😉
I noticed the DP is using a special light on her face (or enhanced in post) for some ungodly reason I assume to make her standout more. A little overkill.
She is very white. Regardless, I think she’s hot. She has a great voice and is a pretty cool person.
Some songs I could do without, but she’s very fun and talented from my POV. But check out those dark eyebrows. Then compare the platinum everything else. That’s scary strange. That’s freaky.
She died, but they forgot to tell her…
I didn’t want to say. Either that or she’s got the makeup artist from the ‘Twilight’ film series. Oops.
people here are complaining how awful this ad looks (I agree) but I wonder why isn’t Apple itself promoting Apple Pay?
actually bigger question is why isn’t apple promoting:
Apple TV
or MACS — no serious ad campaign in spite of Thunderbolt, , cheap mac minis and iMacs, Mac manufacturing in USA, advanced MacBooks, Retina iMacs, Windows 8 meltdown etc.
(Apple ran 66 different Mac Pc guy ads in 4 years but that stopped in 2009. Mac’s make as much profit as Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Sony , HP PCs COMBINED but has only 5-10% worldwide market share, i.e lower than iPhones and yet no serious ad campaign … the ‘stickie’s ads ran briefly and died without getting onto TV in my area)
doesn’t advertise any of it’s software like iWork etc.
Meanwhile Apple spent a rumoured 100 million for the Bono iTunes promotion and I saw Bono TV ads many times ….
?????
(I know I’ve harped on this before but like big iPhones, small iPads etc , as an aapl investor I’m just hoping someone will pick it up and kick it upstairs at Apple. The big macs sales last quarter I believe helped boost apple’s stock price, as a CONSUMER the more macs they sell the more Apple will invest in it and the better for my buying choices).
Think about it if GM decided to only advertise it’s CARS but refuse to advertise it’s TRUCKS… don’t make sense.
when you have GOOD products ads are not an expense but a profit multiplier…
They don’t need to spend money on Mac ads. Their competitors do it already.
so why do they advertise iPhones and iPads?