Following their FaceTime introductory ad (directly below), Apple has unleashed four new television ads promoting iPhone 4’s new video calling feature.
Apple – iPhone 4 – TV Ad – FaceTime (Intro):
Apple – iPhone 4 – TV Ad – Meet Her:
Apple – iPhone 4 – TV Ad – Smile:
Apple – iPhone 4 – TV Ad – Haircut:
Apple – iPhone 4 – TV Ad – Big News:
MacDailyNews Take: To call these ads winners would be too much of an understatement. FaceTime is the killer app that will power the iPhone’s continuing bloodbath.
Wow! Grady has a grandchild! Cool.
I think they’re very effective. Plays into your emotions well… not like those cold, sterile, idiotic Droid ads.
Yeah I could have sworn blind Mr Jobs said face time never freezes, mine does and quits almost everytime despite being on a 20MBPS connection
Great.
Don’t miss “The Story Behind the Apps” video. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=…/5/kTcpa_KCSBY
The ads really make you feel related to them.
Ok, let us see meeting the family online. That might be fun! Or not. LOL
While I think video calling is certainly a killer feature for some (i.e. people who previously couldn’t use a phone because they need to use sign language, people who want to see family members who are distant from them etc), I don’t know that it will be a killer feature for most people.
Video calls have been available for years here in Australia and they seem to barely be used by anyone who doesn’t *need* to use them. Evidence here would seem to suggest that people are happy making voice calls. And it’s not like it was hard to make a video call (not on the phone I had at least), and it could be done over 3g, so connectivity wasn’t really a limiting factor.
I get the feeling that until there is a general shift in how people *want* to communicate (via video rather than just voice) video calling probably isn’t going to suddenly go ballistic.
But, you never know. Maybe someone can manufacture a need/desire in the populace, or maybe things will naturally shift that way on their own.
Nice. I like them all except the last one. “Do you got a minute?” Please. I like the Bob one best.
@Craig
Agreed–just look at the shift to texting–it’s less stressful than talking to a voice you can’t see.
Video calls are like being on TV for most people I think–not fun.
Still very cool if you want or need it though!
Those are some incredibly cloying ads. Effective emotionally, but is having a kid the only hook they could com up with? Sheesh.
iPhone 4: the phone for breeders.
@Lava_Head
Then your partner’s connection blows. I have a 10 MB/s connection and I have yet to drop a call.
Get some friends with decent broadband and stop trolling.
@Mr. Reeee
Agreed. They should come up with an ad with 2 men singing rounds of a some famous showtune. Or picking a color scheme for their Fire Island beach house sunroom.
Nextt in the series:
You’re fired!
Can’t we just be friends?
Dad, can you come bail me out?
I love the ads, they are very personal and touching.
However, all of these individuals are holding the phone using the ‘death grip’…fortunately you can only use FaceTime within a WiFi network, otherwise we might be seeing a completely different type of commercial.
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Not trying to be the knucklehead of the bunch but all these spots seem way too sanitized. Very painful to watch. Love Apple to tears and think FaceTime is brilliant but here’s hoping the second round of ads is much better than these ones.
I just thought it was kinda funny that in some of these commercials they are holding the iPhone the ‘wrong’ way.??!!
The ads are brilliant for several reasons. First, they advertise a feature that only works on WiFi. Second, they advertise a feature which, although fairly new to the US market, has been in existence in virtually every country of the world with a 3G network for many, many years. And finally, they advertise a feature that will likely be of little real, practical use to the iPhone owners who buy their iPhone based on these ads.
The point is, Apple is using effective dramatic tools to elicit emotional response from the viewer, who will in turn want to get the phone because of the message eliciting that response. They will go and get the iPhone 4, so that they can now ‘finally’ have video calls. They will likely even force themselves (subconsciously) to make those video calls with other iPhone 4 owners, because the feature is obviously so great. Eventually, they will use the feature less and less, but will still continue to swear by their iPhone (for all other, more than valid, reasons). Apple’s ultimate goal is accomplished, though. They got people to consider the iPhone for a very special, somewhat gimmicky feature, and will hook them with all other features that are much more difficult to advertise effectively (and emotionally).
These ads will sell tens of millions of iPhones by themselves.
Two college dudes swigging brews at opposite ends of the country:
” Dude, whats up?”
“Dude, party”
“Dude”
Thats an emotional ad!!!
Video calling has been around for years but it has not caught on big time. Why? because it’s a pain to initiate a video call and the implementation is crappy to say the least.
Now Apple has made it so idiot-proof and easy, I think it will catch fire and spread. This the magical touch of Apple’s panache and competitors who have been figuring how to implement a procedure for years will have an easy time to copy it without sweating. There are computers, there are phones, there are tablets for years but no one has been successful to make them mainstream until Apple shows the way.
I have to agree with Nuclear Kid. The “acting” seemed forced and sterile. Did someone from the most recent Star Wars movies franchise direct these?. I suppose it is more effective to see than to hear, as the original FaceTime ad showed us.
Yes, sanitized. And over acted, overly careful Hallmark card moments, unlike actual reality. These may work for a lot of people but they’re un-Apple. Where’s the irony or humor. Even the emotional Think Different commercials had gritty, real footage.
The original one works the best, because you’re seeing people in different surroundings using them — from the grandparents watching their granddaughter get ready for graduation to the soldier overseas seeing his wife’s ultrasound (okay, that one got me looking for the Kleenex box).
The rest are a little weaker because they’re just focusing on one thing, that might not apply to me. I wouldn’t mind seeing one where just a couple of friends happen to be using Face Time — say, someone’s out shoe shopping and calls her friend to ask opinions, or even just a couple of dudes shooting the breeze. As for popularity, my husband is actually considering upgrading to an iPhone 4 from his standard flip phone, so we can use Face Time when I’m traveling. The portability is going to be the selling feature of the program — previous video calls you had to be stuck in one place with special equipment, but now you can go anywhere there’s a WiFi connection. And maybe someday ATT will get its act together and upgrade the network to allow for Face Time across 3G. (Yeah, I know there are outside apps that can do that, but most people don’t want to be bothered having to install something else; they want the experience “out of the box”.)
You nay-sayers haven’t a clue. The ads work. I know. Saturday my daughter called me to initiate FaceTime (for both of us, it turns out) and I got to spend twenty minutes with my seven month old granddaughter. It really was like the first ad. Moreover, our granddaughter actually recognized us, smiled, and tried to grab the phone. This is so much better than iChat. There are a lot more “breeders” and lovers and parents than cynics. Who cares if WE find the ads cloying, if enough people are motivated by them to buy iPhones.
I also think Apple is trying to soften the edgy image it got from the latest news-crap and from the “I’m a Mac” ads.
@Jim
Ya dang near killed me. Best laugh I’ve had in a while.
And we’re showing our age.
@Banjo…I nearly fell out of my chair on that one, same, best laugh I’ve had in a while too!
@ Jim……toooo toooo funny!