The Spot: It’s a series of slow-motion vignettes in which people all across the globe take delight in their Apple products. A classroom full of Asian children staring at their iPads; a couple taking a gleeful selfie with their iPhone; a woman swaying on the subway, white earbuds affixed. Heart-tugging, plinky music sets the emotional ambiance. ‘This is our signature,’ asserts an announcer as the ad closes, “and it means everything.” The text of said signature—the phrase the brand slaps on everything it makes—now fades in: “Designed by Apple in California.”
“This ad falls into a tired category that I generally despise: the ‘family of man montage,'” Seth Stevenson writes for Slate. “Dreamy odes to the whole of humanity—and its propensity to buy our products. But that’s not all that was wrong with it. The ad just irked me from the get-go.”
“I wasn’t alone: The spot flopped. Surveys showed TV viewers rated it far below industry average,” Stevenson writes. “It fared dramatically worse than the typical high-scoring Apple ad. This attempt at stirring warm and fuzzy feelings just left folks cold.”
Stevenson writes, “Steve Jobs could somehow get away with terming his creations ‘magical.’ But in the Tim Cook era, with no revolutionary product launches to speak of, and none on the immediate horizon, the last thing Apple needs is a snotty, laurels-resting manifesto… ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Those who do not understand advertising/marketing campaigns should not attempt to critique advertising/marketing campaigns.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Apple ads: decried by the technocrati for forever.
Apple ads resonate with Apple users and are hated by apple haters. Gimmick, poor attempt at humor, and clicking ads resonate with the rest. There’s something for everyone.
These ads are purchase validators. They are ment to make Apple customers feel good and confident about their purchased products. Maybe we’ve been seeing them since June to make sure we all waited until September before buying a new phone.
Heaven forbid Apple fans be stricken with buyer’s remorse. I have never been. I have been frustrated only by the interminable wait for my next purchase.
The buyer’s remorse comes when the next generation device comes out. No one has a solution for that one.
Agreed. Lame ad. A company should never promote itself. It should only promote the product, and most of that promotion should be done by the product.
They’ll that to Coca-Cola (“I’d like to reach the world to sing…), McDonald’s (“You, you’re the one, you are the only reason…”, or Budwiser (any holiday add featuring their Clydesdales)
Yup. I believe they’re called imaging ads, or some such.
The brand is more important than any one product. Products come and go. Rightly or wrongly, people assume it’s a good car simply because it’s a Mercedes. It’s more desirable simply because of that. See Haagen Dazs, Tiffany’s, Tesla, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. etc. etc.
All of those brands are more important than any product.
(This being the internet, no doubt this post will be followed by the trashing of some of those brands, but that’s not the point.)
They are promoting features of the iPhone – the camera, FaceTime, etc. What ads were you watching?
Not sure what you’re talking about. Promoting the brand is equally important to promoting the product. Cook seems to like the “here’s all of our products at once” approach to the fall lineup. I think that’s a mistake and that Apple would be better served by spreading these things out a bit as they have in the past. That said, in the interval between new product releases, advertising the brand makes sense. The ads serve their purpose. The only people who don’t like the ads seem to be those who don’t like Apple. No big surprise there.
Oh shut up. No company is as integral to the products, or vice versa, as Apple.
that one was a tad heavy-handed. The narration mostly.
I’m not crazy about the ad either – and his point about the ‘family of man montage’ genre resonates with me – but I don’t see how a non-tech journalist can get away with saying Apple has nothing revolutionary coming “on the immediate horizon”; it’s just unsubstantiated non-reporting. Thanks again, Slate.
With the DOJ and the call-up to the hill, the American populous needed to know tha Apple Inc. is an American company.
who is this writer? No revolutionary product launches on the horizon? eff off
Human nature come into play here. When one unable to create something as good as Apple, one start to attack from all sides just to make sure to damper Apple’s success and boast one’s unwarranted ego.
His opinion. Period. It appears that’s the way ads on TV are done. It’s not about the product—it’s about you and how the product makes you feel. In that regard, these ads are quite effective. And affective.
still blows away all the other craptastic Apple wannabes…
Like your hat.
I used to know a Cathy. Yes, she liked it. 😉
Agreed. Lame. Look, California is cool enough. But not so much that you can base your marketing campaign on it. Like kids in China are just so thrilled that it was designed in California. LAME.
Steve Jobs put it on the back of the iPod because it was cool. A nifty detail. Not the selling point. Apple is starting to behave like a big lame company with expensive dumb ads. Wise up Cook before you ruin the legacy of killer Apple ads.
Agreed. Lame… 😎
Disagree 100% plus the phony surveys are driven by competitors and not credible.
This add is for Americans. Period. It’s a good ad that delivers good message.
Seth Stevenson — His mother never breast fed him, she told him she only liked him as a friend. 😛
I guess I am the only one in the world who liked it. It stated the concept behind the company: Apple doesn’t just “make” products; it designs them. Apple determines whether its products will enhance people’s lives; it doesn’t produce them just to make a buck. And, Apple is as American as you can get in world where labor costs are outrageous in the US and next to free in China.
I believe that was the concept, once upon a time. I think the belief is still present, but the reality is the dollar rules. I think that contradiction exists within Apple because that contradiction existed within Steve Jobs. I think he truly wanted to make people’s lives better, but he wanted Apple to make a lot of money doing it. I suspect he never understood or resolved that contradiction either. I doubt it will be resolved any time soon.
When changing the world, the point of view is, different.
Greg, there’s absolutely no reason that you SHOULDN’T make a lot of money making other people’s lives better. That’s not to say that one shouldn’t support charities, but the essential of real capitalism is that everyone involved wins by their own standard of winning. In that system, if anyone loses, the system is broken. There have been a lot of reports of such breaks, although many of those reports came down to people trying to redefine the deal after they’d already agreed what would be a “win” for them, out of apparent envy for the “win” other people in the deal enjoyed.
Tons of people love the ad. Remember, it was Samsung’s ad company that produced the “survey” that claimed the ad was bad. You can construct surveys to produce any result you want!
This.
This article just redelivers and regurgitates false and fabricated information from a completely discredited data source.
Article is right on the money, they’re definitely losing their edge here. Feels like someone who won’t stop talking about themselves. Seems like this is the area that most obviously misses SJ’s input. It will be really interesting to see if they can do some great new work for the next product launches.
what survey was that?
Isn’t that the same one that was quoted a few months ago, and then found to be conducted by a Samsung client ?!?
Sorry, SamLowry, you beat me to it and I did not notice. http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/06/28/a_teachable_moment_on_politics_who_says_everyone_hates_apple_s_ad_samsung
thanks, David, for providing the link, I was too stupid to find it.
David beat me to saying that you beat me to it!
More pilling on and clear evidence of some uninformed tech “pundit” dredging up old news that was already debunked. Do these guys actually get paid?
Apple lost the battle big time in category of smartphones. This is commercial what saying its still not over we will lose everything.
Shouldn’t he have come out with this opinion months ago, when the ads were still widely aired. A little too late to be an effective hit piece.
Old news?
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/06/28/a_teachable_moment_on_politics_who_says_everyone_hates_apple_s_ad_samsung
As the September product announcements loom ever nearer, the concomitant whining articles increase in number, gratuitous headlines beckoning, belligerence and resentment fully uncovered, trolls prowling, FUD seeping across a landscape once bright and beautiful but reduced by a cynicism that is the loser’s keenest talent.
Hunter S. Thompson lives! I knew your death was faked. You’re alive and well, and running a general store on a remote tropical island! I knew it!
And yet…and yet…cynicism, behind the frightening mirror – yearns to be vanquished, to feel redemptive pain and suffer…oh such exquisite suffering and remorse. The crushing weight of uncertainty. The end of reward and payment…and Fear.
Then…wondrous rebirth. Renewed rejuvenated….remade! No enemy, no guilt…No Memory. ‘I am again’…a shibboleth, a dispenser of dark and decay, a binary byte of bitterness…a feral cat…toying and taunting, tirelessly I stalk and…there…there it is….purr…purr….another shiny…perfect and juicy little nugget of prey….
I loathe gooey with the intensity of a hundred million burning suns.
Written by a doofus in…….hmmm, must either be WSJ or NYT or FORBES or…….well, they are all pretty doofus.
All that is happening here is a guy has been hired to disparage Apple. Disparaging something….anything…..is quite easy. Some people fall for it some people see through it. I see that some people have certainly fallen for it on this site. Family of man?! Give me a break! One, just ONE scene is from Japan, and suddenly it becomes “Family of Man”?
In this case, an Enlish degree (which I assume this guy has), has become nothing more than a spade used to shovel shit from a shithouse. What a waste!
This is so last month. Where has Slate been?
I’d imagine smelling their own farts under a snugly wrapped blanket with some hot chocolate, but what do I know?
I liked the ads. The look on the kids face on her dad’s lap with the iPad was priceless.
What a stupid ass writer…..probably had no kids, lives in a loft with his ‘friend’ who writes poetry.
I like the ads. I didn’t go to read the whole article. The excerpt was enough to hurt my feelings. I guess touchy-feely stuff is “out” with some of these self-important writers. It’s not “out” with girls though, or anyone open to the full “slate” of normal emotional responses. And remember “open” is better…
First time I’ve seen it. INSULIN! NEED INSULIN!
C’mon Slate. Despite the tag line, the new Apple ad positioning is: “Apple products are all about your experience.” As opposed to, “Apple is wonderful.” There, was that so hard to understand?
Dear Seth,
So?