On U.S. broadcast and cable networks, Apple has debuted a new ad for iPhone 6/Plus that focuses on Apple Pay.
In retails stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (and also works with Apple Watch paired with iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus).
The ad copy rhymes!
This is an iPhone. And this is Apple Pay.
Which lets you shop in a faster, simpler way.
For groceries, and kicks…
toys, and your lunchtime fix.
It’s safer than a credit card, and keeps your info yours.
And you can already use it in over one million stores.
If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.
MacDailyNews Take: Positively Seussian.
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Really? McDonald’s rot gut fries? Sheeze…
When Steve Jobs described Microsoft as having no taste, what he didn’t realize is, his successor was going to be the very thing he despised.
the ads are not bad but they are not great either.
In recent years Apple ads have not reached the heights of the great ads and campaigns like 1984, Think Different , Mac/PC guy.
Ads today seem too ‘cautious’, not edgy enough, they seem like ads written by a committee (to be ‘safe’, everyone’s ‘objections’ taken note) not by a genius maverick artist and because of that they lack punch. Ads like these won’t generate ‘buzz’ like 1984, think different etc, won’t ‘go viral’. Ads that go viral generate a LOT more marketing than just the dollar ad spend.
Mac OS when it first came out was lauded for being created ‘by artists’ i.e to push it beyond the ‘engineering standard’, beyond the obvious . Apple marketing seems to have ‘gone standard’ and needs some of that ‘maverick’ mojo back.
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Note when I wrote this there was only ONE comment above mine, showing how little interest Apple marketing nowadays have compared to the Great Campaigns of the past.
Ads like 1984, the lemmings one, and “I’m a Mac/PC” were edgy, but they were also representing a very different Apple. They were clever, but also insulting and condescending to Windows users. Those ads got a lot of attention, but also turned many off with their snobbish attitudes. Now that Apple is a huge, global company, they can’t afford to potentially alienate people with their commercials. They’re no longer the irreverent, scrappy little company of the past, and their ads reflect this. I think saying “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” is about as conceited as they can get away with being. Ads that attack other platforms and/or their users are for companies that are not doing well and need the attention, like Samsung.
Exactly. You made your post while I was writing mine.
?????
I’m not saying ‘copy’ or ‘repeat’ 1984 etc.
I’m saying the current ads don’t have the quality or buzz that those generated.
by all means address CURRENT issues and situations but do they have to be BLAND?
are you saying because once you are big you have to be BLAND in advertising ? ( I hope to god Apple marketing today don’t have this idea).
seriously where’s is the maverick inspiration behind this iPhone ad? Is it memorable? Will it go viral and start people (ordinary consumers) talking about Apple Pay?
You mean Apple cannot create cutting edge ads WITHOUT ” insulting and condescending to Windows users” etc ?
In a way, Apple actually has “gone standard”. They’re very literally in a position of dominance in many market segments. The tables have turned.
Apple is very much like the Microsoft they referenced in the seminal 1984 campaign. Millions of artists, architects and designers the world over already use the Mac, and it’s a standard in many ways, so the “Think Different” campaign would essentially tell people NOT to use the Mac. When you’re #1, you shouldn’t (nor do you need to) legitimize your competitors by talking about them, so the Mac/PC campaign no longer works.
All the great memorable campaigns were created at a time when Apple was the underdog, trying to win hearts and minds. It was a totally different environment. It isn’t that Apple has lots its marketing mojo. Rather, the job of telling the Apple story in a creative, memorable way is simply far more difficult than it ever has been because of Apple’s dominant position in the marketplace.
Ask yourself how many really big companies have created historic, viral ad campaigns that people loved. Hint: It’s not a long list.
“creative, memorable way is simply far more difficult”
do you think Ive uses the above words when he gets his staff working on a hardware problem?
Apple hardware is cutting edge, solving ‘impossible problems’ (weight, battery life, advance tech like force touch, fingerprint sensor etc) but Apple MARKETING should be held ‘different lower, standards because it’s ‘difficult’, lower standards (like bland advertising) because they are ‘common to other big companies’ ?
I can imagine Ive (or Jobs) correcting a hardware engineer who is complaining that a problem was ‘too difficult’ excusing it by saying ” Even other Big companies like Samsung can’t solve this!”
No, Like it’s Hardware engineers Apple marketing should be of the highest class , actually a class by itself on the top . It shouldn’t be governed by what other big companies can do.
As I said above is this new iPhone ad memorable, will it create buzz among ordinary consumers, go viral? don’t think so. So like i said this ad is OK but not great and hardly the same level as Apple’s Hardware chops or it’s previous ad campaigns.
“Apple is very much like the Microsoft”
in a way your statement is freaking scary.
(for the rest of my opinion read my response above).
man, this article and the replies of my post is troubling me. Like I said I sure as heck hope Apple hasn’t the same mentality about marketing as those people in the replies.
look basically TWO people commented on this article with a couple replying. this is the the BUZZ, the amount of interest of Apple ads today? In the old days people were CRAZY about apple ads, Time magazine talked about the Think Different campaign, Justin Long was a STAR (when he was in Die Hard people called him the Mac Guy) , the ads were mentioned in talk shows. Now an article of a new apple ad gets TWO comments (on an Apple Fan site!) and some replies. If it was ground breaking ad there would be 20, 40 comments. this is what Apple ads has degenerated to and you guys can’t recognize it. People are STILL talking about the 1984 ad, it’s taught in Advertising school ( I was in one of them). Now apple is making ads , not bad but not much better than any other companies, imagine like i said if Apple made their hardware like that!
People in Apple marketing used to say Jobs spent the most time with them after Ive’s lab. Jobs spent countless hours dealing with marketing issues, working with Ad directors. Besides the ground breaking ads I mentioned above there were also other things like the Glass Staircase in apple stores (joint patented by Jobs). What were they except a tool for MARKETING? Some cost more than a million bucks each (I read a long article on how they had to be engineered for earthquake resistance etc). that’s how serious Steve Jobs considered marketing : ‘ down to the staircase cost not an issue’. And Jobs did not think about what companies of that size etc did with THEIR store staircases, he broke new ground for electronic stores. .
Under Jobs EVERYTHING had to be first class:
Apple was ranked No.1 for:
Hardware
Software
Customer Service
Retail Stores
Advertising
(even the PACKAGING for products was the highest class. The unwrapping experience was taken into account).
the idea that Apple ads can’t shake the commercial world, be edgy , ground breaking, create buzz anymore because they are now big is disturbing.
Hmmm. Maybe consider caffeine free coffee for a while.
What was the last perfect world changing thing you did?
Ads have demographics. Do you know which demographics they were trying for? Hmmm maybe NOT you???
Just saying.
In case you haven’t noticed, Steve Jobs ain’t in charge anymore. The greatness of Apple died with Steve. Tim Cook is now a steward, a very poor one at that. Apple now overextends and fails in markets it has no business being in. The core competency products are now suffering from apathy and rushing to make a quick buck. It took forever for Steve to build Apple’s reputation. It has taken Tim Cook fifteen minutes to destroy it. The glory days of Apple are behind it. Now, like IBM and Microsoft before it, it will coast into oblivian.
Super slick, super competent. It’s a Tim Cook ad.
It lacks a zinger, something from the heart.
Now if stupid CVS would take Apple Pay and hookers would fall in line, we could add drugs and hugs to the rhyme. STUPID CVS!!!
Before anybody calls me ignorant, let’s all agree that anybody who watches Ray Donovan knows that hookers can take Apple Pay because the modern “hook” is made online where you REALLY need the security of Apple Pay. Hugs to all hookers! STUPID CVS!!!
Hate it.