“One of advertising’s more famed agency owners, David Ogilvy, had an adage. Actually, he had many. One was: ‘Only in the gravest cases should you show your clients’ faces,'” Chris Matyszczyk writes for CNET. “It’s marginal nonsense, of course. Some clients perform well on camera.”
“However, on seeing Apple Music’s ad during the Emmys (video below), I fear that some of Apple’s execs might have heeded Ogilvy’s warning,” Matyszczyk writes. “The scenario was that actor and late night show host James Corden was pitching ideas to them for an Apple Music ad. On the other side were Apple Music’s Jimmy Iovine and Bozoma Saint John, accompanied by Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue.”
“Corden suggests one lunatic idea for Apple Music after another, while the execs attempt to look appalled. Iovine, a veteran of “American Idol” — where there was plenty of fodder for negative expressions — knows how to pull it off,” Matyszczyk writes. “Cue, however, isn’t quite as natural an actor. He’s not remotely as natural as Jeb Bush, who offered an excellent cameo at the Emmys as an Uber driver. Moreover, who among the viewing audience would even know who Cue is?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Core underlying theory of putting Cue in this ad: Make Cue more “famous” since, without Steve Jobs’ looming behind him/luminescing next to him, he seems unable to get ink even in a stationery store, much less at the bottom of an Apple TV contract.
Now, with this ad and perhaps more to follow, the thinking goes, when Cue walks into a room, the content gatekeepers and network bigwigs will recognize him from “TV” (star power!) and be more likely to sign the dotted line on the Apple TV skinny bundle, new Apple Music contracts, and other such deals. Seems a reach to us, but “star power” is a thing and stranger things have happened (see: Fred “Gopher” Grandy, Al Franken, Sonny Bono, Jesse Ventura, Shirley Temple, Fred Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump…)
Corden was also featured in the Emmy’s opening monologue video along with the aforementioned “Jeb Exclamation Point” (appears starting at 3:40) and many other celebs:
Corden, who risks overexposure in opening videos (and in general), was also featured at the top of Apple’s September 7, 2016 special event to unveil the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and Apple Watch Series 2:
SEE ALSO:
Apple buys James Corden’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’ TV series for Apple Music exclusive – July 26, 2016
