Apple Ad Misses the Mark
Screen grab of Apple Ad for new iPad Pro
Earlier this week, Apple released an ad for their new iPad Pro. Behold:
Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024
Like much of the rest of the internet, my reaction to this was visceral. I hated it. Hated every second of it. Was repulsed by it. Enraged by it. Musical instruments, cameras and even paint cans are beautiful things. They are used by people to make beautiful things. I get the point: the iPad can do a lot of what those crushed items do. But like most devices that do many things, it doesn’t do any of them particularly well. It will take pictures, but not as well as a professional camera. It will make music, but not as beautifully as a piano. It can be used to draw, but lacks the thrilling touch and feel of paint on canvas.
One thing about me: I hate waste. I recycle not because I want to save the Earth but because I hate the waste of throwing things in landfills (although I am aware that many recycled items end up there anyway). My family will tell you that, at least once a month, I have a rant about throwing out food. I hate it when small items come in big containers that are just wasted space. That’s part of my visceral reaction here: I can’t stand seeing thousands of dollars of nice things destroyed for an ad.
I mean … it’s just an ad. But it also represents how, under Tim Cook, Apple has really lost the narrative. They have continually made decisions that made their products worse such as getting rid of the magsafe connector, reducing the number of ports to a bare minimum and moving functions like shutting down App Store purchased around so that, EVERY TIME I NEED TO DO SOMETHING WITH MY PHONE, I HAVE TO FIND A FRICKING YOUTUBE VIDEO EXPLAINING WHAT OBSCURE MENU THEY MOVED THAT FUNCTIONALITY TO.
Ahem.
This is the apotheosis: thinking that their fan base will be thrilled to watch thing destroyed and crushed into a soulless slab of metal.
Ironically, Apple did have the makings of a truly glorious ad. All they had to do was reverse the footage. Director Reza Sixo Safai turned this awful ad into something beautiful:
Hey @Apple, I fixed it for you (sound on) pic.twitter.com/OwVnYNgXhT
— Reza Sixo Safai (@rezawrecktion) May 8, 2024
I’d still have an issue since things were destroyed to make the forward footage. But we can pretend that was all CGI. In any case, this is not only a better ad, it makes Apple’s point better: than a simple device can make you have all those beautiful things in the palm of your hand.
Watching the original ad was so painful I literally (I use the word _literally_) could not watch to the end. The reverse ad was beautiful.
I share the sentiments expressed in the post 100%; not only the visceral reaction against the wastage to produce the footage, but also the objection to the assumption that the virtual can replace the physical.Report
I share the initial impression. However… I’m 40. Am I the target demo here? I imagine how this might look to the younger generate… to the teens and tweens and kids like my own (ages 9 and 11). They’d probably think this was awesome… not only because they might be jazzed by the visuals of destruction but also because they don’t have the relationship with all those crushed items that we do. “A guitar? What? Why? I can make music on my iPad! Get that old thing out of here.”
Now, my kids aren’t BUYING iPads. If they were to get a new iPad, I’d be the one footing the bill. But I imagine an ad like this might make a kid or tween or teen that much more likely to demand a new one from whoever IS footing the bill. “Dad! My iPad doesn’t have a guitar inside like the new one! I WANT THE ONE WITH THE GUITAR INSIDE!”Report
Whether it was a “good” ad for Apple depends on what they were trying to achieve, but I appreciated it as a depressing but accurate metaphor for our current reality.Report
I assume that it must be CGI if only because I am 99.99% sure that the budget for finding one of these presses and using it on the actual items would cost more than having one of the guys you stole from Disney throw it together over a weekend.
And, like, remember OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass”?
That took 60 takes!
I am sure that if they put the real things on a real press like that, it would take more than one take.
Yeah, it’s CGI.
Wait… Apple should have just called OK Go.
Here’s your budget, here’s what we’re making, knock yourselves out… the final shot needs to be one of you or all four of you holding up the device.
Ok… go.Report
Long ago there was a radio commercial with the purpose of selling radio advertising. The message was about doing weird events with sound effects. As I recall, the voice-over described the completion of draining Lake Erie, refilling the lake bed with whipped cream, and then a group of fighter jets flying over to drop a 10-ton maraschino cherry into the whip. Appropriate sound effects throughout. The tag line was “Let’s see you do that on television!”
We’ve reached the point where it’s feasible.Report
Stan Freberg!
Report