
On Apple's new ads - fratis
http://frank.is/on-apples-new-ads/
======
CoffeeDregs
At the end of the airplane ad: gotta go to aisle 2 to help with a Keynote
issue!

    
    
        1) Why was the first guy having so many issues?
        2) To the average user, WTF is a keynote?
        3) I thought that Macs were easy to use?  Why do we need
           a "genius" to help use them?
    

In hindsight, I have no recollection of the nature of the issues the Genius
solved. I just remember that lots of Macs were being used and lots of problems
were occurring, leading the genius to have to run around the plane. Or
something.

This is in stark contrast to Apple ads of the past:

    
    
        * Rainbow colored people dancing around with iPods.  
          Music + simple + fun = iPod.  Got it.
        * I'm a Mac.  Funny, non-threatening, laid-back hipster versus clumsy,
          goofy, sweaty guy.  Macs are simple, smart, cool.  Got it.
        * Old iPhone ads.  Lots of swiping, cool effects, plenty of brands, easy to use.
          Pick up an iPhone, noodle with it and I'll get it.  Got it.

~~~
taligent
So let me see if I have this right.

What you remember is that "If you are having problems with your Mac (no matter
how dumb) then an Apple genius is available who is willing to do anything to
help you."

Sounds to me like Apple achieved the purpose of the ads.

~~~
CoffeeDregs
>What you remember is that "If you are having problems with >your Mac (no
matter how dumb) then an Apple genius is >available who is willing to do
anything to help you."

Negative. I remembered that "I should expect to have problems with my Mac".
I'm more concerned about that than I am about having help nearby. AFAIKnew,
Macs were supposed to be easy to use. My wife, non-technical, was left with
the same impression.

~~~
ollysb
I'm guessing to the target audience there is no such thing as a computer that
they can use without any help at all. Apple already has a reputation for
making products that are easier to use. Now they're pushing the message that
you'll always have great support as well (as opposed to the guy waving goodbye
from the shop).

~~~
jiggy2011
Depends what they mean by support, do Apple give you a line you can call and
say "hey, I need to make an anniversary card, please stay on the line and talk
me through the whole thing?"

~~~
ollysb
I do agree they might be setting expectations a tad high here...

------
forrestthewoods
"Apple, are you serious with this commercial? We’re in trouble."

Is anyone else bothered by usage of "we" here? I suppose it's not unlike a
sports fan referring to their team as "we". There's just something disturbing
about someone saying "we're in trouble" because a corporation they are a fan
of produced a slightly less than stellar advertisement.

~~~
radley
A fan? We're not sitting on the sidelines hoping they score. Most of us
professionals make a living and have invested of thousands of dollars (if not
10k, 100k, or > 1M) into the platform.

It's not that they're turning OSX into a consumer platform. It's that they're
doing it so clumsily, with such garish hubris and lack of focus or reality,
that it's worrisome.

~~~
enjo
What's a "consumer platform" exactly?

~~~
tsahyt
A very blunt reply would be: A dumbed down one.

Really, I think it's hard to dumb down an operating system enough to make it
impossible to be productive with it. However, one can try. To my terms a
consumer is the exact opposite of a producer. Therefore a consumer platform is
obviously a platform for people who _consume_ products, like software, and
whatever they've got on iTunes, rather than for those who make it.

Now this is a bit awkward, cause you provably can still do productive work on
OSX - lots of people do that rather successfully. So it's really hard to put
your finger on what exactly is "consumer" about it and since I haven't used
OSX more than a couple of hours (didn't like it), I frankly don't really know.
Maybe somebody else can elaborate on that?

------
vegashacker
I like the one called Mayday (<http://www.apple.com/mac/videos/#tv-ads-
mayday>). The awkward delivery of "I'm a genius" comes off as sincere modesty,
in contrast to the condescenion of Justin Long's "I'm a Mac" character. This
is actually charming.

The task in the commercial (creating a video from lots of raw footage) is
something a non computer pro wouldn't expect to be easy. Being able to do that
in "27 minutes" sounds impressive. And the fact that a Genius could show you
how to do this in that short amount of time is appealing. This isn't
portraying Macs as having lots of problems--it's showing that mere mortals can
do impressive things with them.

Finally, the guy the Genius helps first actually gets up with the Genius to go
help the guy in 21F. The commercial ends with him saying, "Let's do this." The
Genius gave someone such confidence in their Mac skills that he feels ready to
become a Genius-like helper himself.

The other two suck though.

------
jsz0
I think they're fine. I'm not sure how else Apple could advertise the Genius
Bar / Apple Store which is clearly what these ads are for. Any approach to
that is going to be a bit exhausted. They could have a Genius stand there and
explain the service, they could do consumer testimonials, they could do fake
celebrity testimonials, they could do some mock in-store experience thing, but
what else? There is no tangible product to show off. People are kind of
missing the more interesting story here which is Apple deciding to advertise
for the Apple Store and services. They've never done that before. It is a big
competitive advantage so I think the message is important. If someone can come
up with a better ad for the Genius Bar / Apple Store I will concede they are
bad ads. Otherwise I think the message of the ads is more important than the
style.

~~~
jmillikin
They could show the product in use.

An older man in a business suit walks in with a visibly old Apple laptop --
say, a G4 iBook or similar vintage. He explains to the tech that it's a great
computer, but it can't go very long without being plugged in any more. The
tech checks it out for a moment, comes back with a new battery, installs it,
"all set sir, anything else I can help with ... (etc)". Cut to the customer on
a plane the next day, smiling as he uses it for something.

A young woman walks in to an Apple store holding an iPhone. She bought it a
few months ago, and this morning, it wouldn't turn on. The tech checks it out
for a moment, apologizes for the problem, copies everything over to a new
iPhone, and hands it to the customer, "anything else ...". Cut to her using
some personalized feature, like browsing photos, which people are often afraid
of losing during computer upgrades.

Swap in genders and ethnicities as desired. The point is to have something
that happens to real people ("my computer doesn't work as well as it used to",
"my phone isn't working"), and then demonstrate how the product solves their
problem.

~~~
panicslowly
> They could show the product in use.

I'm thinking Samsung has exclusive rights to advertise for consumer
electronics (or something like that) during the Olympics. (Keep in mind these
ads debuted for the Olympics' opening ceremony.)

Therefore Apple has to advertise in a way that gets around these exclusivity
deals. Therefore products are a no show.

~~~
jessedhillon
That is a very important context to these ads. So much so, that it renders the
rest of the conversation essentially moot.

Do you have a link explaining the situation?

~~~
panicslowly
Nope. Conjecture, sorry.

But there's a term for it, Ambush marketing:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambush_marketing>

------
wisty
They don't show the products. It's almost like a satire of a Linux fanboy:

"I want to back up my hard drive every day."

"It's simple - one command and it's in your crontab!"

"Wow. And ... I'm looking for a file I was working on. I can't remember the
name, all I know is it's got a phone number somewhere near the top."

"OK, what format was the phone number in? I can grep that in no time!"

"Wait, it's on my home competer! I'll never be able to access it"

"HA! That's what you think. Let's see if your SSH is up ..."

~~~
Tichy
You make those sound like a bad thing. How do you search for a document with a
phone number on OS X? Is the appropriate (socially acceptable) response for
these problems to clap your hands together over your head and shout "oh dear"?

~~~
wisty
grep? OSX has a UNIX terminal.

Apple is popular because it's user friendly, not because it has features.
Advertising features isn't going to wow people.

Demonstrating how user-friendly features are (even if you fake it a bit with
expert users, and cherry-picking use cases) works, not simply telling the
users that the features are there (and worse, arrogantly saying they are easy
to use).

~~~
Tichy
Yes but grep is not allowed for this task, it is not socially acceptable. So
how would you do it in an Apple way (cool, stylish, hipsterish) without
freaking people out?

------
andrewfelix
These ads will move product. Let me explain why;

There is a large segment of the market that isn't tech savvy. Computers scare
them, they know they're not very good with machines, and they know they'll
need help. Now imagine this consumer presented with two potential options; _1)
A laptop with paid phone support. 2) A laptop with face to face human
support._

Apple is attempting to communicate the human support they offer with their
products.

These ads look bad to you and I because they're not marketed to you and I. We
don't need a 'Genius', we don't need to be condescended, we know how a Macbook
works. We will make purchase decisions completely outside of what these new
ads communicate. There will be and are other marketing techniques used to
appeal to our market.

~~~
tesseractive
The most devastating critique I saw of these ads is that it seems like they
could easily have been Best Buy ads for Geek Squad. You and I might be able to
think of a hundred reasons why it might be more sensible to entrust your
computer problems to an Apple Genius than to a member of the Geek Squad, but
if the target is indeed people without any of this knowledge, how well do you
think that Apple communicated that the value they provide is leagues beyond
Best Buy?

~~~
jopt
They probably didn't. I don't think that was their focus.

------
ruethewhirled
I find that American style ad's have an underlining fakeness to them, its hard
to put my finger on it. I'm assuming its just a cultural difference being from
New Zealand but some ad's from the States just grate me the wrong way. These
Apple ad's are particularly bad in this respect.

~~~
grecy
It's because they're actors with pearl-perfect teeth, perfectly styled hair,
perfect professional makeup and they are in a Hollywood perfect world where
everything is spotless and organized 'just so'.

It kind of makes things feel like a dream.

The reality of life in the US is a hilarious smack in the face compared to the
Hollywood advertised US we see on TV/Movies

------
mladenkovacevic
I guess on the plus side the ads present the friendly, cheery, non-threatening
genius as a contrast to some grumpy, over caffeinated helpdesk guy you might
have working at your office or a sleazy, lazy Best Buy customer service rep
who just wants to sell you another warranty. What's odd though is that every
ad shows exactly the situations where you wouldn't have access to a genius :S

Here is everybody analyzing these ads like they are a long-lost Kubrick reel
so I guess it still works on some level among the Apple faithful.

------
ebzlo
I feel like I wasn't delivered the train wrecks I was promised. I didn't think
these were so bad.

~~~
wdewind
Here's why I didn't like them:

1) There was zero indication the commercials were for Apple except for the
genius and sparse product placement. Compare and contrast this to the obvious
visual feel and genre that previous ad campaigns ad: the white silhouettes for
iPods, the Apple vs. PC guy, etc. You knew these were Apple ads.

2) Gone are the broad, crisp, clear claims, gone are the simple stories. The 2
examples I have above tell two pretty distinct stories: 1) Apple is really
into music, and 2) Apple computers are just so much better than PCs it's a
joke, respectively. What is the new story being told? That iMovie will save
you time? That the geniuses are really good at tech support? That celebrities
use Macs? I didn't hear one "this is the best X ever." The ads have every bold
edge smoothed off them until they are unrecognizable and meaningless (see:
Orwell's Politics and the English Language).

3) Finally, simply put these just aren't entertaining. They aren't
aesthetically pleasing. They aren't distinctive in anyway. I don't expect to
like advertising, and while I don't think Jobs was a god, one thing he
definitely had was good taste. He wanted each ad to be a cultural piece in and
of itself. This is just bland crap that makes me feel like they are just
trying to reinforce a brand perception (which is exactly what they are trying
to do, which is exactly why it feels like bland crap: they have no legitimate
reason to be talking to me right now.)

I agree they aren't train wrecks, they are just the subway: the shit you take
every day. It mostly works but it sure as hell isn't exciting.

~~~
RandallBrown
The first few times I saw one of these ads I thought they were an ad for the
Apple section of Best Buy. I couldn't believe that Apple was making a
commercial that was so... average.

------
Johngibb
I think that people are way overreacting to these ads. They're not great - I
don't like them. I didn't like Mac vs. PC ads either.

Apple has made mistakes while Steve Jobs was there too. Think of the cube, of
antennagate, of all the cracks and discoloring and recalls of early MacBooks.
Think of Ping, and MobileMe.

Not every misstep is a signal that Apple is in decline without Steve Jobs; I'm
not even convinced that these ads wouldn't have come out with if Jobs was
still with us.

------
gojomo
I like the new genius-centered ads, such as the ones with a genius helping a
plane passenger or an expectant father.

They're gently absurd situations. The genius is helpful above-and-beyond what
would be reasonable, emphasizing an important Apple advantage. And, specific
product benefits get worked into the dialogue.

I always thought the 'genius bar' naming was a bit pretentious, but clearly
it's worked as a brand differentiator for Apple for years. And while I've got
nothing against Justin Long, the Mac-vs-PC ads featuring him were far more
elitist/patronizing/snooty. In these ads, the genius is more amiable.

Let's not forget the generation of 'Switcher' ads that had Ellen "beep, beep,
beep" Feiss. Apple ads have varied in tone and focus from year-to-year: you
can't feature archetypes against a white background forever, as any look will
get dated over time.

(Maybe some of the future genius-helping-outside-the-store ads can feature
cameos of previous ad actors... Feiss, Hodgeman, Dreyfuss getting direct
genius help?)

------
Aloha
I like it. From where I sit it pokes fun at the stereotypical "living in the
land of unrealistic expectations" Apple Macintosh user. Maybe that's why some
of the folks are so offended at it.

Like it or not, even the Mac is a complex combination of hardware and
software, and while much of this is obvious to those of us who spend 8+ hours
in front of a computer, its not obvious those everyone else. While perhaps
poorly executed, I think the ads do point out the difference between Apple and
Everyone Else; When you buy a Mac, there is ALWAYS an expert standing by to
help you solve your problems, someone who knows everything about your hardware
and software, this is something the PC world does not have.

------
snowwrestler
When Apple announced their plans to open retail stores, there was a general
reaction something like "what a huge mistake." The most recent experiences in
branded computer retail had been the Gateway stores, and we all know how they
turned out.

This was before Steve Jobs was (apparently) universally acknowledged as an
infallible business leader. Think about what we might know about Tim Cook 7
years from now.

I think the ads are fine, but I can see how others might not like them. Either
way I think it's a pretty big stretch to extrapolate these into a general
decline for the company.

------
lis
There is actually another point to consider: employee satisfaction and
recognition. These ads are stressing the importance of the geniuses for apple.
Kind of like intels "our rockstars aren't your rockstars" campaign, which
emphasizes the fact that the researchers and engineers are really important
for intels success. I used to work as a researcher for another big software
company and I would have loved such a spot, just to feel recognized. Our
rockstars were definitely the sales people.

------
brudgers
The commercials make geniuses seem analogous to crapware.

Buying a sleek computer without one who acts in the way depicted in the
commercials might be seen as a feature.

------
radley
Apple used to demonstrate effulgence and creativity.

These were Lifestyle-channel ads.

I couldn't watch after the first one.

------
rglover
I shared similar sentiments about the airplane ad that started popping up
recently. It really does feel like a watered down, misdirected version of
Apple. My initial reaction was an audible "huh?"

------
dbecker
Is Apple trying to change their brand image from "It just works" to "Using our
software is stressful and requires special knowledge. Expect to work with tech
support for day-to-day usage."

------
veritas9
Since when did TV commercials dictate a company's success? While I agree, the
ad is pretty crumby, at the end of the day the most important thing is that
Apple keeps the same level of quality in it's product pipeline.

Besides, last time I checked, Apple sources out their ads through an agency,
specifically - TBWA Media Arts Labs <http://www.mediaartslab.com>. If
anything, someone in marketing screwed up and approved a lame ad. Not a
determining factor in their continued innovation or actual products.

------
extension
For comparison: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oAB83Z1ydE>

------
Metrop0218
They're not terrible by themselves, but relative to Apple's older ad
campaigns, they're awful.

------
taligent
As we have said before in the previous post:

1) You are not the target audience for this ad. Nobody cares whether you like
it or not. We want to know what your parents and grandparents think of them.
And AFAIK this is the first time Apple has deliberately targeted an older
audience.

2) Steve Jobs personally said that he was involved in 2-3 years worth of
products. So you can skip that whole "Steve Jobs is gone. Apple is going to
die." rhetoric.

~~~
MBlume
> The product pipeline will take years to screw up. But the ad pipeline can be
> screwed up in no time.

Did you read the post you're commenting on?

------
hk_kh
Oh.. excuse a company for trying to target a wider audience.

Now, if the discussion is about these ads involving a decay on the quality of
the end product, wait at least two years.

Right now, some people is pissed off because these ads "do not represent" them
at all. Well, Apple marketing execs do not care. They already got you on the
bandwagon.

