As reported by this WWW site ’s very own newsworthiness - gathering team this workweek , three new iPhone TV ads are now in heavy rotation at a television set near you . I discussed them brieflyelsewhere on the land site , mostly from the perspective of seeing them for the first time at an peak of 35,000 foot thanks to the miracle of JetBlue ’s in - flight entertainment alternative . But I think the new commercials invite further discussion , largely because they ’re such a departure from late iPhone advertising .
But before we get into that , here ’s a blow - by - nose candy account of the three new iPhone spots :
•Dougbegins his iPhone sales pitch with a bluff affirmation : “ One of the superlative advancements in the history of mankind , without question ” is visual voicemail because it lets you blame the messages you want to listen to . A four - minute message from a guy who owes Doug money believably is a song - and - dance about how he ca n’t bear Doug , so Doug feel confident that he can cut that message . I think Doug could have come up with a better exemplar that does not conjure up images of loan - sharking and usury .
•Elliotrelates the story of that time he and his girlfriend were about to meet her boss and the foreman ’s fiancée for dinner , only they could n’t commemorate said fiancée ’s name . The result to this dicey social situation ? scald out the iPhone and sneakily employ the built - in Safari browser app to look up the fiancée ’s name on the wedding Web land site . Also an satisfactory answer : Have the boss bring out the fiancée you ’ve never met before , like a civilised , well - mannered grownup .
•Stefanostarts by enjoin he used to need a petty bag to expect everything around with him : “ I had the iPod . I had a camera . And I had a regular speech sound , and a phone I ’d practice for text messages and e - mails and stuff like that . Four thing . ” He holds up the iPhone ; “ One thing , ” he says . The iPhone , Stefano concludes , is “ everything , all in one , for me . ” I mentioned at iPhone Central that , for a variety of government issue kinsfolk like my colleague Dan Moren have already detailed , the iPhone is n’t quite the iPod replenishment Stefano makes it out to be . And some photo enthusiasts might argufy the feeling that the phone ’s build - in camera is anything more than a convenient accouterment rather than a degree - and - shoot rival . But I ’m guessing that Stefano could believably suppress me like a grape , so I ’m not disposed to severalize him that he ’s haywire .
With the exclusion of a abbreviated cutaway of Doug scroll through his visual voicemail lean of deadbeats and unfortunate person , the only clock time you see an iPhone in any of the three advert is in the hand of the Doug , Elliot , and Stefano — there ’s no close - up of the iPhone ’s interface .
This is a marked contrast to the initial blast of iPhone advertizement back in June , where the phone was clearly the star of the show . With the exception of a deal that performed the pinching , scroll , leaf , and flipping required to go the machine , the iPhone ’s port was all you see in those 30 - 2d spots . Perhaps , Apple is assuming that at this point in the iPhone ’s life-time , everyone who ’s going to plump down $ 399 for the twist have it off what it looks like . And it ’d be hard to argue otherwise .
Still , I ca n’t get over the gnaw at suspicion that , while most likely buyers may be able-bodied to recognize an iPhone on sight , they are credibly still ill-defined on how well-situated it is to work . To spend even the brief moments scrolling your way through an iPhone ’s functions is to almost immediately make how very different it is from competing machine . And to me , it seems a more effectual use of airtime in a visual medium toshowthe twist in natural process , rather than just have someone talk about it .
Takethis position , which was among the original triplet of iPhone goggle box ads . The 30 - secondment commercial message show how a drug user can apace go from take in a movie to see up directions to placing a phone call , all on the same gimmick . If there ’s a nippy way of showing the power and simplicity of the iPhone , I ’d sure care to see it .
The return - argument , I suppose , is that the tardy iPhone ads move beyond the premise - the - phone’s - features message into a real - stories - from - real - people phase . Think of it as the iPhone ’s adaptation ofthe Switch campaignfrom a few years back , in which alienate Windows users profess their newfound love of the Mac chopine . Of course , that drive debuted in 2002 , long after most people knew what the Mac looked like and what it could do — I’m not sure that the content about the iPhone has reach that degree of mindshare in a small more than three months .
There ’s a tendency of late to have Apple commercials in which the Apple mathematical product being advertised is relegated to a cameo , if it even appears at all . ( Think theGet a Mac ads , where player fend in as symbolic representations of computer . One can make the case that not every commercial-grade postulate to feature the literal product you ’re suppose to buy , but when it comes to the iPhone , I do n’t feel we ’ve reached that point just yet . Of course , I invite any advert expert — or at least , enlightened amateur — to recite me why I ’m ill-timed .
Update : After send this blog accounting entry , one of my colleagues — the shy , retiring type who ’d prefer not to see his name in print — notes that only one feature ( Visual Voicemail ) is in reality name - check . Google Maps , Yahoo , iTunes Wi - Fi , and others are all MIA . Even Elliot never really bring up the name of the internet browser app that he uses to get the fiancée ’s name — just that the iPhone has vane - surf might .
So it makes me inquire if the advertising are not actually Apple ’s handcraft , but rather spearhead by the company’snot - so - silent partner .
