The Emotions of an Apple Ad
Apple is known for designing products that elicit strong emotions. They rebranded the personal computer and made it colorful and fun. Last night I began thinking about how they are playing towards your emotions with the iPhone 4 and how they do it better than anybody else, especially for a product that is essentially a cell phone.
The driving force behind me thinking about this is the video for the new iPhone 4 feature Facetime. The other night I showed my parents the video and as they watched smiles formed across their faces and stayed there through the entire video. I showed the video to my sister this evening and she felt strong emotions toward the scene where the husband/future-father was seeing a sonogram live via a cell-phone. Her reaction was of sadness. I think we could all find a situation in the video where we could replace the actors with ourselves quite easily. The music, a Louis Armstrong tune, is even perfect for the video’s theme. It does not distract you from the images that flow across the screen but greatly enhances the emotions you feel while watching them. Even when you take a look at the more technical video of the iPhone 4 you feel strong emotions. You are drawn to the beauty of the device and the excitement from the people in the video transfer to the viewer. The iPhone 4 marketing material is warm, inviting, and emotional.
This is the exact opposite of every other smartphone commercial out there. When you see the Palm Pre commercial you’re greeted with a creepy looking woman that looks like that might be a Borg Queen. When you look at any of the Droid commercials you’re presented with cold, hard, emotionless machinery. I don’t know who thought that these smartphones should only be seen as a tool and not something that should be part of our daily lives, but whoever they are, they need to be fired. Apple’s people did it right.
I have no emotions over this commercial (other than complete annoyance that you are writing about it… LOL). I cried during the Hallmark commercial when the chicks found out their Dad saved all of their old Father’s Day cards over the years. But I feel like the iPhone commercial is overly orchestrated. The music is not at all subtle… very forceful and played loudly… urging you to “BE TOUCHED, DAMN IT!”
Also, a phone called DROID is not going to do a mushy commercial. It makes no sense. They will market its technology as a phone… because HEY IT’S A PHONE! It isn’t your best friend or your mom or a box of momentos from high school… it’s a phone. You don’t snuggle up to it at night or buy it a birthday present… it’s a phone. (Well maybe YOU do, Shep. LOL) If they wanted to elicit emotions, they’d call it a big sappy love machine. And don’t forget, the iPhone commercials in the past have showcased its function. Should the ad team have been fired for those? :D
And as you wrote that all preorders of the iPhone 4 have sold out, ensuring it to be another hit. Is it because of the advertising? Not entirely, but to think it doesn’t have anything to do with it would be naive.
The point was, Apple uses their advertising to make you think it’s not just a phone. It’s more than that. That’s where it succeeds.
People buy it because of its functionality as a PHONE and its cool applications… not because of some sappy commercial. If the commercial was dumb in your eyes, would you have kept yourself from ordering? I didn’t think so. Everyone who put in their pre-order was planning on doing so long before this commercial came along.
It’s the way that they show off those features that make it affective (or is it effective, i never know).
And no, the people who preordered were most likely going to preorder anyway. The point was they are using the video, and advertising, to show an emotion connection with a device to get the people who wouldn’t normally want it to want it. No droid commercial does that.
Not to belittle your awareness, but “no sh!t!”. That is all that apple does. The ad shows a man and his offspring. How much more can you bring technology to primal needs?
Wiping your ass with it maybe? Is there an app for that?