[MacDV] Re: Much Ado About Nothing - Apple AD's in general

[Steven Rogers]

On Saturday, July 19, 2003, at 01:31 AM, Chris Searles wrote:

> On Samstag, Juli 19, 2003, at 05:15  Uhr, Steven Rogers wrote:
>
>>> He said yes they were very good.  He said you can't show enough of 
>>> the features of something complex like a computer in a 30 second Ad 
>>> and have it retained by the general public.  . . .
>>
>> That is obviously false. A good counter-example is the elopement ad 
>> showing iMovie. It shows quite simply something distinctive about the 
>> product. It isn't necessary to show technical features.
>>
> Yes, but the main point is that it's hard to show in 30 seconds how 
> much easier it is to use and how much better the results are than with 
> that "other operating system," i.e. in Windows ads they also tell you 
> you can make movies with their software.

Absolutely not. The kind of ads we have are based on the philosophy of 
advertising, not that its "too hard" to make an ad that shows what a 
Mac can do for you. That kind of commercial is now regarded as the 
low-brow approach fit only for things like soap. If you hire the best 
you get ads like Apple's.

There is no necessary conflict between ads that are cute and clever 
*and* convey information about the product. Wasn't there an ad showing 
a kid who programmed his Mac to wake him up with iTunes?  The ad 
showing a guy using an iPod and bopping out an apartment door was 
almost good. Clearly, they could make this kind of ad if they wanted 
to. It has nothing to do with such ads being "too hard", or that only 
geeks could care about actual product features. They simply choose not 
to appeal to the intellect on principle.

Distinctive Mac features like speech recognition and the iLife concept 
would make great ad fodder. It would be *easy* to make ads that show 
people what the Mac does, and why it is distinctive. Ads like that 
don't get made for Apple for the same reason they don't get made for 
lots of other companies. The advertising world doesn't believe in that 
kind of ad. The days of "Rich Corinthian Leather" are replaced by cars 
zooming down roads at supersonic speeds, or perhaps dodging tornadoes, 
or driving wildly through empty streets.

SR