14 DAY TRIAL // Three new TV ads aired by Apple during the Olympics are being perceived with mixed feelings, most of which seem to be negative. However, the campaign featuring an Apple Genius might not be all that bad.
Three TV spots – Mayday, Basically, and Labor Day – are available for immediate watching on Apple’s web site, under the Mac tab. We also embedded them for your viewing pleasure below.
The company headquartered at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA, has long axed its Get a Mac campaign featuring Justin Long (Mac) and John Hodgman (PC guy) and now seems keen on putting new emphasis on the Mac with a new set of commercials featuring a talented actor portraying an Apple Genius – an expert position at the Apple retail store.
Since October last year, the Cupertino giant has made quite a few changes in several departments that the late Steve Jobs would not have agreed with.
These new ads could well fall in the same category, as they seem to cater to newbies, not the well-established Mac fan base which doesn’t need a reminder about the intuitiveness of iPhoto and iMovie.
Ken Segall blogging for Ken Segall’s Observatory says “This thing is so upsetting, it has me talking to myself: ‘Ken, you’re missing the obvious. Clearly these ads are targeted at first-timers, not for you.’ That’s a seemingly logical defense.”
“It’s also a horrible one,” he continues. “How many great campaigns have you seen that appeal to one target group, but turn off everyone else? There’s no excuse for a campaign like that. Apple’s momentum is fueled by the enthusiasm of its core customers. The last thing it wants is to win new customers at the cost of looking ridiculous to its enthusiastic supporters.”
Though Segall makes a good point, the rather eccentric editorial staff at MacDailyNews (whose analysis on Apple is generally accurate) has a completely different take on the matter:
“Obviously these ads are not targeted at the typical MacDailyNews reader and therefore might, upon first viewing, seem simplistic or even stupid. These ads are not at all stupid, they’re simply talking to people who speak a much more basic tech language than we do. When it comes to these ads, we are all paleontologists being forced to watch Dinosaur Train.”
“To take a line from a very early Mac TV ad […] ‘The real genius of Macintosh is that you don’t have to be a genius to use it.’”
“Apple has finally returned to marketing the computer for the rest of us to the rest of us. Steve Jobs’ ultimate goal, to take back the computer business from Microsoft, is being realized,” the analysis reads.
Indeed, Apple might well be on the right track with this admittedly lovable character that makes you want to wait and see what crazy situation he finds himself in next.
So far, he has helped fellow airplane passenger finish an iMovie, advised a regular person on the street to get a real Mac instead of a knockoff, and made a photo card to announce the birth of his neighbor’s child (while also taking him and the pregnant wife to the hospital).
