Has anyone else noticed how both of the ads showing for the iPhone 4 are about propagation?
The most frequent ad has a woman of unclear ethnicity informing her partner (husband?) that he’s going to be a father. Alternately, there’s an ad where a black grandfather–hoary beard and all–is informed of his grandchild’s birth (where three-quarters of the reverse-shot is of the newborn); here also the camera’s perspective is that of a male interlocutor. Too bad they couldn’t get Morgan Freeman for the spot; that really would have put the icing on the cake.
The circumlocution in this one regarding frequent sex in the effort to get pregnant–with a number of obscene pauses so a mature audience can ‘get’ it, while avoiding any accusations of profanity or salaciousness–is just painful to watch.
I haven’t quite put together yet what the subtext is (the next generation? Is a Star Trek reference coming next?) but perhaps more will be revealed in time. Am I understand that we, the new owners of this iPhone 4, are inherently (pro)creative? The iPhone 4 generation: a virile new youth. Buy one, and then you too can make babies and then vlog about it.
It turns out that, after googling around a bit, I now learn that there was an earlier ad, directed by Sam Mendes, that was quickly pulled in favor of these newer ones. In fact, there are four in the new set, but I’ve only seen on tv the two I’ve described.
I’m sure our cultural affection for young women and old men determines the faces we get to see selling us products. Better to see a pretty girl and a wise old man than a awkward, pimply nerd, right? (Don’t worry, I could count myself as among that group.) I suppose the squick that I feel has something to do with positioning the consumer as a yuppie male who is wealthy, savvy and ready to start a family. While some may aspire to that, I would imagine that far more of the viewing population–especially in the current economic climate–does not aspire to that position. Most people don’t have the spare cash right now to buy not one but two of these phones (since they only work with other 4th gen iPhones), and the tech-geeks that are going to splurge on buying the latest Apple gizmo are not going to be the ones starting families. Anyone starting a family right now–if they have any sense–is spending their money on diapers and books, not this crap. Thus, I suppose it is the disjunct between the imagined consumer and the actual audience that makes me feel that Apple really missed the mark here.
In short, the ads are just plain creepy; and when taken jointly, even more so.
