9 ms·

The power of Apple's FaceTime commercial

54 points by gvb 16y ago

mattmcknight 16y ago
What's the reach of this ad? I've never seen it. Are they getting tech writers to review the ad itself in an attempt to make people that don't watch TV commercials see it?
- krschultz 16y ago
  Actually pretty wide, I barely see any TV and I have seen it a several times. It has been about for about a week as far as I can tell.
- elblanco 16y ago
  Dunno, I don't watch much TV. But I do catch a few shows on my DVR. Haven't seen it at all.
- SoftwareMaven 16y ago
  It is pretty broad. I've seen past it several times on my DVR, in everything from motorcycle races through the Daily Show.
carterschonwald 16y ago
those who are looking at these comments but haven't seen the ad yet, please do so. Irrespective of its marketing merit, its amazingly well done.
amichail 16y ago
The only Apple ad that affected me on an emotional level is Think Different. In fact, it's the best commercial I've ever seen.
jonknee 16y ago
I've seen it on at bars and heard it openly mocked--the scenarios in the commercial are so narrow that it can easily make it look useless (or unrealistic like the soldier overseas who not only has an iPhone 4 but access to high-speed WiFi without a firewall). Save for deaf people and gadget reviewers, few people want to see each other during phone calls on a regular basis. At the same time millions of people want to IM each other, but they haven't built that in yet.
- jamn 16y ago
  I disagree. As an international student in the US, I personally would enormously benefit from a cell phone that can do video conversations well. My family lives thousands of miles away, and seeing their faces is actually something I really value. We communicate via Skype constantly for the video functions, but this really limits the flexibility of where I can take the calls. I am going to be working far away from my university, and I will be using video conference to talk to my girlfriend while I'm away. I am considering getting a pair of iPhones for the ease of use and convenience (she's not very tech savvy). As to IMs, I personally am a heavy IM user, and there's a number of iPhone applications for IMing (Palringo, Beejive, Windows Live Messenger come to mind). I don't use it because it is just too bothersome to have extended conversations when typing with any small keyboard. Of course, I'm not implying that just because I feel like this would anybody else do, but I don't think it's as crystal clear as the OP describes.
  - jonknee 16y ago
    Obviously there are markets for the technology, but they aren't huge and with the existing limitations it's not nearly as easy as the commercial makes it seem. The soldier doesn't have WiFi (or money for two iPhones). The hospital doesn't either for that matter. Grandma and grandpa would have to setup a wireless network before being able to see the granddaughter graduate. At least with my grandparents that means you have to set it up and then fix it every time you visit. The deaf demo is the most realistic, but it can be hard to sign with one hand so a laptop with a webcam will work better in many situations (or frankly just SMS/IM). Even with the Face Time technical limitations, the lack of video calling isn't a technical problem but a social one. I've had a laptop with a webcam for 5 years and used video calling a handful of times with at least two of them being just to get screenshots for a book on OS X. It makes a great demo, but at the end of the day I almost always prefer text to audio and audio to video.
    - reneherse 16y ago
      You're right, the market for people who want to see and talk to their loved ones from far away isn't that big. And WiFi is hardly anywhere. And you have to hold this device in your hand and lug it around in your pocket...
stcredzero 16y ago
I'm not sure what it is about this commercial, but when I see it, I start thinking about mortality and the ephemeral nature of life. According to the article, the Greek roots of "nostaligia" mean "an old wound." I think that's very appropriate. I get the same background feeling from this commercial that I get from watching the first part of Pixar's "Up." I'd love to see a cinematographer's analysis of both of those pieces.
- wallflower 16y ago
  EDIT: Fixed recursion Up! Director Peter Docter's interview on the "Married Life" scene: "From a "feel" standpoint, it was the sense of a life lived, and not only the highs, but the lows. That's why we put in a couple of dark moments... It actually feels more real, and I think that's how you remember life being like." "Strangely, we got a couple of home movies from the Internet -- Michael Giacchino has a collection that I think he ordered from EBay. And we had no idea who the people in them were, but we'd watch their lives progress and piece them together -- we'd note, "Oh, now there's a new kid in the picture. And what happened to that person? I guess they must've moved away." It was strangely compelling." http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/la-etw-pete-docter25-2010feb25,0,2207449.story http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/la-etw-pete-docter25-201... Interesting and weird academic view on Sam Mendes' FaceTime ad: "Distance, work, and duty separate these individuals from their primary relationships, but, the film implies, the phone can mediate these contingencies and keep users connected to life's truly important moments." "But the phone, in turn, obscures these flows and systems to the extent that it mediates between them and the relationships of its users as an object allowing for immediate emotional interconnectivity." http://mwnau.posterous.com/absence-mediation-and-emotional-objectssam-me/ http://mwnau.posterous.com/absence-mediation-and-emotional-o...
  - AndyKelley 16y ago
    that last link you gave is the OP ;)
    - wallflower 16y ago
      Got so caught up in Googling and reading pre-game World Cup analysis. Duh!
gvb 16y ago
There is an interesting and applicable point made in "The American Gustation Crisis of 1985" http://www.damninteresting.com/the-american-gustation-crisis-of-1985 http://www.damninteresting.com/the-american-gustation-crisis... (aka. How Coca-Cola won the war). In retrospect, some marketers believe that the failure of New Coke may have had something to do with sensation transference, a human oddity first described by Louis Cheskin in the 1940s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Cheskin#Sensation_transference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Cheskin#Sensation_transfe... Cheskin demonstrated that people will unconsciously associate imagery, sounds, tastes, aromas, and textures into their general impression of a product, even if such associations are unintended or inaccurate. What Apple is doing with the commercial, as pointed out by MG Siegler, is using our emotions, specifically our love of our family and friends, to the iPhone, associating that emotion and love to the iPhone. Powerful. Scary.
- c1sc0 16y ago
  Powerful? Scary? Great advertising you mean! The shared history between ad men & propaganda men is a very fascinating one. Effective advertising is like hacking the human psyche.
  - Ceno 16y ago
    No, he actually means powerful and scary, in this kind of realization that we, our feelings, our inclinations, our rationality, our subconscious can be accessed and manipulated at will by 60 seconds of video. Ever since I watched "the century of the self" I can't help but feeling utterly repulsed and violated by marketing in general. And watching the recent apple marketing, is like watching the master puppeteer at work
eli 16y ago
I've had video chat on my laptop for years, yet hardly ever use it. Further, if I'm near free WiFi, I'm usually near my laptop too. I suspect most people are the same way.
lwhi 16y ago
Well, I'm sure Don Draper - the sociopathic lead from Mad Men - _could_ have created this advert. It bypasses the mundane nature of the technology, and shows the human benefit. It's sugar coated, and perhaps too schmaltzy for a UK audience, but I can see why it works. Unfortunately - in keeping with the work of all sociopathic ad-men - reality has been distorted. This isn't real life, it's fantasy. For a start, a lot of the actors are 'holding it wrong'.
- elai 16y ago
  Spoliers Draper isn't really sociopathic, you'd notice he's a lot more relaxed when he is with the original mrs.draper, and pretty much any sort of flashback sequence before his current job and marital situation. He is constantly living a lie and must put up a conscious pretense. He feels very guilty about what he done, and as a result he is constantly tense and always having few words and choosing them carefully.
  - lwhi 16y ago
    (... in your opinion.) spoilers Don Draper chooses to lie, he chooses to monopolize on his ability to deceive and he steadfastly places to his own whims above all others. He's manipulative and cunning. He believes he has the right to pay people off to get his own way. He's incredibly secretive - leading double (in some cases, triple lives). He has no true friendships and while he occasionally wrestles with morality, actually cares very little about the majority of those around him. The one person who is closest to a friend (Peggy) has been treated ridiculously badly at times. He fears virtually no situation and has a tendancy to act rashly. He enjoys and seeks out dangerous / risky situations. Black and white can't be used to paint a full picture, and occasionally his character shows traits which describe another side to his personality. Even so, his character would certainly fit the standard definition of a sociopath / narcissist. It just happens that the attributes Don Draper has been ascribed, also align with western society's view of 'the perfect man'; which is quite telling itself. Down-voting based on a difference in opinion would be a little bit Draper-like ;)
    - aaronblohowiak 16y ago
amichail 16y ago
A suggestion to solve the bandwidth and privacy issues for video chat: why not have an avatar whose facial expressions are determined from your facial expressions in real-time?
- jacobolus 16y ago
  There’s a bit of Dave Foster Wallace’s ''Infinite Jest'' that talks about precisely this, in considerably more detail, and quite amusingly. Link: http://www.martin-brown.net/downloads/DavidFosterWallace-InfiniteJest-Telephony.pdf http://www.martin-brown.net/downloads/DavidFosterWallace-Inf...
robryan 16y ago
What is the reason they're restricting this to wifi? Would the quality be to low on a 3g network? The only mobile video call I used probably over 5 years ago used a 3g(I assume, definitely not wifi) connection, sure the quality wasn't amazing, but would this still be an issue in built up areas?
- jonursenbach 16y ago
  AT&T is the reason.
  - robryan 16y ago
    I guess it's a software limitation at the moment. I doubt carriers in Australia would go down the same path given the choice.
axod 16y ago
The commercial is well done (It pulls lots of heart strings for some people), but it's ridiculous to assume those are the main use cases. 90% use will be for remote sex. But knowing Apple they'll probably detect nude flesh and censor it ;)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
smokey_the_bear 16y ago
This ad reminded me of all the sentimental times I've had with video chat. When my brother recorded a video of himself and mailed it to me on CD when I was studying abroad. Christmas over Microsoft NetMeeting. Skypeing with my now-fiance when he traveled for work in our early relationship.

54 points by gvb 16y ago

What's the reach of this ad? I've never seen it. Are they getting tech writers to review the ad itself in an attempt to make people that don't watch TV commercials see it?

krschultz 16y ago
Actually pretty wide, I barely see any TV and I have seen it a several times. It has been about for about a week as far as I can tell.
elblanco 16y ago
Dunno, I don't watch much TV. But I do catch a few shows on my DVR. Haven't seen it at all.
SoftwareMaven 16y ago
It is pretty broad. I've seen past it several times on my DVR, in everything from motorcycle races through the Daily Show.

carterschonwald 16y ago

those who are looking at these comments but haven't seen the ad yet, please do so. Irrespective of its marketing merit, its amazingly well done.

amichail 16y ago

The only Apple ad that affected me on an emotional level is Think Different. In fact, it's the best commercial I've ever seen.

jonknee 16y ago

I've seen it on at bars and heard it openly mocked--the scenarios in the commercial are so narrow that it can easily make it look useless (or unrealistic like the soldier overseas who not only has an iPhone 4 but access to high-speed WiFi without a firewall). Save for deaf people and gadget reviewers, few people want to see each other during phone calls on a regular basis. At the same time millions of people want to IM each other, but they haven't built that in yet.

jamn 16y ago
I disagree. As an international student in the US, I personally would enormously benefit from a cell phone that can do video conversations well. My family lives thousands of miles away, and seeing their faces is actually something I really value. We communicate via Skype constantly for the video functions, but this really limits the flexibility of where I can take the calls. I am going to be working far away from my university, and I will be using video conference to talk to my girlfriend while I'm away. I am considering getting a pair of iPhones for the ease of use and convenience (she's not very tech savvy). As to IMs, I personally am a heavy IM user, and there's a number of iPhone applications for IMing (Palringo, Beejive, Windows Live Messenger come to mind). I don't use it because it is just too bothersome to have extended conversations when typing with any small keyboard. Of course, I'm not implying that just because I feel like this would anybody else do, but I don't think it's as crystal clear as the OP describes.
- jonknee 16y ago
  Obviously there are markets for the technology, but they aren't huge and with the existing limitations it's not nearly as easy as the commercial makes it seem. The soldier doesn't have WiFi (or money for two iPhones). The hospital doesn't either for that matter. Grandma and grandpa would have to setup a wireless network before being able to see the granddaughter graduate. At least with my grandparents that means you have to set it up and then fix it every time you visit. The deaf demo is the most realistic, but it can be hard to sign with one hand so a laptop with a webcam will work better in many situations (or frankly just SMS/IM). Even with the Face Time technical limitations, the lack of video calling isn't a technical problem but a social one. I've had a laptop with a webcam for 5 years and used video calling a handful of times with at least two of them being just to get screenshots for a book on OS X. It makes a great demo, but at the end of the day I almost always prefer text to audio and audio to video.
  - reneherse 16y ago
    You're right, the market for people who want to see and talk to their loved ones from far away isn't that big. And WiFi is hardly anywhere. And you have to hold this device in your hand and lug it around in your pocket...

stcredzero 16y ago

I'm not sure what it is about this commercial, but when I see it, I start thinking about mortality and the ephemeral nature of life. According to the article, the Greek roots of "nostaligia" mean "an old wound." I think that's very appropriate. I get the same background feeling from this commercial that I get from watching the first part of Pixar's "Up." I'd love to see a cinematographer's analysis of both of those pieces.

wallflower 16y ago
EDIT: Fixed recursion Up! Director Peter Docter's interview on the "Married Life" scene: "From a "feel" standpoint, it was the sense of a life lived, and not only the highs, but the lows. That's why we put in a couple of dark moments... It actually feels more real, and I think that's how you remember life being like." "Strangely, we got a couple of home movies from the Internet -- Michael Giacchino has a collection that I think he ordered from EBay. And we had no idea who the people in them were, but we'd watch their lives progress and piece them together -- we'd note, "Oh, now there's a new kid in the picture. And what happened to that person? I guess they must've moved away." It was strangely compelling." http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/la-etw-pete-docter25-2010feb25,0,2207449.story http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/la-etw-pete-docter25-201... Interesting and weird academic view on Sam Mendes' FaceTime ad: "Distance, work, and duty separate these individuals from their primary relationships, but, the film implies, the phone can mediate these contingencies and keep users connected to life's truly important moments." "But the phone, in turn, obscures these flows and systems to the extent that it mediates between them and the relationships of its users as an object allowing for immediate emotional interconnectivity." http://mwnau.posterous.com/absence-mediation-and-emotional-objectssam-me/ http://mwnau.posterous.com/absence-mediation-and-emotional-o...
- AndyKelley 16y ago
  that last link you gave is the OP ;)
  - wallflower 16y ago
    Got so caught up in Googling and reading pre-game World Cup analysis. Duh!

gvb 16y ago

There is an interesting and applicable point made in "The American Gustation Crisis of 1985" http://www.damninteresting.com/the-american-gustation-crisis-of-1985 http://www.damninteresting.com/the-american-gustation-crisis... (aka. How Coca-Cola won the war). In retrospect, some marketers believe that the failure of New Coke may have had something to do with sensation transference, a human oddity first described by Louis Cheskin in the 1940s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Cheskin#Sensation_transference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Cheskin#Sensation_transfe... Cheskin demonstrated that people will unconsciously associate imagery, sounds, tastes, aromas, and textures into their general impression of a product, even if such associations are unintended or inaccurate. What Apple is doing with the commercial, as pointed out by MG Siegler, is using our emotions, specifically our love of our family and friends, to the iPhone, associating that emotion and love to the iPhone. Powerful. Scary.

c1sc0 16y ago
Powerful? Scary? Great advertising you mean! The shared history between ad men & propaganda men is a very fascinating one. Effective advertising is like hacking the human psyche.
- Ceno 16y ago
  No, he actually means powerful and scary, in this kind of realization that we, our feelings, our inclinations, our rationality, our subconscious can be accessed and manipulated at will by 60 seconds of video. Ever since I watched "the century of the self" I can't help but feeling utterly repulsed and violated by marketing in general. And watching the recent apple marketing, is like watching the master puppeteer at work

eli 16y ago

I've had video chat on my laptop for years, yet hardly ever use it. Further, if I'm near free WiFi, I'm usually near my laptop too. I suspect most people are the same way.

lwhi 16y ago

Well, I'm sure Don Draper - the sociopathic lead from Mad Men - _could_ have created this advert. It bypasses the mundane nature of the technology, and shows the human benefit. It's sugar coated, and perhaps too schmaltzy for a UK audience, but I can see why it works. Unfortunately - in keeping with the work of all sociopathic ad-men - reality has been distorted. This isn't real life, it's fantasy. For a start, a lot of the actors are 'holding it wrong'.

elai 16y ago
Spoliers Draper isn't really sociopathic, you'd notice he's a lot more relaxed when he is with the original mrs.draper, and pretty much any sort of flashback sequence before his current job and marital situation. He is constantly living a lie and must put up a conscious pretense. He feels very guilty about what he done, and as a result he is constantly tense and always having few words and choosing them carefully.
- lwhi 16y ago
  (... in your opinion.) spoilers Don Draper chooses to lie, he chooses to monopolize on his ability to deceive and he steadfastly places to his own whims above all others. He's manipulative and cunning. He believes he has the right to pay people off to get his own way. He's incredibly secretive - leading double (in some cases, triple lives). He has no true friendships and while he occasionally wrestles with morality, actually cares very little about the majority of those around him. The one person who is closest to a friend (Peggy) has been treated ridiculously badly at times. He fears virtually no situation and has a tendancy to act rashly. He enjoys and seeks out dangerous / risky situations. Black and white can't be used to paint a full picture, and occasionally his character shows traits which describe another side to his personality. Even so, his character would certainly fit the standard definition of a sociopath / narcissist. It just happens that the attributes Don Draper has been ascribed, also align with western society's view of 'the perfect man'; which is quite telling itself. Down-voting based on a difference in opinion would be a little bit Draper-like ;)
  - aaronblohowiak 16y ago

amichail 16y ago

A suggestion to solve the bandwidth and privacy issues for video chat: why not have an avatar whose facial expressions are determined from your facial expressions in real-time?

jacobolus 16y ago
There’s a bit of Dave Foster Wallace’s ''Infinite Jest'' that talks about precisely this, in considerably more detail, and quite amusingly. Link: http://www.martin-brown.net/downloads/DavidFosterWallace-InfiniteJest-Telephony.pdf http://www.martin-brown.net/downloads/DavidFosterWallace-Inf...

robryan 16y ago

What is the reason they're restricting this to wifi? Would the quality be to low on a 3g network? The only mobile video call I used probably over 5 years ago used a 3g(I assume, definitely not wifi) connection, sure the quality wasn't amazing, but would this still be an issue in built up areas?

jonursenbach 16y ago
AT&T is the reason.
- robryan 16y ago
  I guess it's a software limitation at the moment. I doubt carriers in Australia would go down the same path given the choice.

axod 16y ago

The commercial is well done (It pulls lots of heart strings for some people), but it's ridiculous to assume those are the main use cases. 90% use will be for remote sex. But knowing Apple they'll probably detect nude flesh and censor it ;)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

smokey_the_bear 16y ago

This ad reminded me of all the sentimental times I've had with video chat. When my brother recorded a video of himself and mailed it to me on CD when I was studying abroad. Christmas over Microsoft NetMeeting. Skypeing with my now-fiance when he traveled for work in our early relationship.