Ipod advertising

I blogged yesterday about how I find Apple products overrated. I didn’t mention how much I love Apple advertising and how I think it’s part of the reason that Apple stocks are constantly on the rise.

If you haven’t seen the legendary “Mac vs PC” adverts yet then you’ve missed out on not only some comic genius but a whole range of Apple smugness. For those individuals who have not seen them go here.

It’s this phenomenal advertising that Apple is synonymous with. With the new millennium came the “Think Differently” campaign and the Mac vs PC adverts that followed were equally successful. What upsets me is the batch of adverts they are currently running on South African TV channels which quite frankly suck.

Let’s take the above advert. It’s the ad for the new Ipod Nano that can now play video. First of all let me talk about the pro’s of the advert: cool concept – simple as that. I’m a fair man and I’m willing to give them that point. Now we can talk about the con’s: The biggest con (and I use a double connotation there) is the fact that the advert doesn’t actually tell me anything about the product. Does it play video? Well I guess we’ll never know from that advert. How long does the battery last? How big is the screen? You’ll have to phone up your local Apple store to find all this out, something the buying public is always keen on doing.I’m sorry, if anyone has actually ever seen the new Ipod Nano you’ll know this fact: the guy in the advert must be the Big Friendly Giant to have the Nano that size in his hands. I have big hands and it doesn’t fit anything like that at all. The perspective is totally incorrect and misrepresents the product totally. The music in the advert also irritates me senseless and the general waste of space (lots of white border) drives me bonkers for some reason as well. The other adverts on TV, one where a little girl is making a photo album faster than tying her two shoes laces is equally useless. This is why the average Mac user is an idiot, they value the ability to do useless stuff like make a photo album (I mean how often have you ever used any computer to do that) easily as a justification of why their computer is better than others. These adverts are targeting the demographic that goes: “oooh, pretty Apple computer/Ipod” and doesn’t care about whether it’s any good.

I don’t quite get why Apple South Africa felt the need to use their own adverts. The overseas one’s are not only vastly better but actually make a person want to buy a Mac due to their perceived benefits. This is typical, Apple South Africa not only rips us off in pricing but the extra money we give them goes to shocking adverts.

To Apple IMC (AKA Apple SA): Stop thinking differently… please.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.