Apple debuts first AirPods TV commercials, Apple Watch ad focusing on activity

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2017
Apple on Saturday shared its first AirPods TV commercials, a series of four spots lumped into the company's "practically magic" iPhone campaign, as well as an Apple Watch Series 2 ad focusing on keeping active.




The first trio of spots posted to Apple's official YouTube channel today spotlight dapper dancer Lil Buck as he takes a stroll through the streets -- and walls -- of downtown accompanied by his new AirPods. A full-length minute-long commercial and a pair of snippets showcases key device features -- easy pairing via W1, Siri integration and proximity sensing -- set to the chillout beats of "Down" courtesy of Marian Hill.





In "iPhone 7 + AirPods - Pairing," we see Lil Buck holding an iPhone, running Apple Music of course, and a closed AirPods case. He snaps the case open and the familiar AirPods setup pane appears on iPhone almost instantly. The informational window correctly identifies the device as "Lil Buck's AirPods" and shows charge levels for the case and AirPods within.

The remainder of the ad has the dancer showing off his unique style of street dance, but with a twist. Throughout the commercial, Lil Buck is jookin horizontal on the side of a car, effectively making the street his wall and cleverly suggesting AirPods will stay in your ears even when defying the laws of gravity.





Apple's second AirPods ad, "iPhone 7 + AirPods - Siri," also features Lil Buck, this time double-tapping his right earbud to invoke Siri. He asks the virtual assistant to "play Marian Hill" and proceeds to dance first on the street, then along the side of a building, as is his wont.

A third, full-length spot combines and expands on the clips described above, adding a scene in which Lil Buck removes an AirPod, stopping playback, and smiles at the camera before reinserting to resume play. As a bonus, we get to see more wall dancing (the bit where he casually strolls across the window of an empty store is especially delightful) and even a segment where he busts some moves upside down on a theater marquee.





The fourth commercial is another clever attempt, this time using AirPods to signify notes along a moving musical staff. While not technically correct in its presentation of Hill's simple yet alluring piano intro, it nevertheless conveys a good sense of AirPods' design.





All four ads end in the tagline "AirPods on iPhone 7, practically magic."

Part of Apple's "practically magic" iPhone commercial series, today's ads continue to shine a light on the new handset and its many standout capabilities. The most recent spot, "Take Mine," was released last week and highlighted Portrait mode on iPhone 7 Plus.

Today's ads arrive even as Apple continues to catch up with intense demand for its first wireless headphone product.

Announced during September's iPhone 7 event, AirPods were initially promised in October, but production snags pushed back public release to mid-December. Launch supply quickly sold out and the product remains elusive in both Apple's online and brick-and-mortar stores. Current shipment estimates on Apple.com are quoted at six weeks as of this writing.





Apple on Saturday also posted an Apple Watch Series 2 spot encouraging users to "close your rings," a reference to the device's Activity Rings feature. The company last ran an Apple Watch ad in December.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 55
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    Black version will be nice too. To me white stands out a but too much ..
    baconstang
  • Reply 2 of 55
    Black version will be nice too. To me white stands out a but too much ..
    I feel that we can use finger nail polish to paint the air pods. Has anyone done it? Care to share a photo?
  • Reply 3 of 55
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    cincymac said:
    Black version will be nice too. To me white stands out a but too much ..
    I feel that we can use finger nail polish to paint the air pods. Has anyone done it? Care to share a photo?
    Model car paint would probably last longer (its made for plastic after all), though I think you'd need to buff out some of the gloss first or the paint won't stick well.

    They'd you'd need some kind of sealer or the paint would discolor pretty quickly, or rub out.
  • Reply 4 of 55
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    now we know what kind of music 90% of the commercials on tv will be using in their ads...so funny how almost instantly all new commercials imitate the same music Apple uses in their latest commercials...pay attention when watching tv, it's quite commical
    baconstangequality72521larryaawilliams87stompymagman1979watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 55
    NY1822 said:
    now we know what kind of music 90% of the commercials on tv will be using in their ads...so funny how almost instantly all new commercials imitate the same music Apple uses in their latest commercials...pay attention when watching tv, it's quite commical
  • Reply 6 of 55
    Oh yeah...those commercials would make me want to run out and buy the ear pods right away.  NOT
    feeder
  • Reply 8 of 55
    I like the 60 second spot. The shorter ones were not enough for my tastes.

    After 1 week with the AirPods and my iPhone 6s:
    Pros: convenience, fit, stay in ears, freedom from wires, sound quality, case with battery, tiny size
    Cons: disconnects from phone calls when using 2 AirPods; frequent brief sound-dropouts during music playback

    Others on the Apple Support forum have reported similar cons. Hopefully Apple can fix these with a software or firmware distribution (no hardware replacement). We all love the AirPods design and just want them to work as advertised.
    albegarc
  • Reply 9 of 55
    Oh yeah...those commercials would make me want to run out and buy the ear pods right away.  NOT
    Why do I get the feeling that nothing short of a gun to your head would get you to buy them?
    StrangeDaysbaconstangpscooter63equality72521brucemcwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 55
    cincymac said:
    Black version will be nice too. To me white stands out a but too much ..
    I feel that we can use finger nail polish to paint the air pods. Has anyone done it? Care to share a photo?
    Yeah good luck with that.  :s
    albegarc
  • Reply 11 of 55

    I like the 60 second spot. The shorter ones were not enough for my tastes.

    After 1 week with the AirPods and my iPhone 6s:
    Pros: convenience, fit, stay in ears, freedom from wires, sound quality, case with battery, tiny size
    Cons: disconnects from phone calls when using 2 AirPods; frequent brief sound-dropouts during music playback

    Others on the Apple Support forum have reported similar cons. Hopefully Apple can fix these with a software or firmware distribution (no hardware replacement). We all love the AirPods design and just want them to work as advertised.
    Interesting. I have not had those problems, I use mine 5 days a week for a 1.5 hour gym visit, and then for work calls on & off during the day.

    The only problem I had was my first pair drained while inactive way too quickly; second pair doesn't do it -- w/ full pods at bedtime, the case loses about 2% over 8 hours of sleeping. 
    edited January 2017 pscooter63equality72521watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 55
    Using mine for a week now and agree with virtually all others that this is a great Apple product. Oddly, the predicted tendency to lose them because they are not tethered to source or each other was just the opposite. After finishing the treadmill at the gym I twice was halfway to my car before the audio dropped out alerting me to the fact that I had left my iPhone on the equipment! 
    edited January 2017 equality72521watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 55
    Apple has the gaul. 
    Releasing ads for a product that's seriously defective. 
    You can't  make a phone call on these AirPods without it dropping the blue tooth connection multiple times. 
    Im talking about 5-8 drops in 10 minutes. 
    Instead of fixing this major bug, apple release AirPod ads for something that doesn't work??? 
    These AirPods are a beta product at best. 
    i have lost all faith in apple. 
    Link to the AirPod disconnection issue below. 
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7795564?start=0&tstart=0

    By the way, I also sent an email to Appleinsider about 3 weeks ago telling them about the defective AirPods and they still haven't published a story. 
    Appleinsider is in cahoots with apple!!!!!

  • Reply 14 of 55
    Apple has the gaul. 
    Releasing ads for a product that's seriously defective. 
    You can't  make a phone call on these AirPods without it dropping the blue tooth connection multiple times. 
    Im talking about 5-8 drops in 10 minutes. 
    Instead of fixing this major bug, apple release AirPod ads for something that doesn't work??? 
    These AirPods are a beta product at best. 
    i have lost all faith in apple. 
    Link to the AirPod disconnection issue below. 
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7795564?start=0&tstart=0

    By the way, I also sent an email to Appleinsider about 3 weeks ago telling them about the defective AirPods and they still haven't published a story. 
    Appleinsider is in cahoots with apple!!!!!

    The nonsense is strong with this one. 

    The problem you've described is not normal, return yours if they're defective. I'm on calls all day with no drops. 
    Soliericthehalfbeepscooter63Rayz2016equality72521brucemcwatto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 55
    These are my second pair of headphones. 
    If you took the time to read the forum I linked you'd see it mostly a problem for people that have apple watches.
    i think the Apple Watch and the headphones are competing for the same Bluetooth connection with the phone.  
    Still an Apple problem that should have been tested by apple. 
    They released the product prematurely because they were trying to keep their promise to release before xmas. 
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 16 of 55
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    These are my second pair of headphones. 
    If you took the time to read the forum I linked you'd see it mostly a problem for people that have apple watches.
    i think the Apple Watch and the headphones are competing for the same Bluetooth connection with the phone.  
    Still an Apple problem that should have been tested by apple. 
    They released the product prematurely because they were trying to keep their promise to release before xmas. 
    So the nonsense is strong in you young padone!
    Giving you the benefit of the doubt for your core story, how did you determined that it's a problem with the AirPods themselves and not a problem with your iPhone's BT or a bug in iOS that is causing connectivity issues?

    PS: They worked great for me  with an iPhone 7 Plus and an original Apple Watch.

    PPS: It's Padawan. I had to look up the spelling, but I knew that |pad-one| would be an incorrect pronuncation.
    edited January 2017 magman1979
  • Reply 17 of 55
    A wonderful ad (Lil Buck). It made me look up at the TV from my iPad (which is normally what I am buried in, during commercials). Catchy music, intriguing visuals, not sure of what the product is really, and then, boom, you see the AirPods. It's clearly trying to convey the idea that they're not at risk of falling off anytime soon.  

    In fact, this is the most interesting, edgy ad I've seen from Apple in a while. Not sappy in the least. Reminded me (vaguely) of the iconic "Lose Youself" ad that propelled the iPod into the stratosphere.  
    edited January 2017 equality72521Mikeymikewatto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 55
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    Black version will be nice too. To me white stands out a but too much ..
    Has Apple ever made black earphones for idevices before?
  • Reply 19 of 55
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    fallenjt said:
    Black version will be nice too. To me white stands out a but too much ..
    Has Apple ever made black earphones for idevices before?
    1) Technically, they have, because they own Beats which makes black headphones, including headphones with a Lightning port and/or with the W1-chip, both of which means its primary market are iDevice users. I think there were also some products before the iPod existed that had black headphones, but I don't think there's been anything with the Apple logo on it.

    2) They couldn't make a black charging cable for the black MacBook, which already came at a higher price for the same exact performance over the white model.


    edit: I thought that maybe the later Newton 2000/2100 or eMate 300 might have included headphones, which would still retain the dark plastic look, but those devices only came with support for a 3.5mm analog audio jack. Then you have the TAM, and while that Bose speaker and subwoofer are dark in color, they are not headphones, and if you did say "discrete speaker system" I still wouldn't count it do its low volume and unique potential.
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 20 of 55
    rezwitsrezwits Posts: 878member
    foggyhill said:
    cincymac said:
    Black version will be nice too. To me white stands out a but too much ..
    I feel that we can use finger nail polish to paint the air pods. Has anyone done it? Care to share a photo?
    Model car paint would probably last longer (its made for plastic after all), though I think you'd need to buff out some of the gloss first or the paint won't stick well.

    They'd you'd need some kind of sealer or the paint would discolor pretty quickly, or rub out.
    I did sharpie, paint, and varnish.

    This will be my second go around. This time I am going:

    Black Sharpie (for areas you can't paint)

    Black Primer (made for gaming miniatures)

    Black Paint (made for gaming miniatures)

    Satin Varnish (made for gaming miniatures)

    If this flakes/chips off, I guess I'll have to buff! That'll SUCK!
    edited January 2017
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