Originally Posted by
addabox 
OK, the thing I'm not getting here is how, exactly, this ad is effective outside of a fairly limited demographic of quite possibly brain damaged buyers.
For instance, if, I dunno, say, Nissan made a perhaps over refined small pickup truck, with a lot of curves and padding in the interior and extra vanity mirrors,
and it in fact therefore did not do pickup things very well, possibly breaking if taken off road or exploding if you put anything more than a brace of Pekinese in the bed, or something, and then Toyota made a similar small pickup but bolted shark fins and dicks to it and painted it flat black with skulls and crossbones and Mad Max style windshield bullet guards, then, sure, I guess, run that campaign. Stupid, but whatever.
But this is not the case, is it? It's more akin to Nissan making a very well engineered small pickup truck that does pickup truck stuff very well, but also has the kind of amenities that
everybody likes, such as a good stereo and tight turning radius and decent handling, etc., and then Toyota makes a similar pickup that perhaps is somewhat less polished but with knobbier tires and a louder engine, and
then they try to run that campaign.
The iPhone is minimal, not froufrou. It's functionality is useful and straightforward, not fancy or pointlessly decorative.
And everybody knows it. Well, as I say, everybody but a perhaps small cohort of people who, what, think Apple is "gay"? Is that a real demographic?
It sort of reminds me of the McCain campaign strategy of trying to paint Obama as a "celebrity." It didn't really work, because there just isn't any bling in the man. He doesn't fit the celebrity, media whore mold, so simply conjuring that up out of thin air just came off as tone-deaf, except, of course, for those predisposed to gobble up whatever negative shit got lobbed, no matter how nonsensical (Dear insane wingers: just an example, please do not counter by pointing out how Obama is in fact a celebrity Supersocialcommunisticislamofascistdocious empty suit, because it's still stupid).
The point being, I think the vast majority seeing this commercial will be mystified if not somewhat frightened. The idea that some kind of stomping, steaming, clanking monster phone is the antidote to some mythical fairy phone is meaningless, for everyone outside of Beavis and Butthead.
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