Apple releases two 'Your Verse' iPad Air ads

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
As part of its ongoing "Your Verse" ad campaign, Apple on Wednesday released two short 30-second spots once again focusing on the iPad Air's eclectic capabilities as a tool for professionals and everyday users.

Your Verse


As with the full "Your Verse" ad which debuted almost two weeks ago, the latest commercials make use of Robin Williams' monologue from the movie "Dead Poets Society."

The ads, titled "Light Verse" and "Sound Verse" are basically remixes of the same scenes from the original spot, which show the iPad Air being used by mountain climbers, deep sea divers, children, and more.



Each spot contains the same snippet from Williams' dialogue: "To quote from Whitman, 'You are here -- that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.' What will your verse be?"



While not as impactful as the full version with swelling music and sound effects, the 30-second tastes include a bit of unseen footage from each story.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32

    These ads are terrible 

  • Reply 2 of 32
    alfiejralfiejr Posts: 1,524member
    it's a really great ad, and these short versions just drive that home even more.

    basically, they inspire folks to do something special - different - with their tablets besides merely basic web/media consumption. could be any brand of tablet, but of course the clever intent is to brand the iPad with this uplifting message. and i bet it works.

    i can't imagine an uplifting message from Samsung. Google could try, but you know i think Google's real message-vibe out there these days is "creepy."
  • Reply 3 of 32
    I enjoy these ads. Very inspirational.
  • Reply 4 of 32

    Yeah I like these ads, they fit more with Apple than other ones I've seen. I feel inspired, but since I'm a procrastinator I'll do something about it tomorrow.

  • Reply 5 of 32
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 2385amh View Post

     

    These ads are terrible 


    I have to agree. The primary reason is the voice of Robin Williams which I cannot abide. His voice manages to obfuscate the meaning of the words. I also feel that the last line should have been printed and not spoken, but that's just me. Generally though, the words themselves as inspirational as they may be, don't work well with such busy imagery. 

  • Reply 6 of 32
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    2385amh wrote: »
    These ads are terrible 

    Ah, the clueless show up in the most unusual places......
  • Reply 7 of 32
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,927member
    I like these ads. Inspiring and actual promotes real use of the iPads.
  • Reply 8 of 32
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    The shortness is what was needed - the first one seemed a bit pretentious, but simply by shortening it they have fixed that I think.

     

    Highbrow stuff works best in short doses.

  • Reply 9 of 32
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by paxman View Post

     

    I have to agree. The primary reason is the voice of Robin Williams which I cannot abide. His voice manages to obfuscate the meaning of the words. I also feel that the last line should have been printed and not spoken, but that's just me. Generally though, the words themselves as inspirational as they may be, don't work well with such busy imagery. 


     

    I wouldn't say the ads are terrible. Not great, maybe.

     

    ... but I do agree about Robin Williams, he doesn't have the heft to pull it off... plus, using the same words for both short spots... uh uh... that doesn't work for me at all.

  • Reply 10 of 32
    I like the original long version of the ad. It was well done.
  • Reply 11 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post

     

     

    I wouldn't say the ads are terrible. Not great, maybe.

     

    ... but I do agree about Robin Williams, he doesn't have the heft to pull it off... plus, using the same words for both short spots... uh uh... that doesn't work for me at all.


    Really? Robin Williams scored an Oscar for his role in Dead Poet's Society of which this comes from... give or take a re-recording.

  • Reply 12 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Darryn Lowe View Post

     

    Really? Robin Williams scored an Oscar for his role in Dead Poet's Society of which this comes from... give or take a re-recording.


     

    That should tell you something about the Oscars.

  • Reply 13 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post

     

     

    That should tell you something about the Oscars.


    Should tell you something about people who rail on Robin Williams' skills. ;-)

  • Reply 14 of 32
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member

    If there were any truth in advertising, these ads would show people blogging from the toilet on their iPads. Might not be inspirational, but I gotta say it's been one of my favorite uses for a tablet. :-)

  • Reply 15 of 32

    I like the ads. They are positive and tasteful. But what really makes them stand out is looking at the ads from the other guys - especially Microsoft's Surface and Samsung's. No reality there, just cheap actors pretending to be "typical" business people or families.

  • Reply 16 of 32
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    cash907 wrote: »
    If there were any truth in advertising, these ads would show people blogging from the toilet on their iPads. Might not be inspirational, but I gotta say it's been one of my favorite uses for a tablet. :-)
    I guess you don't have a good enough imagination. :p
  • Reply 17 of 32
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Darryn Lowe View Post

     

    Should tell you something about people who rail on Robin Williams' skills. ;-)


     

    Well, in my opinion, his voiceover is weak. Oscar or no Oscar. All I can hear is Mork.

     

    [... and, you are ill-informed. He never won an Oscar for his role in Dead Poet's Society]

  • Reply 18 of 32
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    I like the original long version of the ad. It was well done.



    same, imo the 1 min version is better...

  • Reply 19 of 32
    Self-conscious, pretentious. Atrocious narration. These ads (as did the previous one) make me wince. :\
  • Reply 20 of 32
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,479moderator
    I don't like the shorter ones. It crops the audio at the wrong point because it removes the question "What good amid these, O me, O life?". Without the question, the answer they include "you are here, that life exists and identity; that you may contribute a verse" is just hanging there on its own. If they'd cropped it into a statement "you are here, life exists and identity; you may contribute a verse, what will your verse be" then it might work better but would likely need another recording session.

    When they abbreviate these things, I think it cheapens it because it makes it seem like they aren't willing to respect the source material above their sales agenda. They also need to learn to ease out their clips. I think Youtube makes this worse but way too often Apple ads just seem to stop abruptly.
    Self-conscious, pretentious. Atrocious narration. These ads (as did the previous one) make me wince.

    What previous ads have you preferred? Advertising doesn't have to be directly product-focused and they've done this in previous ads. Spamsandwich suggested a shorter ad would have more 'impact'. This would assume that the response of the unsatisfied individual is mirrored across the majority of Apple's potential sales audience. It may not be. Apple's original ad on Youtube has over 1 million views and the like ratio is over 10:1.

    Contrast that with Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball video with 500m views and a like ratio of just over 2:1. The Chatroulette parody of it however has 99m views and a like ratio of over 23:1.

    Think Different is 107:1 but not as many views.

    Justin Bieber's Baby has 972m views and a like ratio of 0.5 (more dislikes than likes for good reason).

    The response to the ad seems to be healthy. Apple's old Genius ads have a like ratio below 1. The Get a Mac ones above 3:1. New Mac Pro ad above 5:1.
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