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First iPhone Ad

March 13, 2007, 10:14 am

I don’t watch TV (probably the same with a lot of my readers). As a result, I didn’t know Apple is already airing iPhone commercials. The most interesting thing to me about the iPhone is how Apple plans on marketing it compared to how other phone companies have marketed their products.

This commercial is clearly a teaser to let consumers know the product exists. It doesn’t strike me as particularly creative when you consider it is made by Apple.

One of two things is missing from this commercial that exists in virtually every other iPod commercial:

  1. Close-ups
  2. An image that makes it seem cool

It seems Apple at this point just wants consumers who’ve never heard of the iPhone to see that commercial and ask, “Wait, what the hell was that little thing with the Nemo fish? I saw an Apple logo… But that wasn’t an iPod…”

Still, I was expecting something a little more creative for the first iPhone commercial. So far, they’ve failed, as a marketing team, to distinguish themselves from other phone commercials. But then again, distinguishing themselves is probably not a major concern at this point. :)

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    • Kendi

      There’s a link to read more of this article…but there is no more! :(

    • http://wineandwheels.com/ Wine and Wheels

      I think that if one were to consider the historical institution of the telephone: a device that my 92-year-old grandmother can still use, then this commercial will make a little more sense. Not to mistakenly mix marketing campaigns, but when the iPod video came out, masses criticized its somewhat inadequate video functions (small, dim, battery life, etc.). The answer to those criticisms was: it’s still just an MP3 payer.

      The answer to criticism of this ‘first’ commercial (no TV for me, either, this is the first I’ve seen) is: a phone is a phone is a phone is a phone. Remember how the Apple site demoed it after Jobs’ announcement? Several different icons, clicking through to several different demo videos. I say this: wait for the next set of ads. Wait for the ones after the next set. Just as this phone is shifting a long-held paradigm in the world’s culture (and don’t take that lightly), Apple must play into these very same paradigms to break us, slowly, of our stereotypes and expectations.

      –Eric Mills

    • http://www.michikono.com Michi

      That’s a very clever observation, Eric.