A lot of the comments in today's live thread were reactions to the extremely cringe "mother nature" skit. I'm in full agreement. It was perhaps the corniest and most cringe worthy video I have ever seen from a company. Seriously, I cannot remember the last time I thought "holy crap how did this get approved for release." I know some of the hate came from anti climate people (whatever, who cares) but I'm specifically talking about the tone and video idea in general: it was pandering and embarrassing, like they think the audience are stupid or childish. When you take a look at much of Apple's marketing videos from this year it seems like the script writing and casting/acting (really a reflection of the script) are not hitting the mark. In particular I'm talking about the longer form videos involving voiceovers and actors.
Now their bread and butter content of larger than life device macro shots are still pretty good but even those are not up to scratch. Remember the old device manufacturing videos? Those were great, like watching a Katana being made. Today's material highlights (like the titanium showcase) are mostly abstract animations, devoid of any reality. Here's an example of when Apple do it correctly, and no, it's not because of Jony's narration (although that helps).
Back to the original point: the scripts, editing, and casting/acting. Today's iPhone 15 guided tour video embedded below really showcases all three of those weak points. Watching it feels like a fever dream, it's almost terrifying how forced it feels.
The script feels extremely forced with ham fisted lines like the mars landing woman saying "did you say titanium? thats an incredible material" and "thats really light" after holding it. Her acting is overly enthusiastic and condescending like she's addressing a 5 year old, likely the fault (again) of Apple's marketing direction rather than her skills as an actor (we see this in the keynotes, some of the presenters are told to wave their hands around and it comes across as robotic. Honestly they should do what McLaren does and hire actors to pose as engineers, nobody would be able to verify it anyway lol). The entire scene here is centered around some kind of mars landing team but it feels like a pantomime instead of a real scenario, unlike old Apple 'fake scenario' videos that were a bit more film like rather than sitcom like. Now there's nothing wrong with a bit of humor (see the Apple Pay ad at the bottom), we all remember how great the "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ads were, but the tone doesn't feel right with some of these. Also a lot of their sets (like today's farmer's market set featured in the keynote) have an uncanny overly clean look to them, almost like it's CGI (well the background probably is). I would much prefer if they used real life shooting locations with a bit more grit.
This mars landing scenario is similarly themed to Apple's ongoing "Apple At Work" series -- all of those videos come across as corny and the cast/scenarios feels like a boomer's out of touch interpretation of youth (millennials/zoomers). Here's an egregious example, just terrible, I can barely stomach it:
I say "a boomer's interpretation" for a reason because after I saw Joz briefly struggle to walk in today's keynote it made me think a lot of Apple's leadership are getting older and it's starting to show. Of course youth is no guarantee of innovation nor is being older a sure sign you're out of touch, I personally know many people in their 50s+ that also think Apple's marketing is corny these days, but the content being produced by Apple's marketing team is not at the cutting edge anymore.
They're still producing some great videos though, like today's showcase of people who can thank the Apple Watch for saving their lives:
Or the short but sweet Apple Pay advert:
This one is good:
And finally today's iPhone 15 overview, they did one in this style last year and it was also very good. Devoid of any cringe acting/script, good visuals, lots of action that speaks to real life scenarios, etc.:
Now their bread and butter content of larger than life device macro shots are still pretty good but even those are not up to scratch. Remember the old device manufacturing videos? Those were great, like watching a Katana being made. Today's material highlights (like the titanium showcase) are mostly abstract animations, devoid of any reality. Here's an example of when Apple do it correctly, and no, it's not because of Jony's narration (although that helps).
Back to the original point: the scripts, editing, and casting/acting. Today's iPhone 15 guided tour video embedded below really showcases all three of those weak points. Watching it feels like a fever dream, it's almost terrifying how forced it feels.
The script feels extremely forced with ham fisted lines like the mars landing woman saying "did you say titanium? thats an incredible material" and "thats really light" after holding it. Her acting is overly enthusiastic and condescending like she's addressing a 5 year old, likely the fault (again) of Apple's marketing direction rather than her skills as an actor (we see this in the keynotes, some of the presenters are told to wave their hands around and it comes across as robotic. Honestly they should do what McLaren does and hire actors to pose as engineers, nobody would be able to verify it anyway lol). The entire scene here is centered around some kind of mars landing team but it feels like a pantomime instead of a real scenario, unlike old Apple 'fake scenario' videos that were a bit more film like rather than sitcom like. Now there's nothing wrong with a bit of humor (see the Apple Pay ad at the bottom), we all remember how great the "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ads were, but the tone doesn't feel right with some of these. Also a lot of their sets (like today's farmer's market set featured in the keynote) have an uncanny overly clean look to them, almost like it's CGI (well the background probably is). I would much prefer if they used real life shooting locations with a bit more grit.
This mars landing scenario is similarly themed to Apple's ongoing "Apple At Work" series -- all of those videos come across as corny and the cast/scenarios feels like a boomer's out of touch interpretation of youth (millennials/zoomers). Here's an egregious example, just terrible, I can barely stomach it:
I say "a boomer's interpretation" for a reason because after I saw Joz briefly struggle to walk in today's keynote it made me think a lot of Apple's leadership are getting older and it's starting to show. Of course youth is no guarantee of innovation nor is being older a sure sign you're out of touch, I personally know many people in their 50s+ that also think Apple's marketing is corny these days, but the content being produced by Apple's marketing team is not at the cutting edge anymore.
They're still producing some great videos though, like today's showcase of people who can thank the Apple Watch for saving their lives:
Or the short but sweet Apple Pay advert:
This one is good:
And finally today's iPhone 15 overview, they did one in this style last year and it was also very good. Devoid of any cringe acting/script, good visuals, lots of action that speaks to real life scenarios, etc.:
