Tone Deaf Advertising
Day 6: Missing the mood
Advertising is a funny business. It's a business where the outcome is in the future. This gives advertisers the perfect place to hide: if a campaign didn't work, the solution is another campaign whose success can be assured because it, too, is in the future. And a truly successful campaign can only be recognised years after the event.
A lot of advertising at the moment is quasi informational: retailers and institutions telling you what they're doing as practices must change very fast. Lenders telling you what to do if you're having trouble with repayments; supermarkets telling you the times reserved for particular groups; charities both soliciting for donors/volunteers and urging those in need to come forward.
It's not a great time to be launching a new product, but if you have lots of stock of finished goods then it's going to be better to put them on sale than keep them warehoused. And advertising is a good way to say “here's a new product you could buy and that is available”.
Which brings us to the iPhone SE. I don't know much about the relative merits of different iPhones through the years. My work phone is an iPhone from quite a few years ago and I'll use it as long as it keeps going.
Promoting a new iPhone just now is going to be difficult. The Apple stores are shut, as are the phone shops. Many people don't want to spend money: they may be on furlough, or self employed and stopped from working. Thousands are being laid off. A new iPhone is the preserve of someone who's still working and is confident about the next few months.
The television advert for the new iPhone SE has two sequences: in the first the box it's packed in is held by the top as the base slowly comes down; in the second the protective film is shown being peeled back as a crowd cheers on an ascending note. And that's it. “Here's the momentary high you get from unboxing something that cost hundreds of pounds”. I know the campaign was probably conceived months ago, but we've seen many organisations pivot their tone in a moment. While holding good production values, much advertising at the moment is front line staff talking directly to camera.
And against this background Apple's latest campaign jars, evoking a time of rampant consumerism.