Commercial Plot: Take a journey with a “different” looking teenage boy as he sets up a play-date with his like-minded friends via the iPod Touch and its array of features. The underlying message seems to hint on how a guy can get a girl with his iPhone, the same way beer commercials use pretty women to attract men to their brand of beer. Heck, even the Auto Industry since after WWI started to use women in car commercials, thanks to Edward Bernays. Keep in mind that this commercial is geared towards teenagers and this is only my assessment, you may have your own that differs from my own. However a teenager can deduce from this, get an iPhone get girls. Are they wrong?
Song Used: “Tongue Tied“, by GROUPLOVE from the Album ironically called, “NEVER TRUST A HAPPY SONG” . A song about a boy who is frustratingly in love with a girl. See Official Music Video Here. A very catchy song that sets the mood and somewhat the tone for this commercial.
iJerk™ Meter: Medium -Dependent behavior of personas; environmental stimulation.
Lyrics: You can view here at LyricsHall.com
Environment: The commercial uses simplified optical illusions for style purposes along a while background, mid-ground and foreground in contrast with the actor’s colorful clothing. The song starts off pretty calm with an anticipation.
The Breakdown: Frame By Frame
0:01- Introducing a colorful, non-threatening, Nerdy, Hipster Boy character; on his White iPod Touch assuming to be texting someone. An outsider personality or an aspiring teen hipster boy can relate to him. We can assume that he mainly plays the role of the guy in the “friend zone” with his female friends or a guy on the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” plan, with a bunch of pretty girls.
0:04- The message is received by a pretty girl, possibly his friend, “Wanna Play?” The girl responds, “Bring It!” A possible perceived message throughout the video already hints at, ” Hmm, If he can be friends with a pretty girl like her, there is hope for all awkward boys and the iPod and Apple stuff is one way”. An article on TechCrunch found some findings to somewhat prove that some women are attracted to guys with iPhones more than with other phones. Is this far from the truth?
0:09- He pops up from the ground as their devices connect. Opposites attract as we now see a white iPod Touch on the left (his) and a black iPod Touch on the right (hers). Both seem to be playing a football game and then add more friends. Usually the right side is the “right choice” side when contrasting two objects within a presentation (at least for Americans), but this is often changed due to situational basis.
0:12- He takes a picture of three more pretty girl friends. Oddly enough, they all have the same dark shade of pink shade of lips and similar enough in light skin tone, which helps to create focus on their lips. The main girl of focus is in the center highlighted by her lighter skin tone. The so called, “Vagina Mouth” effect is attempted here. “This effect is a stimulus mainly for the male audience because of girls’ wet and pouted lips and lowered eye lids, which is an attractive trait. (Matthew Michael on Body Language: Signs of attraction)
0:14- The camera moves down as we see the boy shares his iPod Touch with a girl from earlier in on the commercial. She tweets on his phone, “Ohhhh Yeah”, which goes simultaneously with the lyric of the song playing. The boy has a picture of himself and another girl as is iPod’s background image and profile picture. She has her own iPod Touch, but for some reason, she can’t deny his white iPod Touch. This made me think about the difference between the White iPhone and the Black iPhone because a reader has asked me prior to this post. The white iPhone is not only new, but has a slight difference in the cameras setting and better performance according to Tim Moynihan of PC World. (Tim Moynihan of PCWorld). Also, you might find it attractive to read, “How do Colors Affect Purchase?“, by Kiss Metrics.
0:19- Another neat optical illusion reveals a status quo image of a “diverse” set of friends that are all hipsters as well. At face value, the message is “Play with your friends on this easy to connect socially device”. I imagine some underlying messages here can be something to the effect of peer pressure such as, “All of your friends have it, you need to get it too.“, “Once you get one, your friends will too.”, and “This is the new way to play with your friends.” Though their is a difference between an iPod Touch and and iPod, mobile devices- especially smartphones and “Apple Stuff” are one the list of things people by because of peer pressure, according to Janet Fowler (Five things people buy because of peer pressure).
0:20- Which also brings up the notion of the obsession referred to as “Smartphone Dependency“. How often people use it for feel the need to use it for every little thing in their life. The boy uses FaceTime to say hello, text using the messaging system, music player, and then text again saying, “On my way” in response to the first girl he texted before at the beginning the commercial. Nothing wrong with nay of this, so far. however…he’s in close proximity to her already (this being a commercial and such).
0:26: The entrance from above with a smooth landing. Okay, if this guy hasn’t earned some cool points for his iPod Touch commercial, he definitely has some moves and should be credited on that. Amazingly it ends with him next to two girls and he started off with one. Word definitely got around that he has an iPod Touch and that he can “Share the Fun”.
In closing, was this a successful commercial? Of course, its fun and vibrant even though it may not be geared towards you and I. It told a great story from beginning to end through great camera movement and usage of props. Personally I can watch this over and over again and feel the urge to buy an iPod, but then the logical part of my brain kicks in as I rationalize certain factors that are important to me. It aimed to connect with most of the Six Stimuli one should target when selling a message, product or a service.
Do I like it? In some way I’m indifferent. The artist side of me likes it, but the logical side sees a few red flags. Sadly, the impressionable children will definitely pressure each other and their parents to get one. From there, the responsibility of individuals must come into play. Many people abuses and misuse their technology, and now the youth is growing up in a world were dependency on such things are just about as socially acceptable as…well, I can’t even begin to give an example. Maybe you can help me out with that? The children in the commercial, do they really reflect the iPod users? As a former Inner City D.C. School teacher, iPods were very common and they do not remind me of any of the model-like teens in this video. Will teens now try to emulate this commercial even more such as get iPod, shop at American Apparel and look like a hipster? Who knows? The only thing wrong with all of this is if this is not really their idea. An idea fed to them because of their own failed aspirations so far in life.
