Well, it's exposure for said brands anyway (and being tied to Macs, too), so it's probably a good deal from an advertising standpoint (even more if Apple is paying them for it.)
The Simpsons are always jokingly referring to Apple. They have the apple logo with two bits out of it. I'm sure The Simpsons are happy to tie their name like this.
There's Chi from Chi's Sweet Home on one of them. I wonder if they actually got the rights for that or just figured the Japanese rightsowners (probably the original manga author) wouldn't care.
Anyway, when I'm using a wristwatch I don't have a problem with the case, but the strap is often itchy (not to the point of irritating the skin, though)
It's possible. You can nickel treat alu to give it a consistent durable finish as alu oxide is quite easy to dent and this deposits some on the surface.
Another thing I've seen is that a friend of mine's MBP has started to dissolve. It is pitted and looks burned. Turns out some people's sweat eats them as well.
Don't know if it can really be considered "interesting" or not, but at the very end the logo flickers between the new style single shade and the old style rainbow colours. Might we see a return of the old logo?
That's a pretty interesting move from Apple, I know a few people who are part of the stickers-on-laptop set (myself included) and those that refuse to besmirch the looks with stickers. I'd always assumed that Apple would fall into the second group, but it's nice to see them showing off a small cottage industry.
You probably won't ever get that version as rapper Future bought the beat. Last time something similar happened, it was Kanye West buying TNGHT - R U Ready which ended up being the beat for Blood On The Leaves
edit: I actually am completely wrong. Chimes actually from HudMo only and not TNGHT and it can be purchased on iTunes right now. Big surprise, really thought it would never come out (it's been at least two years since it's been played for the first time). https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chimes-ep/id900521487
You wouldn't see it on the Apple web site, but are there any good stickers that take advantage of the fact that an apple (often with a bite taken out of it) is the universal symbol for sex store in many countries? It's a reference to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, of course.
With the exception of (which is ONE specific company) I've never seen the bitten apple used widely as some short of metaphor for "sex shop", including in UK and France.
I'm sure one can find a few examples, as a bitten apple makes sense (like lips do, tits, handcuffs, the letters "XXX" and other such symbols). I doubt one can find many, much less it being the "de facto" sex shop symbol there.
Your brief: create a video ad that features the company logo in the middle of the screen for the full 30-second advert, without losing people's attention.
Placing your company logo so prominently for so long in a video ad is rare – it's hard to find an excuse to leave it there for the full ad. But it works in Apple's Stickers ad here.
The video ad reads both as an invitation to get creative with the space on the back of your laptop, and as an optimistic style guide handed down from above: “by all means shove stickers over your MacBook, but – hey – if you're going to do that, they may as well interact with our logo in a fun way instead of covering it up!” (Clearly, my own MacBook contravenes the suggested guidelines: http://d.pr/i/iGOa )
Plastering stickers over full-size vinyl artwork might seem crazy, but it means that (a) any gaps are filled in by the artwork behind and (b), you can take all of the stickers off in one go and transfer them to a new laptop. (Nuvango use 3M peelable stickers, so it's easy enough to remove and restick them all at once – I've had to do it already for a replacement under warranty.)
Mc Donald's has ran several ads where the logo was in the center for a full 30 seconds so when you fast forward on a DVR you still see the logo as you fast forward. I imagine this ad will play on tv and again when you fast forward on a DVR you'll still see the apple logo.
To each their own of course, but I find these plastered laptops kind of childish. I can't be the only one right?
I don't really understand why I'd broadcast different brands that might align with what I do professionally everywhere I go. Then again, I am not one to like things on Facebook either, might be a similar tendency.
This seems more of a trend in America than it does here in Europe. Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?
Problem is there is so little differentiation between models. I had to put a sticker on mine just so it wouldn't get confused with other Airs; may as well use something fun and hard to duplicate.
My first sticker on the air happened when I went to Campus Party Brazil. It hosted 8.000 Campers in a high tech environment. My tablet alone had about 100 people. The amount of Apple machines was too high, so I placed a sticker to know which machine was mine... today it looks like: http://i.imgur.com/i6koYyC.jpg
I am tempted to get one just to cover up the giant glowing Apple logo I am showing off all the time. There are many laptop decals which do not show any 'brand' in particular.
I think the point I'm trying to make is that, yes, of course self-expression is a necessary part of being human, but a sticker that literally just displays the name of something you like as a type of signaling is the shallowest form of it.
That is what I mean. I understand the practical reasons for distinguishing your laptop from others', but to do it with marketing logos from technologies you use seems childish to me.
I think you're being unfairly downvoted, mostly because I don't think childish quite conveys the thought. There does seem to be some personality type that likes a lot of flair in their life -- jewelry, stickers, tattoos, busy t-shirts -- and it's always felt a little odd to me, too.
At risk of being reductionist, it is kind of hard to understand why anyone would feel compelled to signal their likes and group-identities to strangers in such an overt way. But I'm probably revealing more about my own personality by saying that than I am theirs.
I think "compelled" is the wrong word. People like their own opinions and they like to tell them to other people. Well, you've signaled your likes to this community of strangers.
> At risk of being reductionist, it is kind of hard to understand why anyone would feel compelled to signal their likes and group-identities to strangers in such an overt way. But I'm probably revealing more about my own personality by saying that than I am theirs.
I think the second sentence is more true than you might like to admit. People have been decorating things for as long as there have been modern humans. There is some evidence that even Neanderthals modified their environments for aesthetic reasons [1].
The desire to make things beautiful -- including our own bodies -- is as old as history itself, and even older. If you don't partake in this then I, for one, consider that a bit sad. You're missing out on a huge part of life.
>To each their own of course, but I find these plastered laptops kind of childish. I can't be the only one right?
Well, a lot of users are kind of children. In their teens, 20s, early 30s. So depends on how old are you. Also, are you tie+shirt serious? If you work at some tie+shirt company's IT, you might be more inclined towards a "serious" looking laptop.
>Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?
I am not tie-shirt serious nor is the company I work at. I have gone to work in almost any type of clothing, including football (soccer for Americans) shirt + shorts (for playing after work).
I feel strange about the plaster laptops because it seems that people lend their identity from whatever they stick on their laptop which in turn comes from what technology they happen to use. I like Coffee script, Rails, Backbone, etc. but I don't really identify with it any further than my resume.
My wife and I both have airs. So do a lot of people I work with. The stickers are a very simple way to know whose is whose. It's a practical concern solved in a fun way.
I have a mac book pro 15 retina from work and a personal laptop of the same model. Stickers are a fun/easy way to tell my laptop apart quickly. There are numerous types of stickers also, I have several from different entertainment series that I like, some tech based stickers, and stickers for environmental or political causes I care about. I've had more people than i can count ask me about the environmental ones in particular. For example I'm strongly opposed to the building of the pebble mine in Alaska* so I have an anti pebble mine sticker on my personal laptop. Since I'm commonly working on side projects with friends, often in coffee shops or cafes and I tend to go to a lot programming related meetups I have had numerous people ask me about it and I take it as an opportunity to educate others about the issues involved and why I believe how I do. It's a form of low level/mild political advocacy for me that I've found to be extremely effective. This does not seem childish at all to me.
> by all means shove stickers over your MacBook, but – hey – if you're going to do that, they may as well interact with our logo in a fun way instead of covering it up!
To their credit, this is something that a lot of Macbook owners do already; I've seen more cases of the logo being highlighted by users' adornments than covered up. As an example, here's an ugly website from 2009[1].
Apple here isn't trying to push people towards highlighting the logo, they're showing how people do it already.
Didn't the Hisenburg sticker cover the logo? Sure it didn't cover it up completely, it used the circular shape of the apple, but still it didn't quite look like an unadulterated logo. I think the message of the commercial is pretty clear, while the macbook airs aren't as "customizable", they're still "yours" & people love them. You'd have to take mine from my cold dead hands (even though it could really use some more ram)
I've been putting stickers on my laptop's for years. I don't see why Apple needed a marketing campaign for this, other than to just run some user-contributed ads.
I didn't really like the way the laptop judders slightly (especially in the opening 10 seconds or so) because the images don't quite line up. I'm not sure whether it was a conscious decision to do it that way - obviously taking identical pictures is hard, but not impossible, though doing the whole thing digitally would probably be easier. Odd choice, if you ask me.
This is a keen observation that make a surprising conclusion. I made the same observation but had a completely different reaction.
The stuttering was actually a motif to show this are pictures of different laptops of real people. It also completely tied into the music which was of a stuttery and impactful tone. It was obviously an intentional technique. You will notice that the laptops were also scuffed and looked used.
The whole ad was about how personal a macbook is to its owner. I think apple have been concerned mac's are now so 'mainstream' they want to encourage the view that you are your macbook.
Upvote for serious. The commercial isn't wrong - I love my 11" Air like no laptop I've had before.
But with iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, and 13" MacBook Pros in my office all being much crisper than my beloved Air, it's starting to feel a bit dated.
Dated and somewhat of a misfit in terms of pricing. I can get an iPad Air for nearly the same price, but I can't run VMs or code front-end stuff on it (I used to hack away on an iPad at libraries and other stuff that had longer iterations, but these days I need a "normal" laptop).
It's not just the low resolution - it's also a TN panel. It's just a terrible display compared to almost anything you can find in an ultrabook in the same price range these days.
Which is a shame because I really love everything else about the MBA.
It's not about the battery, it's about the portability and the display. A 13" laptop is too big to lug around for me, and the retina display would enhance readability for me (I tend to read a _lot_ on screen, but an iPad is simply not an option for the rest of my activities).
I'm willing to wager less than 1% of people who are full time MacBook Air users will convert their full time laptop use to a Surface Pro 3. And of that 1%, I'm guessing > 50% will be attracted to the Stylus/Sketching capabilities.
You missed his point: retina needs a lot of battery power, so a retina 11" would need a much bigger battery (or a large loss in power time), which goes against what the 11" is about
11" may be tough, but they should have a 13" air with retina display by now. Samsung's ATIV Book 9 Plus has a 3200x1800 touchscreen display, weighs 3.06 pounds, and gets 9 hours of battery life.
The "og" series of meta property tags are for FaceBook's Open Graph [1]. I believe that FaceBook uses that data to determine what to post if you post that link.
It certainly feels like it came from a company that would buy the Dre/Beats team.
That is: historically Apple has emphasized the emotional pitch to the things that you (can) do with their gear, and the expression of personality through that use.
This commercial is much more an emotional pitch to the gear in-and-of itself, and the expression of personality via (crass/commercial) personalization of the gear.
It's not wholly incompatible with the older Apple approach, but it's much more in-line with Beats' approach.
This also seems to walk directly into the old criticism that Apple is primarily an enabler of corporate consumption as opposed to creation.
It's unclear whether they're ignoring those old knocks with new confidence, or are simply unaware of how this looks (and more importantly: how the shift looks).
This seems like a complete paradigm shift from the Jobs-days of so closely holding and protecting their brand. Refusing to dilute it with Home Simpson and poorly drawn Golden Gate bridges...
...Or maybe they could just want to increase accessory sales.
I 'll probably get down voted to oblivion, but I loved this ad and strongly disliked the "Here's to the crazy ones" campaign.
To elaborate; The here's to crazy ones feels very hypocritical. Here's to the crazy ones, to Armstrong, Einstein, Monroe... Buy a computer! Oh come on. It makes me cringe - it is everything that is wrong with marketing, and the fact that people tout it as the pinnacle of advertising is everything that is wrong with people that are into marketing!
Whereas this, this is awesome. It's down to earth, personal. Apple's logo and apples product is in the centre of attention without becoming an annoyance. It actually made me want to customise a bit my macbook
Is Apple actually selling these stickers? I saw it more of a "this is what people do with our product because they love it so much" kind of thing, as opposed to Apple directly diluting their brand by selling notebooks with Homer Simpson on them.
Apple does not. Some of us find the stickers out there anyway. I have a "Ice Age" one (not what was shown in the ad) to differentiate my Air from my wife's.
I agree but the Mac has also always been pushed as a platform for 'creative' people. For a lot of them that probably extends to customising their device so Apple taking advantage of that isn't too strange - particularly when most of these stickers are built around the glowing Apple on the MacBook, the hallmark of Apple's brand.
And yet it's still very natural for this to be an Apple ad. It has the hallmarks - product front and center, minimalist, catchy music that isn't as mainstream.
Yes, they mixed two songs together, one of which is not out (the beat part), but it is acquired by a rapper and might someday come out as a fully fleshed song.
It's really interesting that there's dirt on some of these MacBooks. Presumably they must be real machines used by Apple employees or customers, and they intentionally didn't clean them.
I liked the cute flashing of the old rainbow-colored Apple logo at the end, almost as if they were sort of going back to that kind of colorful style with the stickers.
I got a Macbook Air from work. Stuck Ubuntu on it, and a big kayak sticker over the Apple logo. They aren't getting free adverting from me. (One fanboy looked noticeably upset when he saw it running Ubuntu).
I like how someone who uses the same hardware as you but a different OS is a 'fanboy', but at the same time you are completely exempt of this moniker even though you take part of your identity from the fact that you cover up a logo and run Ubuntu; feeling proud enough to tell us about it here.
Fanboy-ing aside the benefit of OS X over Ubuntu (et al.), to me at least, is that it is more stable, still unix and there is much more software available for it that doesn't require debugging/building/re-building, etc. Ubuntu is fun for playing with, but when I need to get work done it tends get in the way eventually.
I'd be annoyed too to see someone never take a Porsche past second gear and cover the logo with 'Honda'. None of my business, but still saddening to see someone so miss the point.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 234 ms ] threadI'm also amazed they managed to get the rights for all those characters (Disney was probably easy, but the Simpsons and Warner Bros.?)
I don't think the portrayal of Apple in the Simpsons is very positive though, it's often shown as cultish.
http://comicsalliance.com/matt-groening-apple-macintosh-broc...
If the rightsholders do care, nobody tell them about Pixiv.
Maybe it's this one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6061_aluminium_alloy (a guess from here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/8612485)
Anyway, when I'm using a wristwatch I don't have a problem with the case, but the strap is often itchy (not to the point of irritating the skin, though)
Another thing I've seen is that a friend of mine's MBP has started to dissolve. It is pitted and looks burned. Turns out some people's sweat eats them as well.
Probably a bad material choice if you ask me.
This is a fairly big issue for a lot of people. Even my doctor asked if I use apple products when I went to him with the rash as he's seen it a lot.
I find it rediculous that they would even consider using nickel based alloys.
I made this for my mbp: https://twitter.com/hamidp/status/463408033670774785/photo/1
You probably won't ever get that version as rapper Future bought the beat. Last time something similar happened, it was Kanye West buying TNGHT - R U Ready which ended up being the beat for Blood On The Leaves
edit: I actually am completely wrong. Chimes actually from HudMo only and not TNGHT and it can be purchased on iTunes right now. Big surprise, really thought it would never come out (it's been at least two years since it's been played for the first time). https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chimes-ep/id900521487
I'm sure one can find a few examples, as a bitten apple makes sense (like lips do, tits, handcuffs, the letters "XXX" and other such symbols). I doubt one can find many, much less it being the "de facto" sex shop symbol there.
Placing your company logo so prominently for so long in a video ad is rare – it's hard to find an excuse to leave it there for the full ad. But it works in Apple's Stickers ad here.
The video ad reads both as an invitation to get creative with the space on the back of your laptop, and as an optimistic style guide handed down from above: “by all means shove stickers over your MacBook, but – hey – if you're going to do that, they may as well interact with our logo in a fun way instead of covering it up!” (Clearly, my own MacBook contravenes the suggested guidelines: http://d.pr/i/iGOa )
Plastering stickers over full-size vinyl artwork might seem crazy, but it means that (a) any gaps are filled in by the artwork behind and (b), you can take all of the stickers off in one go and transfer them to a new laptop. (Nuvango use 3M peelable stickers, so it's easy enough to remove and restick them all at once – I've had to do it already for a replacement under warranty.)
I don't really understand why I'd broadcast different brands that might align with what I do professionally everywhere I go. Then again, I am not one to like things on Facebook either, might be a similar tendency.
This seems more of a trend in America than it does here in Europe. Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?
And of course childish is bad because we are serious grown up people doing serious things.
[meaning sticker combos should be pseudo unique]
At risk of being reductionist, it is kind of hard to understand why anyone would feel compelled to signal their likes and group-identities to strangers in such an overt way. But I'm probably revealing more about my own personality by saying that than I am theirs.
I think the second sentence is more true than you might like to admit. People have been decorating things for as long as there have been modern humans. There is some evidence that even Neanderthals modified their environments for aesthetic reasons [1].
The desire to make things beautiful -- including our own bodies -- is as old as history itself, and even older. If you don't partake in this then I, for one, consider that a bit sad. You're missing out on a huge part of life.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/14/neanderthals-...
Well, a lot of users are kind of children. In their teens, 20s, early 30s. So depends on how old are you. Also, are you tie+shirt serious? If you work at some tie+shirt company's IT, you might be more inclined towards a "serious" looking laptop.
>Maybe it is similar to the more American custom to communicate 'witty' things on t-shirts?
As if we Europeans don't do it?
I feel strange about the plaster laptops because it seems that people lend their identity from whatever they stick on their laptop which in turn comes from what technology they happen to use. I like Coffee script, Rails, Backbone, etc. but I don't really identify with it any further than my resume.
*For more info see here: http://www.savebristolbay.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mine
To their credit, this is something that a lot of Macbook owners do already; I've seen more cases of the logo being highlighted by users' adornments than covered up. As an example, here's an ugly website from 2009[1].
Apple here isn't trying to push people towards highlighting the logo, they're showing how people do it already.
[1] http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/11/11/10-cool-apple-ma...
The stuttering was actually a motif to show this are pictures of different laptops of real people. It also completely tied into the music which was of a stuttery and impactful tone. It was obviously an intentional technique. You will notice that the laptops were also scuffed and looked used.
The whole ad was about how personal a macbook is to its owner. I think apple have been concerned mac's are now so 'mainstream' they want to encourage the view that you are your macbook.
I'll take it over Apple's increasingly mawkish TV spots any day, though.
But with iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, and 13" MacBook Pros in my office all being much crisper than my beloved Air, it's starting to feel a bit dated.
(Also 4k Cinema Display ok thanks)
Which is a shame because I really love everything else about the MBA.
So unless they can extend batterylife 100%, it will not happen
[1] http://ogp.me/
http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/10/more-on-apples-in-house-ad-eff...
That is: historically Apple has emphasized the emotional pitch to the things that you (can) do with their gear, and the expression of personality through that use.
This commercial is much more an emotional pitch to the gear in-and-of itself, and the expression of personality via (crass/commercial) personalization of the gear.
It's not wholly incompatible with the older Apple approach, but it's much more in-line with Beats' approach.
This also seems to walk directly into the old criticism that Apple is primarily an enabler of corporate consumption as opposed to creation.
It's unclear whether they're ignoring those old knocks with new confidence, or are simply unaware of how this looks (and more importantly: how the shift looks).
...Or maybe they could just want to increase accessory sales.
To elaborate; The here's to crazy ones feels very hypocritical. Here's to the crazy ones, to Armstrong, Einstein, Monroe... Buy a computer! Oh come on. It makes me cringe - it is everything that is wrong with marketing, and the fact that people tout it as the pinnacle of advertising is everything that is wrong with people that are into marketing!
Whereas this, this is awesome. It's down to earth, personal. Apple's logo and apples product is in the centre of attention without becoming an annoyance. It actually made me want to customise a bit my macbook
This is a little quirkier and more fun.
I personally think it's very effective.
The price for European pockets.
[1] http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X%2Bx1P7f3L._SL1500_...
Compare 0:10 of Apple's ad with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM#t=34
Fanboy-ing aside the benefit of OS X over Ubuntu (et al.), to me at least, is that it is more stable, still unix and there is much more software available for it that doesn't require debugging/building/re-building, etc. Ubuntu is fun for playing with, but when I need to get work done it tends get in the way eventually.