Dear Apple,
I know it's been a long time since we've last spoken but I wanted to speak to you about your most recent commercial and the placements in which you've been running it.
Let me begin by saying that I am an enormous fan of your products. I've owned two Shuffles, a Nano, and in the coming months I plan to purchase your new phone. I own two of your computers and my office is exclusively a mac environment. I'm a total brand zealot.
On top of that I am obsessed with your commercials. As someone who works in advertising I am a little more aware of them than the average person. They're beautiful, moving pieces of communication. I would be proud to some day create something half as moving. Your most recent advertisement is no exception. The song "1, 2, 3, 4" by Fiest is yet another amazing choice, the editing is great, and the concept is so simple. I love it.
Or at least I did love it the first 17,342 times that I saw it. At this point approaching 30,000 viewings and I regret to say that I've grown tired of it. Though I'm not a big watcher of TeeVee it seems to follow me everywhere.
In the future I would recommend having the following internal dialog with your marketing department, "Hey guys, I know we're buying a ton of placements for this new ad, maybe we should have the creative department working on a replacement that will run as the ad begins to wear out."
My point is that the media weight that you've purchased for this single spot is, in a word, "inhumane". The spot has gone from "interesting" to "grating" and at this point is quickly approaching "torturous".
All I'm really asking for here would be a little bit of variety. Just one more execution would be perfect and would save me from tearing out my own hair. Two or three would be even better.
I hope that you are understanding of my situation. Thank you for your continued hard work and dedication to the fields of both consumer electronics and advertising.
Sincerely,
Gregory "Whatevs" Rutter
6 comments:
Will you please give Greg a hand, Jobs?
I remember a time maybe 9, 10 months ago, listening to the penultimate Feist album (note spelling, Whatevs) and thinking how nice it is to have a stable of artists with whom I can quietly commune, with whom I might escape the rigors of the world (at this point in my life said rigors consisted exclusively of having to endure HMZ's taunts re: my affinity for sensitive, quiet chanteuses). I ached for the new Feist album to come out, and then it did, and a strange thing happened--it didn't disappoint. She had fulfilled her promise to me, made serenely in the pillowy embrace of my headphones. And then a stranger thing happened. HSBC, Verizon, and finally pimp among pimps, Steve Jobs turned her to a life of wanton whoring. I don't begrudge you, Leslie, or Bitch Lap Lap, as I like to call you. I guess what I'm saying is we had something, and I miss us.
Mr. Cold, I am sorry to hear about your loss. I am, however, glad to hear that my taunts (interesting as it is that my ability to identify a pattern now qualifies as a “taunt”) made your life just that much better. Anyway, this all raises some interesting points, far removed as they may be from Whatevs’ original gripe (which I stand by and think that your response sort of fails to address). The question here for me is this: should part of our judgment of musicians, as artists, performers, people, and entrepreneurs, ride on their integrity. The relevant definition of integrity here is difficult enough, and the whole problem is aggravated by (what I suspect) is the lack of control of the final product when one’s music is released into the corporate sphere. I certainly don’t demonize Lady Lappy for selling her music to Apple, but I do (in line with the original post) think that the execution of the campaign creates the greater problem – that of overexposure and burn out. Or at least the perception of that problem, which is probably the same thing in the end. This isn’t solving anything, but I do think it is interesting. Should we be cautious in love? Should we always expect disappointment and assume that everything great is fleeting? It’s no way to live, but at this point, do we have a choice?
Yes and no.
give me a taste of the "yes."
Well written article.
Post a Comment