The Slow Motion Secrets of the iPad Oscar spot

John Brownlee ()

On Friday, we mused about what would happen if Old Spice’s “I’m On A Horse” campaign was applied to Apple’s products… which seemed ridiculous enough a suggestion at the time, but if the recent Oscar Night iPad spot is anything to go by, maybe Apple decided to go just that route.

After all, slowed down by 15% and annotated by Neil Curtis, the iPad spot is just as surreal as the Old Spice ad. In fact, it is rife with goofs, most notably multitouch interactions that have little to no bearing to what the model is doing on screen. As for that iPad model, s/he is practically the Orlando of Apple spots, transmutating from female to male to female again over the course of the ad… all the while magically warping in and out of different pairs of pants.

It’s a bit strange to see a company as detail-obsessed as Apple make so many careless little mistakes… but you’d be hard pressed to catch any of these gaffes at regular speed. It just goes to show that as nitpicky as Jobs can be, the collected Internet will always one-up him.

[via Crunchgear]

DON'T MISS
Discover New English, Foreign And Novelty Text-To-Speech Voices in Lion [OS X Tips]

29 comments »

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in Humor, iPad, News |

  • Paul H

    Give me a break. I did not see the actual ad before watching your dissection. I thought you were on to something.

    But what a waste of time. After seeing the actual ad in real time, I can’t believe you made an effort to “reveal” goofs. It is sooooo clear that most of what you’ve annotated is creative license (multiple users in totally different scenes, for example).

    Geeeeeezzzz. If you’re looking for something to do, I need some help getting leaves up in my front yard.

  • Garrett

    The “trans-mutating from female to male to female again over the course of the ad… all the while magically warping in and out of different pairs of pants.” is obviously meant to show multiple users from a first-person view, and the Google Maps part “with a book behind it” doesn’t ACTUALLY have a book behind it, it was just animated that way for the commercial for a smooth transition from 1 app to another.

    I usually enjoy the articles on this site but this is ridiculous.

  • http://www.combdesign.com Max

    It’s so annoying how Apple thinks that “just sexy” will give people the reason to spend their money on something that is just a big fat compromise. I mean, this thing is just a big iPhone! And you cannot even phone with it!
    And I think: people are even going to fall for it!

  • Lars Pallesen

    Goofs? … You’re kidding, right?

    In the industry these phenomenons are known as “cuts” or “transitions”. They are really quite common. You should watch a movie some time, and see for your self.

  • Chuck Ott

    You are a goof ….have you not watched tv ????

  • Cooper

    I’m 14 years old and this is the stupidest thing I have ever read.

  • sherman

    Yep, this is a stupid YouTube movie.

    And Max, you’re right, people ARE gonna fall for it, in the millions. You know why? Not because it’s sexy (though it is), but because form counts, and function counts, and Apple is the only company that know how to combine them into a gorgeous, effective, synergistic whole. But that’s okay, Max, you can walk away with a snide grin, because you’ll know that millions upon millions of people, unlike you, were simply duped.

  • http://www.metrokids.ca Conrad

    I have to agree, John. This “article” was weak at best. Better luck next time.

    & @Max:
    You’re an idiot.

  • John Brownlee

    What is Apple trying to get across here? That both women AND men can use the iPad? That it works whether your feet are up on the table, or firmly on the ground? That the iPad functions whether you are wearing blue jeans OR shorts?

    Someone explain to me the narrative reason why the model turns from a man to a woman and changes her pants without a word of explanation in the course of the ad? It isn’t a cut or transition, it’s just sloppy. It serves no purpose. Even if Apple was trying to highlight that the iPad is a multiuser device (and they aren’t), there are far better ways to handle it. Heck, I bet none of you even noticed before the movie was slowed down that the model changed two or three times… I know I certainly didn’t.

    I mean, whatever. I thought it was interesting. Some of you guys don’t, which is fine, but I really don’t get why some of you are throwing a conniption over what amounts to some very light ribbing that concludes with a sentence acknowledging the anal-retentiveness of dorks on the Internet.

  • YoMama

    I agree with most everyone here that this attempt to dissect the ad is a joke. It’s an ad for crying out loud. Since when have they ever been 100% accurate. Even iPhone ads have disclaimers about “simulation” and “network/Internet speeds may vary”.

    Gender swap = joke
    Irrelevant multitouch interactions = creative license
    That background music = pa-lease

  • Don Pope

    “What, it’s unacceptable to love Apple products and still give them a little teasing jab occasionally when the cracks show through the usually immaculate veneer?”

    No, it is lame to say that something is a goof when it is clearly not.
    It would have been 10 times easier and cheaper to film the ad with just one person, but they chose to show different people using the iPad, and that was obviously done on purpose.

  • Idan

    There are some seriously petty people around here… Get over yourself. It’s just a commercial.

  • Dan

    I agree with Paul H and almost everyone that’s posting here. What a waste of time it was for you to even write this John.

  • Alexis

    THAT WAS DUMB

  • Russ

    I’m all for Apple satire but this article is curiously written and the satire isn’t very good. For starters, it’s as though the author doesn’t realize the video is poking fun at the iPad nor does he think the “gender swapping” is intentional when it obviously is.

    Secondly the video in question is just a poor attempt at humor. I’m not one of those Apple fans that gets all worked up when somebody makes fun of Apple, but that youtube just isn’t funny. I’m confused as to why it’s given attention.

  • CaryMG

    Slow day, Neil?

  • Charli

    also on the Delicious Library quip, it’s not like they were really the first to use such a design. every Barnes and Noble, Borders etc has used wooden bookstores with ‘faced out’ displays for eons. which is likely where DL got the idea themselves.

  • StuartAB

    A video attempting to highlight Apple’s alleged lack of attention to detail really ought to get its own detail right – like NOT having an apostrophe in a possessive “its”. Doh!

  • Jaswah

    Agreed. I usually really enjoy Cult of Mac but this article is just silly. It’s an AD for crying out loud. If it had been one shot, one actor and one location it’d be boring as hell.

  • JeremyJ

    Apple is not saying the iPad is a multiuser device. If they wanted to say that, they would show it being handed off from one person to another. They are saying its an everyone, everywhere device. Dude watching a football game on the couch in jeans while shopping for books, great. Chick in shorts just lounging and taking care of some email, awesome!

    They are saying they don’t care where or who you are, just buy it because for everyone and everywhere its sexy.

  • KOAS

    It’s clearly supposed to show different people and different poses. I did notice at normal speed that they were different people, and I’m sure that it wouldn’t be that much effort for the ad agency to have got just one person to sit in various poses if that’s what they wanted.

    Most of the comments in this video are just grasping for something to complain about.

  • Chris

    Kinda funny but white text on a white background? Come on! I couldn’t even read what they were making fun of. And does the author really think they film a model doing it? Probably not. They make a video and super-impose it on the device.

  • Zach

    The reason that they switch locations, people, pants in the ad is to show the many times and places that the iPad would be useful. I liked the ad; it was a little fast, but future adds will showcase specific features of the product. April 3rd is creeping up… can’t wait.

  • Martyn

    Reading this, and watching the video makes me feel like I have just wasted 5 mins of my life I won’t get back. If you had the first clue about advertising you would understand subliminal messages.

  • Christian Nelson

    This critique…the video and the introductory words on this site are easily the most moronic things I’ve seen in a long, long time. Truly pathetic.

  • Bryan

    John, what’s wrong with the Ad? I love Pixar short films. JUst glad this one wasn’t a before the movie type for Disney.

  • Cody

    The answers to all these problems are simple. First…yes, like everyone else said, the man to woman to man to woman thing is showing multiple users in first person POV. But everyone should know that on anyone’s ad for any electronic device, screen images are usually simulated. This means that more likely than not, the object being held during shooting of the commercial probably had a green screen to digitally plug in screen images later. I mean really…slow down something else, like your thought processes.

  • CEBEP

    What can I say, white text on white screen background. Could not read 80% of it. Waist of time. My time.

  • porkchop1234

    Its an add not the movie Le Miserable who cares if the pants change or the hands go from male to female. John I usually like your articles but seriously if you have this much time on your hands why don’t you come over to Canada and help me shovel the driveway.

    @Max the wonder goof.
    You don’t like the Ipad then shut up and don’t buy it. Maybe if you actually kept your mouth shut people wouldn’t be calling you a idiot.