Apple’s latest ad campaign focuses on how the Mac can be used by regular people to create music, make art, develop apps and more.
Like classic Apple campaigns such as the “Switch” ads of the early 2000s, or the long-running “Shot on iPhone” ads, the “Behind the Mac” ads focus on real Apple users — thereby making them feel more authentic. They also embrace Apple’s accessibility push, demonstrated through stories like legally blind photographer Bruce Hall, who uses Apple devices.
Check them out below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRl5wi8JCnA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAM2lqbPElU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPv9jFWhzGE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dar_brj8zdw
Telling the stories of real people
In all, I like the new ads a lot. Sure, they lack the attention grabbing visuals of, say, the classic silhouette iPod ads or Spike Jonze’s recent HomePod commercial, but they feel real. The documentary structure works well, and the stories are appropriately varied and interesting.
When you view something like entrepreneur Peter Kariuki’s poignant development of an app to reduce traffic deaths in Rwanda, it’s even more bizarre that Apple so badly messed up this storytelling aspect of the app development experience with its abysmal Planet of the Apps series.
Hopefully Apple will continue the “Behind the Mac” series for a while. What do you think of the ads? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
