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September 25, 2007

Dear Apple Media Planners...

Dear Apple Media Planners:

I am clearly in your target audience for the new iPod Nano. I love Apple products. I own two iPods. I'll pop for an iPhone eventually. I work exclusively on Macs. I am a brand zealot. And, demographically I must still fit because, despite the fact I really haven't watched that much TV as of late, I have been exposed to the new Nano TV commercial 98,412 times. And this is the problem. I quite enjoyed the spot the first 78,767 times. But, as of today, I think if I have to listen to that snippet of the hip, mellow vibe that is 1,2,3,4 by Feist again I will throw a brick through my new Vizio. Jesus, peeps. Is it too much to ask that you actually look at your plan and think, "Hmmm, this is a really big buy, lets make sure to let the creatives know that we should make at least a couple of spots." I believe the weight you've put behind this single execution is, in a word, inhumane. The spot has gone from ingratiating to grating and it's all your fault. All I'm asking for is a little bit of variety. A couple of executions. Maybe even three. Really. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

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Comments

I would suggest the campaign be expanded with the video for The Go! Team's "Huddle Formation" (yeah, the one that starts with "5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8!").

Couldn't. Agree. More.

However I'm not sure we should put all the blame on the shoulders of the media planners. What about Chiat for only getting one nano spot sold? (and please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the only new nano execution I’ve seen as of late). These refreshingly simple apple spots can’t be that expensive to produce, and even if they are, lord knows apple has the dough. Why not throw another 2 or 3 in rotation? Or give us another artist at least. Something. Anything. Overexposure, no matter how good the creative, can hurt a brand (see Peyton Manning).

What I loathe even more though is when a brand sponsors a game/sporting event and not only do you see the same spot 6500 times, you start to learn the media rotation and when to expect it. A good, semi-recent example would be the John McEnroe spot for Amex that played at the start of nearly every commercial break during the US Open, a spot that was mildly funny the first time but after a 5-set match (of which there were many this year) it’s enough to turn you homicidal. By the end of the tournament I was one spot away from shredding my Amex card.

Playing the same spot a few times during a 30-minute episode of Seinfeld is one thing. But when you have media spread throughout a 4-hour + match, and you know a good majority of your audience is probably going to watch most of it, it’s downright cruel, not to mention bad for the brand, to inundate them with the same execution over and over and over...

Here here.

So true about the McEnroe spot on the Open. I was bleeding from my eyes by the end of the tournament, and Johnny Mac is one of my heroes. This is one of these situations where you have to ask the agency: do you actually watch TV? Because if they did, they would only make this mistake once.

i haven't checked this site in a while. what has happened? you changed it up. i fear change. this scares me. you scare me now, and you did not formerly do this. that is another change. now i am terrified instead of just scared, which is yet another change. when will it end!?! i have to go...

I couldn't agree more. Honestly, if I were Feist (or any indie artist), I'd be ticked at Apple for creating a negative association with her new album.

Then again, she should've known what she was getting herself into.

If you have a tech-tuned kid, the beating continues when they download the tune. Thankfully, in our case Bruce Hornsby won the battle of musical hooks here...but that makes me replay a Lowe's commercial in my head...

I really loved that song. It's ashame Apple has ruined it for me.

I think they were being clever with this one spot. The "beat our consumers over the head" kind of clever. ...yeah, it doesn't work for me either...

We've taken to muting the TV every time that spot comes on. If I never heard the song again, that would be AWESOME.

Try watching football in a sports bar on a Sunday. At least 5 screens in any direction you choose to look, and at least one of those five will be in commercial. Because that spot runs in every market it means that you'll see the spot in every_single_one_of_them... multiple times. I used to like that song (and video) too.

Maybe it just comes with the territory. A lesser-known brand runs that song and we forget about it after a week then move on.

I blame Jobs for creating really cool stuff people never knew they wanted until he made it.

;-p

When was that ad released?

A similar ad hit australian shores for ebay using that feist song around june this year.

Does anyone else here follow up the "1, 2, 3, 4" with "I declare thumb war" every time the spot comes on?

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