Only Human
By Mitch Berg
Not sure its directly related to the Trump election – but if there is a cultural realignment going on below our society’s electoral surface, this new ad from Apple is a sign of it.
For the past couple of decades, the only acceptable way to present fathers – of any race, of late – is as incompetent boobs who are married to improbably gorgeous and capable women.
And what this said about America is…not good. Advertisers get paid to read the zeitgeist correctly. And for most of this past several decades, that zeitgeist, as apparent to advertisers of products directed at women, was “Men are to social and personal life what waxy yellow buildup is to your kitchen floor”. The notable differences were in products aimed at men – mostly beer and home improvement stores, which treated men as, well, potential customers.
A few years ago, I ran a home-made study of TV ads, measuring the percentage of ad characters by their role in the ad:
- Protagonists/customers/”everyperson” characters
- Buffoons/Comic Relief
- Antagonists
- “Experts”
Not sure I even need to tell you what the gender and ethnic breakdown was.
The problems is, of course, that these are the messages by which our society socializes children. Is it any wonder GenZ boys are checking out of social engagement?
And that they voted disproportionally for Trump?
Hoping this is a sign that the ad industry is seeing that cultural swing too.
December 5th, 2024 at 7:53 am
You run a company.
You want to sell your product.
You must convince shoppers to become customers.
You don’t do that by insulting or mocking them (Bud Light).
You do that by making them think they are smart to choose you, or
You do that by making them think choosing you will make them popular/sexy.
You do that by figuring out who’s shopping for your product and targeting them.
For paper towels, the bumbling husband makes the shopping wife feel smart.
For after shave, the fit athlete makes the shopping husband feel sexy.
Who buys Apple products?
What ads would make them feel it’s smart to buy Apple products?
Maybe that’s why this new ad is so effective?
Personally, I love this older one, maybe because I could easily see myself in the role of Dad.
https://youtu.be/U2gQE0J00UE
December 5th, 2024 at 7:53 am
I read about that hearing aid feature on iPods a couple of weeks ago, prior to this ad airing. Doesn’t take away from the message, because that’s a very good ad.
December 5th, 2024 at 11:56 am
I’m not ordinarily an Apple fan, but that is a cool feature. It struck me a while back that since all the filtering in hearing aids is digital these days, that the markets for “medical grade” hearing aids may be drastically truncated. Imagine getting a system where you periodically change the filtering on your $200 Apple ear buds instead of paying $6000 for each new set.
December 5th, 2024 at 2:12 pm
For years, the folks “in the know” have been using hunting ears rather than hearing aids. Those non-hearing aids have better filtering, more bands, and can give you a much, much result than the equivalent medical grade devices. Of course, one is unregulated and much more able to innovate and change, while the other takes 7 years to get approval so it’s really not a contest. So Apple getting in the game speaks more to the money they have to intimidate government agencies than anything else.
But the effect of “mainstream advertising” on my daughter and my son show just how much rah-rah girl spirit they inspire, versus the absolute rejection of most consumerism by my son. If it’s not a “traditional male” space (tech, outdoors, firearms, etc) he’s not interested in “culturally mainstream” brands/items. In fact, his consumerism is more like the traditional “poor college student” ownership with all the spare spending on “chad” items. His choice in firearms before he lost them in tragic canoe accidents has me envious at times, and his gaming computer puts mine to shame. It seems that denigrating half the “desirous” spending demographic might be skewing their spending in addition to their politics.
As to ads, they’re one of the reasons I’ve totally given up on TV. At least online I can filter out all the crap they preach.
December 5th, 2024 at 2:33 pm
^ Never having been “in the know”, I certainly didn’t know about this option (I wear/use hearing aids). You didn’t mention price. There is literally an order of magnitude in the price between a “cheap” hearing aid and the most expensive “hunting ear(bud)s” I found. I’m intrigued.
December 5th, 2024 at 10:45 pm
@jdm Well, it might be that as an electrical engineer working in the Twin Cities, I have friends in the medical device companies, some of whom kind of suggested looking into them rather than standard hearing aids. And this was several years ago when I mentioned my mom was having trouble with her aids and not liking the cost of them or their poor performance. They didn’t say anything directly, but suggested a few google searches on hunting ears instead. My mother had much better results with the hunting ear buds, finding them more comfortable and better able to filter out the bands causing trouble on the phone and TV. (I take after my father’s side of the family, and my wife complains that I “can hear grass grow.”)
And yes, there was easily more than an order of magnitude difference in price. The slowness of the Federal bureaucracy isn’t without cost.
From what I can tell, these new Apple versions automate the procedure better than most hunting ears because of the software you can leverage on your phone.
December 6th, 2024 at 9:18 am
Nerdbert; would it be correct if I guessed you simply link the earbuds to your phone, and it walks you through the hearing test and it sets the filtering/amplification for you?
Whose products do you recommend?
December 6th, 2024 at 10:38 am
After looking a little more, among the hunting ear bud products on the market are a number that will cost as much as regular hearing aids. For example, $1600/pair (OtoPro Soundgear Phantom) to $3600/pair (Tetra Hearing Multi-Pursuit CustomShield). The reviews were very positive nonetheless.
I don’t know enough to make a judgement one way or another.