Apple’s ‘blingy’ new TBWA ad isn’t as bad as they say

Advertising is always said to have played a pivotal role in the Apple phenomenon, ever since Ridley Scott’s iconic 1984 commercial launched the Macintosh. Founder Steve Jobs allegedly used to oversee all the ads along with TBWA Media Arts Lab’s Lee Clow and the ads, perhaps, reached their peak in an epic Microsoft-bashing ‘I’m A Mac,’ campaign that ran a few years ago.

But, really, Apple has been driven by a fearsome combination of design and technology; good-looking devices that do clever things in a deceptively simple way – at a fearsome price.

The iPhone is a good example of this and the new iPhone 5S seems to be flying off the shelves despite some sceptics who think it’s been overtaken by Samsung and other makers. And it’s horrified some old Apple-ites by being available in blingtastic gold, which seems (to them) to sum up the difference between Tim Cook’s Apple and that of Jobs.

Which this new ad from TBWA highlights without, as it were, actually saying so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYsSiaBZmRk

But people, especially in China it seems, want the things in bloody gold. I was in a conversation last week with three otherwise intelligent people who were all wondering if a new gold iPhone would be “too much.”

The notion of Apple and its advertising ‘selling out’ is compounded by this campaign (if such it be, might be a one-off) using Goldfrapp’s Ohh La La, which is synonymous with Heineken of course.

But…it actually works, chiefly because of the music.

And, as we said, advertising isn’t actually that important to Apple. It’s just that some it’s been extremely good.

Doesn’t mean TBWA is out of the woods yet, of course. There’s no ‘Designed by Apple in California’ to be seen here. There’s a certain agency located just north of California that would just love to handle Apple.