Every once in a while I see an ad that I instantly think I should comment on in this blog, only to have second thoughts that go in one of two directions; usually, it's "this is do dumb, it descends into self-parody and is therefore untouchable by me," but sometimes it's "this ad is designed to elicit an angry response, and I'm not falling into that cynical trap." This ad definitely falls into the second category, but I'm going to briefly comment on it anyway.
The "joke" here is that two alleged adults are going on and on about the features of a phone Mom acquired that day, and two preteens are listening in convinced that they are talking about sex. Yes, it's weird and uncomfortable and goes on for way too long and as I alluded to earlier it's all designed to get people discussing the ad even if they are telling each other how creepy and inappropriate it all is. Since I can scroll the YouTube comment section with the best of them I am not going to go into all of that because Congratulations Apple you got people talking, Mission Accomplished. Instead I'll make one other point that I noticed but nobody else seems to be talking about, maybe because it fits perfectly into Commercial World but not so much into modern reality.
Mom tells her husband that she has something to show him, and it's her new iPhone 16. He's casually interested in seeing it and the rest of their little talk has to do with it's features (sort of.) At no point does he ask her why she got a new phone, or how much it costs. So she just went out and bought a new phone Because She Could? Was there something wrong with her "old" phone (presumably, the iPhone15?) The base price of the phone she is showing her husband is $800, and with the features she presumably is showing off it tops out at almost twice as much. Did we miss a conversation between these two in which a decision was made to spend maybe $1500 on a phone?
I'm being serious here- Mom is talking about a phone which probably cost more than their washer and drier as if it's just some little novelty she found being sold by a sidewalk vendor that she thought looked cute and decided to snap up for the hell of it. My very first question would be either "how much did this cost?" or "how long is the contract extension?" or at the very least "what the hell was wrong with that phone you spent a thousand bucks on six months ago?"
Especially in this economy, it's so damn off-putting to see people so casual about buying something that costs more than my rent, especially since we hear nothing about its actual value beyond that it glows if you push a button. My coffee maker does that too, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg, and I won't be tempted to replace it next year. Who the hell are these people and why are they so out of touch with the real world?
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