Apple Airs New iPhone TV Ads Featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel [Updated]

[Liquorpuki]

Apple rarely, if ever, uses celebrities in their advertising, particularly as themselves. The "I'm A Mac" ads featured Justin Long and John Hodgman, but they were playing characters rather than acting as a celebrity endorsement. One notable exception was actor Will Ferrell who did a number of iPod ads a few years back.

The old Switch ads had a ton of celebrities
- Tony Hawk
- De La Soul
- DJ Q-Bert
- etc

 

[lunarworks]

Well, the Jobs era is certainly over. This just confirms it.

 

[Hastings101]

Haha I love the Zooey Deschanel one

 

[Scrumper]

mmmmmm Zooey....

 

[Ddyracer]

Well, the Jobs era is certainly over. This just confirms it.

SJ approved of Siri if that's what you mean. I'm sure he would approve these ads as well.

 

[Peace]

Might I add. Even though they were not using an iPhone. The original iPhone commercial "Hello ? " used movie/tv stars exclusively.

 

[lord patton]

Big props to Apple (and Zooey!) for using Big Joe Turner's version of "Shake, Rattle, and Roll"!

Next we need a spot featuring Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog"!

 

[mrgraff]

I learned that you can add the "delivery" criteria to your searches of restaurants. That's pretty cool.

 

[ProVideo]

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

 

[Winter Charm]

Yeah works great for you, not so much for me...So??

What's wrong with people who stated Siri doesn't always work the way they wanted to? Why the down votes?

People is not supposed to say Siri does not always work well? So all of us should lie and say Siri is 10000% perfect all the time?

Some people ...

Siri isn't perfect. She sometimes misses things, but she's not all bad, either. Perfectly acceptable for a beta, but not perfect.

----------

Well, the Jobs era is certainly over. This just confirms it.

was the stock dip not enough for you?

 

[diazj3]

really?... "is that rain?" just give it a break, Apple... you are starting to sound a bit lame

 

[entatlrg]

Siri is an excellent feature. Use it all day everyday, incredibly accurate.

Naysayers - I don't get it, have you tried Siri, do you have an accent, lisp, what?

Works really well for me ... and as if Apple's going go feature two commercials for a feature that works as poorly as some claim here ... ... careful what you read on fourms...

 

[Getitdone]

Both ads were on NBC tonight. I happened to be reading about the Samuel Jackson commercial on my iPad when the commercial came on so it caught my attention.

 

[WilliamG]

Well, I've tried to make Siri understand "remind me in one hour to put the gazpacho on ice," and I can NOT schedule that one at all. I've said it over ten times now, and she never understands me.

Anyone successfully done that?

 

[MacinDoc]

Would love celebrity voices as Siri. I'd definitely have GlaDOS

Or have a female British Siri voice, the male one doesn't sound right, I use the Australian one purely because she sounds gorgeous

Just keep in mind that if you are using the Australian voice, you are also using the Australian voice recognition. The American Siri understands me perfectly, but the British Siri is frequently confused by my voice. My wife, who is British, has much more success with the British Siri than with the American one. I am wondering if this is why so many people have trouble with Siri, because of localization of voice recognition due to localization of voice inflection and colloquialisms.

 

[MrXiro]

Justin Long and John Hodgman were not what I would call celebrities when they did the I'm a Mac commercials... Justin Long was in movies... but I never knew his name.

Also... of any product on this planet, is the iPhone the one that really needs a commercial?

Kind of a waste of money if you ask me... advertise your other phones or features. Not the thing that already sold a bazillion units...

 

[MacinDoc]

Well, I've tried to make Siri understand "remind me in one hour to put the gazpacho on ice," and I can NOT schedule that one at all. I've said it over ten times now, and she never understands me.

Anyone successfully done that?

I got a reminder to put the "guest spot show" on ice. Well, at least it sounds similar... But I find it hard to believe that it actually worked when they were taping the commercial.

Edit: I did get Siri to recognize the word by asking her to spell gazpacho. So I guess it must be how I'm saying the whole phrase.

 

[bobsentell]

I think you are making far too reaching a prediction there. 98% of the people are still the same at Apple and they appear to have gone to great lengths to prepare for this time to ensure that they avoid doing just that, turning into just another company. I will give them time to prove themselves.

I understand that 98% of the people are still there. But there is plenty of evidence that Steve Jobs has some times gone counter to the 98%. He had a very unique way of looking at things. Tim Cook is a standard businessman. If he had not been hired at Apple, he'd be the CEO of some other company we'd be bored with.

This is just one thing I have noticed that Apple has done that shows the company has moved away from the Jobs vision. Their momentum will carry them forward. But they will, at some point, do something Jobs would have balked at thinking it is a good idea. After that point, the ride is over and they become yet another technology company.

 

[MacGod]

Think Different... Macrumors

forget the Think Different Campaigns with Jeff Goldblum? I think he was a celebrity back then...

Not sure commercials are newsworthy, but anything related to Apple... I guess is printable.

 

[dksram]

Laughable

Those ads are laughable. SERIOUSLY?
How many of you get Siri to work that quick and accurate? hmm
I'm gonna say NOBODY.
I tell it to call "Dad" and I get,"Sorry, I don't see BAD in your address book...LMAO
Also, Why didn't they make it possible for us to tell Siri to call 9-1-1 ?

 

[MacinDoc]

Those ads are laughable. SERIOUSLY?
How many of you get Siri to work that quick and accurate? hmm
I'm gonna say NOBODY.
I tell it to call "Dad" and I get,"Sorry, I don't see BAD in your address book...LMAO
Also, Why didn't they make it possible for us to tell Siri to call 9-1-1 ?

The ads usually have a "time sequences compressed" disclaimer, but you may not see that on the YouTube versions, which are clipped at both ends.

As far as accuracy goes, mine is almost as good as they are portraying, but my wife's is not. I'm sure they needed a number of takes to get everything right.

And I'm pretty sure they disabled the 9-1-1 dialing to avoid excessive accidental calls to emergency services.

 

[therealjustin]

I think this is a terrible idea and one Steve Jobs would have never approved or even remotely considered. The whole idea with the dancing silhouettes in the iPod commercials and the unknowns in the iPhone and iPad commercials is obviously to have the person viewing them imagine themselves with the device.


This feels like something a car company would(and have) done. Wrong direction completely.

 

[phyzics101]

Kinda cool

 

[WilliamG]

I got a reminder to put the "guest spot show" on ice. Well, at least it sounds similar... But I find it hard to believe that it actually worked when they were taping the commercial.

Edit: I did get Siri to recognize the word by asking her to spell gazpacho. So I guess it must be how I'm saying the whole phrase.

I got "guest spot show" once, too. Bah, humbug. There's no question in my mind that Siri doesn't work quite as well as the ads make out.

 

[garylapointe]

I'm pretty sure the one I saw on CBS tonight with Zooey was a Verizon ad.

I noticed that it wasn't an "Apple Ad", although it still had that "feel"….

Gary