The First iPhone Commercial
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The broadcast of the 2007 Oscar Awards was host to an assortment of sponsor advertisments, but
the most interesting advertiser, was Apple... 
in promoting a device
that would not even hit the market for 4 months. It might be an
indication of how much importance Apple is placing in the iPhone that
they would determine that maintaining or in the case of the majority of America, starting the buzz, was worth the cost of a
television advertisment, especially one that did not actually say
anything about the product other than that it will be arriving in 1/3 of a year.
For some odd reason, a clip of William H. Macy from the movie Fargo, was removed from the original advertisment. The commercial is currently shown without it on Apple's website. For completeness, you can view the original clip on YouTube .
- "Dial M For Murder" (1953) — Telephone ringing.
- Lucille Ball, I Love Lucy (1951-1957) — "Hullo?"
- Jackie Gleason, The Honeymooners : "Dial J for Janitor", (1955-1956) — "Hello!"
- Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon (1941) — "Hello?"
- Marlon Brando, A Streetcar Named Desire , (1951) — "Hello!"
- Jerry Lewis "The Bellboy" (1960)— "Uh, hello?"
- Marilyn Monroe (speaking) and Beverly Wills , Some Like It Hot , (1959) — "Hello?"
- Clark Gable "It Happened One Night" (1934) — "Hello."
- Peter Sellers, The Pink Panther , (1963) — "'ello?"
- Steve McQueen, Bullitt , (1968) — "Hello."
- Richard Dreyfus, American Graffiti , (1973) — "Hello? Hello? Hello?"
- Burt Reynolds, Boogie Nights , (1997) — "Helloooo?"
- Betty Rubble/Bea Benaderet , The Flintstones , (1960-1966) — "Oh... hello, Barney."
- Robert Redford, Three Days of the Condor , (1975) — "Hello?"
- Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future , (1985) — "Hello?"
- Harrison Ford, The Fugitive , (1993) — "Hello?"
- John Cusack, High Fidelity , (2000) — "Hello."
- Audrey Tautou , Amelie , (2001) — "Bon jour?"
- Kevin Spacey, L.A. Confidential , (1997) — "Hi."
- William H. Macy, Fargo , (1996) — "How ya doin' dere?"
- Dustin Hoffman, Meet the Fockers , (2004) — "Y'ello!"
- Will Ferrell, Anchorman , (2004) — "HELLO!"
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City , (1998-2004) — "Hello?"
- Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski , (1998) — "Hello?"
- Billy Crystal, Harry Met Sally , (1989) — "Hello?"
- Cameron Diaz, Charlie’s Angels , (2000) — "Hello?"
- Samuel L. Jackson, Shaft , (2000) — "Yo, yo."
- John Travolta, A Civil Action , (1998) — "Hello?"
- Robert DeNiro ("City by the Sea"/"The Score"?) — "Hello?"
- Ben Stiller, Zoolander , (2001) — "Hullo?"
- Michael Douglas, The American President , (1995) — "Hello?"
- Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr/Craig T. Nelson, The Incredibles , (2004) — "Hello?"
Related Internet Articles covering this commercial:
- Duncan's TV Ad Land - Duncan Macleod
- Macworld, Phillip Michaels
- Gizmodo - Brian Lam and Richard Blakeley
- Softpedia - Sergiu Gatlan
- AdRants - Angela Natividad
Presentation
No features were hinted at, no human beings were shown utilizing the device... it simply displayed a star-studded succession of video clips depicting actors answering phones, culminating in an image of the iPhone spinning towards us, before simply saying "Hello". Many of their fans remember the original Macintosh advertisement Apple Computer ran in the Wallstreet journal in 1984. The screen of the Macintosh simply read, "Hello". The quintessence of an introduction if ever there was one, and here Apple apparently felt the same was in order.
As rumors had pointed towards an Apple iPhone advertisment on that night, many were ready, and afterwards, had their taste for trivia tickled, setting about compiling a list of productions and actors Apple had licensed for the iPhone's inaugural commercial solicitation.
Influences
In recent years, some Apple commercials have borne distinct similarities/influences from other creative works. This first iPhone commercial is clearly no exception. In 1995, experimental artist and musician Christian Marclay produced the film "Telephones". The film was comprised of numerous clips from movies that portrayed actors answering telephones. This, of course, is not only a perfect description of the iPhone commercial, it is effectively a perfect template for it as well .
Whoever was in charge of this decision was not without some sense of credit, but after requesting permission to reuse the concept from the artist, they were flatly refused. In a subsequent interview, Marclay was quoted as saying, "This culture’s so much about suing each other that if we want to have anything that’s more of an open exchange of ideas, one has to stop this mentality. I’m just honored that they thought my work was interesting enough that they felt they could just rip it off."
On conferring with a lawyer, he had been informed that he was out of luck, "there’s nothing I can do about it. They have the right to get inspired." Considering this last statement pretty much sums it up nicely, its entirely up to the beholder whether one thing inspiring another is something off-limits whether works are commercial or solely artistic in nature. It is also worth noting that while Apple undoubtably had to pay licensing fees for its star-studded spot, Marclay's artistic work did not need to go through such a battery of clearances and usage payments. Considering both were works of recontexualizing other works to a theme, it seems somewhat disingenuous to have conversations criticising originality.
The Details
- Developed at TBWA\ Media Arts Lab
Creative Director: Eric Grunbaum
Creative: Alain Briere
Agency Producer: Anne Oburgh
Filming:
Directed: Mark Coppos and Virginia Lee via Green Dot Films
Producer: Sharon Lorick
Director of Photography: Rebecca Baechler
- The song playing in the background was "Inside Your Head" by
Eberg ( iTunes link ), Instant Karma Records.
- The spot ran for 30 seconds.
- The commercial featured 32 clips from a variety of television shows and movies.
- 4 of the movies are available to download on iTunes, and 1 TV show (High Fidelity, A Civil Action, Zoolander, The Incredibles, Flintstones - TV).
- Most clips featured the character simply saying "Hello". The exceptions to this were, in order:
The exceptions:
Lewis ("Uh, hello?"),
Dreyfus ("Hello! Hello! Hello!"),
Betty Rubble ("Oh hello, Barney."),
Tautou ("Bonjour!"),
Spacey ("Hi."),
Macy ("How ya doin' dere?"),
Hoffman ("Ye-llo"),
and Jackson ("Yo, yo.").
- Only 31 of the 32 clips contained actual people. The breakdown can be expressed in differences such as: 2 animated characters, 1 clip focusing on 2 people /w one speaker, 7 women, 25 men, 1 person of color, and 2 shots of only a telephone, one in the movie clip at the beginning and one at the end (the iPhone).
- The clips come from productions spanning the mid 1930's (It Happened One Night) up until the year 2004 (The Incredibles).
- Two of the productions have notable connections to Apple. "Sex and the City" often depicts Sarah Jessica Parker's character using a Macintosh computer (as in the scene itself). "Back to the Future" had Michael J. Fox's character, Marty McFly, travel to the future, where in one memorable scene he sees an Apple Macintosh in the window of an antique shop... the revolutionary computer introduced 1 year prior to the movie's release in 1985.
- The iPhone ad ran at least 3
times during Oscar night.
- It's been reported that Apple spent approximately 1.7 million on this spot.
- The time 10:10 (and times close to it) is known as "smile time", for its resemblance on analog clocks to a "smile". For this advertisment, Apple moved the time previously shown on the iPhone from 10:15 to 10:12, somewhat closer to this magical position. As the button for Apple's world clock application is in fact a real-time clock it would seem worth noting, although the screen displayed in the commercial only had the digital clock showing.
- In the original iPhone artwork, the carrier area read "cingular", it now reads "at&t" in the commercial, representing the reabsorbtion of Cingular Wireless back into its parent company.
- The person appearing to call the iPhone is once again "John Appleseed". This is a frequently appearing identity Apple uses for demonstrations. The character is one of American folklore, although based on the real person and actions of one John Chapman. According the the legend, Johnny Appleseed helped to spread Apple trees throughout the U.S., travelling barefoot with a tin pot for a hat, and a large bag of seeds. Aside from the name of the company, Apples are a favorite fruit of Steve Jobs, who is a lifelong vegetarian.