Arguing a Position- Commercials: Apple
In today’s society, most people have cell phones. According to a survey by World Bank, 75% of people have a cell phone in the world. According to another study, 9.4% of people own iPhones. These numbers show that there is a market for cell phone companies to advertise to. Companies must compete with other brands to prove that they are the best and convince consumers. According to Rebecca Lake, the average American watches 35 hours a week of television compared to the global average of 25 hours a week. In my opinion, because such a big percentage of homes have televisions in their homes, companies should take advantage of it and promote their companies in commercials. I believe it makes a big impact on the viewer's perspective of a product when they see a good commercial.
The Apple brand is a very big cell phone brand that many have heard of. I believe the same people who have televisions are the people who are buying cell phones. Apple is a very large billion-dollar business and can produce professional commercials that appeal to many different audiences. However, I believe Apple has a few commercials that are very pointless and just don’t showcase the product and its features like it should. The commercial I am going to focus on by Apple was put out in 2015. The commercial does not show any of the brand new, unreleased features that they have come up with to promote their iPhones. The commercial compares the iPhone 6 and 6 plus by showing them on the screen and only playing loud music in the background instead of saying anything informational about them. For example, some comparisons they could have used would have been, the iPhone 6’s have a sleeker more modern design than the 5’s which makes it easier and more comfortable to hold. They could also have used the 6’s to have longer-lasting battery life as well.
According to Investopedia, you have to know your audience to be able to grow your brand. For example, if your product will appeal to ages 15 and up spend around 2.8 hours a day watching television so you must know your timing for them. So if your elderly Grandparents are watching tv at 12 in the afternoon, they will get more “age-appropriate ads.” Also, your young toddler will not get inappropriate ads when watching television early in the morning. Companies can also expect a 5% increase in sales their first month of airing a commercial. Since Apple is a billion-dollar business they are most likely going to be shown on television when most people are watching such as the Super Bowl or a popular, well-known show such as Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Planning is also key to having a successful commercial to air on television. According to Investopedia, big businesses purchase television airing time months before it is even time for them to air. There is something called the upfront season where you buy spring viewing time before Fall even begins.
Advertising makes a big impact on the community and life decisions we make every day According to EasyPressWire by Team EPW, “Advertising has increased the awareness of the people by keeping them updated with the activities of the market like what product is launched? What is the market price of that product? What is its use? How is it used? Etc. This enables them to participate in the ongoing happenings market actively. In other words, advertising influences the consumer behavior.” To me, this shows how easily influenced we all are and are more likely to buy something that we see in an appealing commercial. They make us more curious and we look into the product on our cell phones and eventually, we buy the product.
As many positives I believe commercials bring companies and humanity, I do believe there are some negatives such as creating unrealistic expectations. They can give unrealistic expectations if you are looking into phones, skincare, beauty, healthcare, or household products. Not every person but some people do not look into anything past what they are told upfront so they could not know harmful effects. Commercials also only bring up the good of a product and don’t mention the downside of the product and why you would be better off not to buy it. Advertising also convinces people to spend money that they do not have on a product that they do not need and will not work for but a short period of time. Companies must advertise because If they don’t they will not be able to provide for themselves, but we do not think of the harm advertising is doing to ourselves. If you stumble upon an advertisement for self-care and they point out your blemishes they find ways to show you how to hide your “insecurities” that you didn’t know you should be ashamed of, in the long run, makes you self-conscious. It also teaches you that everything you “need” must be bought and you can’t necessarily do something small and intimate without it being the biggest and best.
Since 2015 when fast-forwarding first started becoming popular, many would have thought that brands that made commercials would have taken a significant impact due to many not seeing their advertising. However, this is not the case. According to The Guardian, “Nearly 90% of television viewers always skip through the adverts on their digital video recorder but TV remains the most memorable form of advertising, according to new research published today. More than half (52%) of respondents said television was more memorable than any other form of advertising medium, followed by 10% who said newspapers and just 2% for online video adverts, and 1% for online banner ads and on iPhones and iPads.” Referring to the data it proves that people learn more from 30-second commercials than they do longer televised commercials and advertisements seen on your cell phone and other services and devices.
In conclusion, I believe being a billion-dollar business, Apple could have produced a higher-end more informational commercial while still being appealing to consumers. Apple’s global unit sale is 217.72 million and they use one of the best methods to help promote their business to be even more successful than it already is, which I have proven in my above statements. The televised commercial was not an appealing commercial to consumers and did not promote their products very well. I have stated with proof that most people in the world have televisions in their home and a large percentage of those have four or more televisions in their household. I have also shown that there should not be any reason for this big of a company to have poor quality when they get the highest and best audience times on television and they get better quality over smaller businesses who are just starting with not near as much money. With planning, hard work, and motivation big businesses should not have an issue with making quality commercials.