New Apple Olympics ad will give you chills in the best way possible
It's been a tough four years for the human family since the last summer Olympics. We've seen our share of violence, heartache and divisiveness, much of it focusing on our perceived differences.
Entitled The Human Family -- Shot on the iPhone, Apple's latest commercial for its iPhone 6s and 6s Plus focuses not so much on one of the Cupertino tech giant's products, as on a poetic antidote to these divisions. It will make its debut on NBC Friday night during the opening ceremonies for the Rio Summer Olympics.
The company also posted this latest in its series of print and video ads devoted to "Shot on iPhone" on YouTube and Apple.com on Thursday morning.
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The commercial deftly blends an undated recording of the late poet laureate Maya Angelou reciting her poem The Human Family with photos and videos (taken with the iPhone, naturally) of people from all races, ages and religions. Each image has the first name and last name initial of the person who took the image. Apple found the photos and videos -- all taken by amateurs -- and got their permissions to use them. Even so, Apple does note at the very end of the commercial that some additional software and hardware was used to create the beautiful images.
Angelou's poem celebrates people's differences while reminding the reader:
I note the obvious differences between each sort and type, but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.
The combination of the images, which are expertly synced to the words and ideas, Angelou's resonant voice and the affecting score will doubtlessly give many viewers the warm fuzzies. And, of course, Apple gets to show off the power of its latest iPhone 12 MP iSight camera.
Does feeling good make people by more iPhones? Who knows. Can poetry heal the human family? The jury's still out. But, in this case, it might just be worth enjoying the surface sentiment.
You can read the full text of Angelou's The Human Family here.
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
