Apple has a new ad called Haystack. It shows how the Apple Watch can be used to find your iPhone, but it’s a bit too arcane. Unless you already have an Apple Watch and iPhone and have used your Apple Watch to find your phone, you’re not going to understand it.
I showed the ad to my wife who has seen me search for my iPhone via my watch. And who when she couldn’t find her iPhone, I told her to use her Apple Watch. (She dialed her phone instead).
I asked her what is the ad about. She thought it might be some dating app for cowboys.
I know many of these ads are for Fanbois, but I’ve also see them make appearances on YouTube and TV. This is the first one I’ve seen that simply doesn’t make sense to anyone who isn’t knee deep in Apple’s ecosystem.
“Haystack” is about how Apple hardware and services partner quickly and wonderfully with one another, not just about using Find My on a Watch to locate an iPhone in a haystack. It demonstrates how easily, quickly and cleanly an Apple device owner can accomplish this task.
I also think the casting of an older geezer and some cows was a very eye catching and effective strategy. It’s a refreshing change from all the cool tech savvy kids starring in commercials for mobile devices and services. And since the old cowhand had to drive, probably many miles, to the haystack, probably from a significant distance from his home on the range, it emphasizes how Find My is effective at locating objects that are not nearby. And the cowboy didn’t have to rip apart the haystack to find his iPhone.
The tag line “relax, it’s Apple Watch” is Great. And the cowboy didn’t have to rip the haystack apart to find it. It’s also an interesting twist on the decades long “Marlboro Man” ads, for those of us old enough to remember his omnipresence.