America’s insistence on being politically correct has gutted the once joyous holiday spirit. The new rules say that shouting “Merry Christmas” might offend people of other religions. Instead of acknowledging that America is the beautiful result of what happens when more than two centuries worth of immigration takes place, we’re forced to surrender any sort of individual identity and stick with the generic phrase “Happy Holidays”. But not Apple. No sir, their latest iPhone 4S ad is all about Christmas. In it they depict Santa doing his job, that is delivering presents to all the world’s children, and he’s getting help from his iPhone 4S. Siri, the “intelligent agent” that responds to queries and commands, shows Santa how to find a little boy’s house, reads a message from his wife telling him to cut back on the cookies, and reminds him that he still has half the world’s population to go in terms of delivering gifts.
It’s a great ad that not only shows what the iPhone 4S is capable of, but that Apple knows how to touch people’s hearts. It may not be as funny as the ads that Samsung recently showcased making fun of people who buy the iPhone 4S, but who really cares? If you’re the kind of person who buys a smartphone based solely on how well a company’s marketing division is able to execute, then you’re not really a critical thinker.
While we’re on the topic of ads, the sad reality is that you can’t move hardware unless you’re flooding people’s screens, magazines, and newspapers with commercials. Which is why we’re extremely curious to see what Microsoft and Nokia do in America during 2012. They need to go from essentially 0% market share to becoming a competent platform that you can genuinely say is in third place. Think they’ll be able to pull it off?