Essay on Emotions (in Ads): A Well Known Feeling
A man is having a panic attack. He searches through every pocket looking for an important item: keys. Frantically looking everywhere in his apartment for these keys, he lifts mail, searches through his coin bowl, in his suit jacket pockets on a chair, and finally, he journeys through the jungle of the couch. In Apple’s ad “Introducing AirTag,” viewers are given a scenario that is all too familiar: an item lost in the cavern of the couch, never to be found again. The scene of the man searching for his lost keys paves the way for Apple’s ad to connect to the audience by portraying the man as someone who can be related to.
The ad sets the stage by showing a man in his 20s frantically checking his pockets to find a lost item, his keys to his apartment, not car keys since he is seen with a bike. In the background of this scene, one can hear busy street noise. The sound of cars honking at each other. This alludes to the fact that this man lives in a busy, working city in a downtown apartment. He is dressed in work attire, a suit and tie. Not a black and white suit, but a brown jacket, blue shirt, red tie, and gray pants. This look is put together but disheveled at the same time as he just looked in his closet and threw on anything that might go together as if he was in a hurry. He is wearing a bicycle helmet and his bike is next to the door which shows he rides his bike to work as he lives very close to his work in the downtown area. Also, he is chewing something as he is about to leave which shows that he did not have enough time to eat breakfast as he is in a hurry. The apartment seems very put together but bills are piling up which alludes to the fact this guy might not be good at doing things on time and can be chaotic.
To start looking for the keys, he rummages through his coat pockets and a countertop with a lot of mail on it. Not finding his keys, he whips out his find my iPhone app and clicks on a button labeled “Alan’s Keys.” From there he turns on a sound that pings the AirTag with his keys on it. Saying they are at his apartment, he hears a faint sound come from the couch. He proceeds to dive in between the couch cushions, entering a whole new world of lost things. He did not look by himself very long for his keys before relying on technology to do the job for him. This relates to so many people nowadays as everyone relies on technology to do the job and do it to people’s satisfaction. This detail further proves how Apple is connecting to the audience through common experiences.
Using his bike helmet light to lead the way through the couch, he begins to army crawl as it seems to be a tight space. Traveling through the couch cave, he sees many things he seems to have forgotten about but continues anyway. He does not give these items a second glance as he knows he is in a hurry and keeps his focus. Falling an unimaginable height in the couch cave, he gets right up and the search for the keys continues as he once again pulls out his iPhone to the Find My iPhone app. Now the ad-makers display another AirTag function. The guy uses this function very easily which makes viewers think this app is very simple. Through this, Apple is trying to show the viewer how the AirTag works and what features it offers the customers. It is like playing Marco polo. As the arrow turns green, the man follows the arrow to a ray of light that illuminates the dark cave.
Once the phone says “0 ft”, he finds a small hole in the couch. Expecting a small little hole and divot in the couch, there appears a whole other world. A forest! The sound of crickets makes the watcher feel as if they are in another dimension. The sounds are real and so is touch. Happy to find them his hand comes straight out of the couch cushions with keys in hand. This scene gives the audience a sense of victory as something that was lost was found and they feel very connected to the man.
The man is a mirror image of many people. Many have lost an item at the worst possible time and destroyed their house in search of it. The man connects to the audience in a way that says we have all been through hard times like this: late for a job interview, late for the bus, or late for a date. All of this is due to a lost item. Apple advertises the fact that everyone is human and they all lose things, but with the new Apple Air Tag lost things can be found.
