Rob McGinley Myers also has some excellent thoughts on Apple’s latest ad, Misunderstood.
During lunch, I showed the commercial to my wife, Anna. Our first reactions were both along the lines of: Gosh, I don’t want to let my kids grow up to be reclusive teenagers addicted to their phones like that.
But, as Rob points out, what if the teenager in the commercial was instead walking around with a DSLR or reading a novel or writing/drawing in a journal?
The iPhone can be any of those things and more, so why do we look at someone face down in their phone differently than someone immersed in a book? Because if they’re anything like me, they’re not reading on their iPhone, they’re checking Twitter or something.
That’s the double-edged sword of the iPhone that Meyers brings up, and also I think that’s the turn Apple is playing with its commercial: We are moved by the kid who is actually creating something for his family (and not playing Candy Crush). But also, as parents, we feel that we’re not alone in the “kids and technology” battle — other families with iPhones and iPads are facing the exact same scenarios, questions, and concerns that we are…
The commercial gives us hope that our kids — who are growing up in “an iPhone generation” — will use their devices to make something that’s awesome and beautiful instead of getting even more hooked on Candy Crush and Instagram than we, their parents, already are.