Apple began airing a new commercial for its iPad Air today, during this morning’s NFL playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers. The ad, entitled “Your Verse Anthem,’ feels familiar in that it shows how people from different walks of life use the iPad.
But that’s about where the familiarity stops. The spot itself is set to a voiceover from the film “Dead Poets Society,” which carries a very serious tone, arguing that the need for poetry, beauty and love outweigh the need for more noble pursuits such as business, engineering, and the like…
Here’s the ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering—these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love—these are what we stay alive for.
To quote from Whitman,“Oh me, Oh life of the questions of these recurring. Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these. Oh me, oh life? Answer: that you are here. That life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
What will your verse be?
So, what do you think about the new ad?