Apple's brilliant new iPhone ad is a mini horror movie meant to scare Android users
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When it comes to the iPhone, Apple loves to promote the phone's privacy. And that carries through to the company's latest ad for the device which is titled "Privacy on iPhone, Flock." While the song "Billathi Askara" by Björn Jason Lindh plays in the background, we see various people using what are supposed to be Android phones being spied on by cameras that have the ability to morph into birds and fly away.
It's quite eerie and it almost resembles a horror movie as these mechanical camera birds swoop down on Android users (one of the phones appeared to have a rear camera bar similar to what you might find on a Pixel handset) who are using the mobile browser on their phones. Even those Android users working in an office aren't protected from these nosy camera birds as one slams into an office window.
The camera birds hang out on power lines and rooftops and other places where real birds can be found. Some of these creatures resemble bats and hang upside down with glowing red eyes highlighting their sinister appearance. But the real scary thing about them is what they represent: third-party trackers that follow Android users around internet sites and apps. The data they collect are used to help advertisers send personalized ads.
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Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature allows iPhone users to choose to have trackers follow them or have them blocked on an app-by-app basis. If an iPhone user chooses to not allow the trackers to follow him around the internet and as he opens his apps, certain identifiers relied on by these trackers to perform this task cannot be accessed.
Returning to the ad, as these camera birds converge on the city as night falls, Apple writes on the screen "Your browsing is being watched." We then see several more scenes of Android users being followed by the creatures including one hilarious one that shows a fisherman on a boat who is so scared, he simply tosses his Android phone into the ocean.
But we then see a woman standing in the city who has been spotted by the camera birds who are swooping in toward her. She lifts her phone allowing us to see that it is an iPhone. She presses the Safari icon on her home screen and the camera birds explode. Other iPhone users tap on the Safari icon and even more camera birds explode. The message can not be any clearer. If you don't want to be tracked while browsing, switch to an iPhone says Apple. The ad ends with the tagline: "Safari. A browser that's actually private."
This is an effective ad that does a good job of making Apple's point clear. You should see an edited version of it appear while viewing your favorite prime-time television shows and sporting events as soon as this week.
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