Ads, Apple, Anthropomorphism... and Samuel L. Jackson!

I saw this ‘Mother Nature’ advertisement from Apple a few days ago:

The ad is light-hearted and well put together. It is expertly edited; has good music & cinematography; a fair script (if a tad ‘preachy’) and conveys Apple’s environmental message in a cute sort of way.

I enjoyed seeing Apple executives and *staff* at Mother Nature’s ‘annual status report.’ Many will recognise Tim Cook, CEO and Lisa Jackson, VP of Environment / Social Initiatives. Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer definitely lifted the ad with her portrayal of an acerbic Mother Nature. (*I am not sure if all of the ‘employees’ were real Apple employees / executives rather than actors.)

The message is that Apple is reducing their *pollution in a big way. (*We are not discussing the merits of Carbon Neutrality & Climate Change today!)

Then the kerfuffle hit 𝕏: a.k.a. Twitter!

CATHOLIC 𝕏

Bishop Barron, Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chimed in with a moderate piece on the Apple ad, titled: “Nature is our Sister, not our Mother.” (Title photo.)

“St. Francis voiced his deep affection for “Brother Sun and Sister Moon,” for “Sister Water,” and for “our Sister, Mother Earth.” Though she might be our mother in an analogical sense, the earth, for Francis, remains our sister first and foremost. Chesterton agreed. When we construe nature as our mother, we revert, Chesterton thought, into a paganism that amounts to the worship of a creature—which always results in mischief.”

Then 𝕏 went wild!

Bishop Barron was accused of RACISM!

Apple was accused of being PAGAN!
( @NatePano no longer exists…well done Apple??)

The Apple logo evidently represents the apple from THE GARDEN OF EDEN!

And, as if being pagan is not bad enough, Apple is “basically SATANIC”!!
(possibly not a Catholic post, but…wow!)

Catholic 𝕏 should remember that even Pope Francis anthropomorphised ‘Mother Nature’ in Laudato Si!

THE APPLE LOGO

A brief history of the origin of the Apple Logo — Newton was not in the garden of Eden!

The first Apple logo was designed by Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne in 1976 and was: “inspired by a quotation by Wordsworth that was also inscribed into the logo that said: “Newton… a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought.”

Steve Wozniak told the story: “I was driving Steve Jobs back from the airport along Highway 85. Steve was coming back from a visit to Oregon to a place he called an ‘apple orchard’. It was actually some kind of commune. Steve suggested a name – Apple Computer. The first comment out of my mouth was, ‘What about Apple Records?’ This was (and still is) the Beatles-owned record label. We both tried to come up with technical-sounding names that were better, but we couldn’t think of any good ones. Apple was so much better, better than any other name we could think of.”

(Apple logo development.)

Part of the choice of this logo came down to Steve Jobs simply liking apples!

(Tidbits — the “bite-mark” was put in the apple to stop people seeing the logo as a cherry!

Also, the 1977 ‘Rainbow’ Apple had roughly the same 6 colours of the 1979 Rainbow Pride Flag — though in a different order.)

ALLEGORIES & PARABLES.

Allegory and fantasy characters are often used to bring a story, be it a book, movie or ad, into an easily understandable human context. Reasonable people relate to stories about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny…and even Mother Nature!

Catholic Twitter should remember that Jesus used allegory every time he taught in parables.

ADVERTISEMENTS TELL A STORY

One aspect of many good ads and movies, is the subversion of expectation.

This happened in the Apple advertisement somewhat (like the CEO being nervous about the visit with Mother Nature!)

A superb example of subversion of expectation is the Warburtons ad below: Enjoy!

Samuel L. Jackson subverts a whole pile of expectation when playing a quiet, Caucasian, British baker! (Every time I see this bad-ass ‘Mr. Warburton’ kicking down doors, I expect to hear his signature expletive. You know the one! The "I have had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this monkey-fighting plane!" expletive.)

So Catholic Twitter, cut Apple a tad more slack: “Sometimes an ad, is just a M-F’ing ad!”

Kevin Hay

NOTES:

If Apple is truly committed to the environment they will reduce the planned obsolescence of their products — seriously.
I have never owned an iPhone — I like my Samsung…but bring Blackberry back!
I am not receiving any sort of ‘bread’ from Warburtons!
The term “Monkey Fighting” is borrowed from Moumita Dutta.
(https://kidadl.com/quotes/snakes-on-a-plane-quotes-from-the-infamous-samuel-l-jackson-movie)