Apple Does It Again With New iPhone 15 Plus Ad

Last week Apple released a new ad for the iPhone 15 Plus called, “Miss You” that features an outlet singing an R&B song about how it misses an iPhone. The song goes, in part, “I remember at night when you and I were inseparable…I feel like it’s been way too long and I’m missing you.”

The insight here is that all other features you could have on your phone pale in comparison to having a working phone. Perhaps another, more human way to say it is, with smartphones being the most important tool for our modern lives, the biggest user experience difference between any two phones is between one that has battery life and one that doesn’t. The benefit being, of course, that the iPhone 15 Plus has a “loooooong battery life.”

The advertising industry often talks about Apple as an example of a brand that communicates at a higher brand level, above features and benefits — it’s Simon Sinek’s quintessential example of a brand that communicates its “why” (vs. its “how” or “what”). Apple has certainly done that kind of work in the past, and I’m a major proponent of it, but “Miss You” is one of many Apple product ads that is squarely feature-focused. And that doesn’t make it bad. What makes most features-based ads bad is that they’re almost always uncreative and they cram in too many features and benefits to try to find something for everyone. What makes this iPhone 15 Plus ad great is that it is highly creative and it focuses on a single feature — a long batter life — and therefore a single idea — that your phone will always be working when you need it (which is always).