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Why is Apple's advertising so successful? Because, one could argue, it doesn't let its engineers design its advertising. Apple is running new iPhone ads which apparently puzzle nerdly sorts like TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington. The ads feature "regular people" talking about how their lives have been improved by the iPhone. Of the three ads, the phone itself makes just one two-second appearance, when a businessman touts its "visual voicemail" feature. The rest of the time, it's just some guy telling a story about how the iPhone makes his life better. Arrington doesn't like the ads, asking "where's the phone?" Michael, don't quit your day job. These ads are brilliant. After the jump, an analysis of why — and a clip so you can judge for yourself.


It's a lesson from Marketing 101, but one that most of Silicon Valley has yet to learn: Tout benefits, not features. The iPhone has visual voicemail (that's a feature) so that you can listen to just the messages you want (that's a benefit). This new set of ads is all about benefits. They show real people using their phones and loving them. In all the hoopla about bricking and unlocking, we forget that if you want to sell 10 million of something, you have to sell to everyone, not just TechCrunch's readership. What better way to sell to the average person — to pass, as they call it, "the Mom test" — than to show average people using your product?