Leo Burnett's Apple IPL ads convince users to splurge on iPhone

The common thread in all the ads is the narrator asking - "Is the iPhone good enough?"

The stylised shots of the device, the white backgrounds, the signature music are all missing from Leo Burnett’s new ads for Apple. The ads are refreshingly Indian – focussing on the most common ways Indians use the iPhone.

The first ad shows a mother surrounded by her chaotic family as she unboxes her first iPhone. The ad shows the most common ways her family members could wreck her new phone – covered in flour while cooking, wet, drenched in water while watering plants or just as a clumsy kid playing around.

The narrator wonders if the phone is strong enough, while the woman smiles knowingly at the camera – the iPhone 11 can supposedly withstand it all.

In the second ad, we see a man pull out his phone to wonder if the camera is good enough to capture a clear photograph of his date, despite the dimly lit setting. He switches to the night mode on his iPhone 11 to prove the narrator wrong.

In the final ad, we see a young man who has finally bought an iPhone. He has to deal with his various family members who have their eyes on the device for different reasons.

In this ad, the voiceover asks if his Father thinks it’ll be good enough, it tells the audience that his Mother thinks he’s made the right choice, and his brother who can’t wait to get his hands on the phone.

The first two ads are for the newly introduced iPhone 11 model and the last ad is for the iPhone SE. Apple has always marketed the iPhone SE as an affordable, more accessible phone. It’s logical that this ad features the youngest buyer of the three ads.

Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer - South Asia, Managing Director - India, Leo Burnett says that buying an iPhone is a landmark purchase for a lot of people. “But the funny part is that along with the iPhone come many barriers like cost, durability – what if it breaks, or the phone gets damaged; putting a dampener on many purchase decisions,” he says.

According to Das, the intent of this campaign was to break down those barriers, one by one. “We wanted to address all the concerns step by step - from the ability to click pictures using its dual camera with night mode, to having the toughest glass in a smartphone, along with water resistance and the new finishes making it a durable option. We also attempted to highlight that competitive pricing makes the iPhone more accessible,” he explains.

Das mentions that the campaign aims to convince the audience that there is no need to settle for good enough, anymore.