On September 12th, 2023, stockholders checked their portfolios and consumers prepared their wallets as the much-anticipated annual Apple keynote unfolded. Titled “Wonderlust,” the presentation transpired as most viewers expected, with the uniquely elegant and exciting Apple style. Apple has been hailed as the gold standard of marketing and presenting products for decades. USA TODAY described the Apple Wonderlust keynote as the “Super Bowl” of consumers, an apt comparison given the 30 million viewers that tuned into the event on YouTube. Between Apple’s higher-profile announcements, like the latest and greatest iPhones and Apple Watches, the presentation paused for the inclusion of a 5-minute video segment.
Featuring actress Octavia Spencer as a personified “Mother Nature,” the ad underlines Apple’s sustainability initiatives and environmental awareness, at least ostensibly. In the Mother Nature ad, CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives pitch the company’s commitment to carbon neutrality and environmental sustainability, goals that the company claims will be met by 2030, to a pessimistic Mother Nature. Apple executives, including Cook himself, convey nervousness and excitement at Mother Nature’s reception of the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce or offset its carbon footprint. Prior to the meeting, attendees are shown reciting lines and scrambling to prepare their reports. Then, in a dramatic entrance Mother Nature appears at the meeting, disgruntled from prior corporate meetings and expecting to be further disappointed. As each executive proclaims one of the company’s many sustainability initiatives, Mother Nature becomes increasingly impressed. In turn, the Apple executives become more self-satisfied and proud of their work. Just as Mother Nature and her aide intend to leave the meeting, Tim Cook unveils “one more thing,” which is revealed to be Apple’s new carbon-neutral Apple Watch, the company’s first carbon-neutral product. Mother Nature’s opinion of Apple’s environmental sustainability shifts from satisfied to grudgingly impressed. After Mother Nature departs for her next meeting, the attendees celebrate the positive reception of their efforts.
While the sustainability initiatives announced by Apple were unmistakably substantial, Apple’s claims are limited by a number of distortions and impeded by clumsy writing. For viewers unfamiliar with the jargon and inherent environmental impact of the tech industry, Apple’s messaging provokes empathy and appreciation. Yet for more technology-literate viewers, Apple’s messaging is more transparent. In other Apple publications, it is disclaimed that the company’s carbon-neutral products are not carbon-neutral by design. Instead, Apple intends to offset product-linked carbon emissions by using “high-quality carbon credits.” Although carbon offsets would cancel out carbon emissions in theory, there is mounting evidence that carbon offsets are ineffective. Research conducted by the Guardian and Corporate Accountability has found that at least $1.6 Billion of the $2 Billion carbon credit market has been directed toward projects deemed “likely junk or worthless.” Corporations with the capital to purchase carbon credits claim the benefits of environmentally friendly statistics while avoiding alterations to their products or means of business. Apple has garnered an infamous reputation for resisting the right to repair, lobbying against it in multiple states and countries. This stubbornness is reflected in Apple’s product design as well. Until the announcement of the USB-C iPhone 15 in the Wonderlust keynote, iPhones remained the only modern phones using Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector. Apple’s late adoption of the USB-C standard was spurred only by European Union legislation setting USB-C as the standard phone connector in the European market by 2024. Even limited by hardware standards, Apple maintains its proprietary software locks, which prevent unlicensed 3rd parties from replacing broken components and restoring devices to their original functionality. Lack of repairability forces consumers to choose between paying hefty repair costs or tossing their tech in favor of newer devices, producing e-waste, and costing carbon emissions to manufacture replacement devices. Apple’s contributions to e-waste contradict the company’s assertions of environmental consciousness and corporate responsibility.
Repairability is a multifaceted issue, particularly for computer hardware containing microscopic and exceptionally complex components. The Mother Nature video segment lasts a little over 5 minutes, compared to the hour and 20-minute duration of the event, accelerating the pacing of its narrative and causing the oversimplification of sustainability. The ad begins with the executives nervously preparing for Mother Nature’s arrival, then depicts her skepticism, and finally ends with her endorsement of the new Apple Watch. As it is revealed at the end of the video, the Mother Nature ad is not just a presentation of sustainability efforts. This alters the message of the video segment from a proclamation of company values to a justification for consumers to purchase a shiny new Apple Watch, a tone shift that may be seen as a simplistic and formulaic attempt to create drama and resolution. The dialogue between Mother Nature and the various executives is overly scripted and repetitive, following the same formula.
The portrayal of Mother Nature as initially grumbling and skeptical, only to be easily swayed by Apple’s sustainability efforts, is reused throughout the duration of the video. Mother Nature’s aide states a category of evaluation, an Apple executive details their plan to meet the criteria, and Mother Nature shifts from being initially hostile to being easily convinced by the rehearsed statements. Though Mother Nature’s skepticism and reactions are initially comedic, playing off of the viewer’s expectations of generic corporate green-washing, the advertisement too heavily relies on this gag. It’s a heavy-handed narrative strategy to manipulate the emotions of viewers rather than engage in a genuine conversation about environmental responsibility.
Moreover, the fact that the video itself serves as an advertisement for a new Apple product raises concerns about the sincerity of Apple’s sustainability efforts. Apple blurs the lines between profit-seeking and corporate responsibility. With the launch of the iPhone 12 in 2020, Apple made the controversial decision to exclude chargers from the iPhone packaging, reasoning that the smaller packaging would reduce e-waste and carbon emissions. While the logic behind the decision was sound, many consumers felt they were taking the hit instead of Apple. The price of the phones increased despite the exclusion of previously included hardware. As a result, many viewers of the Mother Nature ad shared the skepticism of Mother Nature. In a typical Apple presentation, presenters use broad superlatives that tell the viewers how they should feel about their new products rather than relying on statistics and specifics. The viewer is already convinced of the quality of Apple’s products, a well-established fact, so it’s an easy sale for the presenters to make. These presentation tactics are not as effective in the Mother Nature segment. Viewers are not so easily convinced of Apple’s efforts or their motivations. The use of vague descriptions and repetition is not sufficient, particularly when unsubstantiated by facts.
At the beginning of the ad, an Apple employee hastily grabs a wilting plant from a shelf in the conference room, concealing it behind their back before Mother Nature arrives. After Mother Nature endorses the new Apple Watch and proceeds to her next meeting, the plant miraculously becomes green and healthy once more. As opposed to the likely intent of representing the positive outcome of the meeting, the plant metaphor more accurately symbolizes the two-faced nature of Apple’s sustainability efforts. Apple’s environmental awareness does not cause the plant to be healthy. Rather, the plant is only restored to a healthy state directly following the reveal of the upgraded Apple Watch. Although Apple’s sustainability efforts are considerable, they are undermined by the company’s profit-seeking and unyielding opposition to repairable product design. The knowledge of these backhanded policies gives validation to viewers’ mistrust and diminishes the likelihood that the ad will be positively received. The result is the failure of Apple’s usual presentation tactics of bold claims and repetition to deliver an impactful message.
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