International Law

Steve Jobs ... the epitome of cool

Alexander Wolfe asks, what is that song in the new MacBook Air commercial?

You can't teach cool. Fortunately for Apple, Steve Jobs needs no instruction, as he's proved once again with his company's new TV ad for the DVD-less notebook I've taken to calling the MacBook (Hot) Air.

As my three regular readers know, I went nuts last fall for the iPod "Fatty" Nano commercials, which propelled Canadian singer Feist to stardom by showcasing her wonderful tune, "1234."

The current Apple MacBook Air ad features a song called "New Soul," by Israeli singer Yael Naim. It's a charming number, as you'll see in the YouTube video at the bottom of this post. It's funny; I now consider the debut of a new Apple commercial more important than the introduction of its latest piece of uber-cool, overpriced hardware. I'm unlikely to buy the latter, but I rush to check out the music spotlighted in the former.

... [I want to] talk about Apple's status as both an arbiter and definer of cutting-edge culture. And, yes, I realize that Steve Jobs doesn't pick out the music for his commercials himself, but he clearly inspires enough fear in his ad agency that they'll never come back with something as hack-like as a Rolling Stones-scored commercial.

Consider that at most companies, they'd simply designate a chief coolness officer, she'd pick something unhip -- Sammy Hagar doing "I Can't Drive 55," maybe? -- and then everybody'd have to fall into line or be considered unteamlike. Luckily for Jobs, his picture is in the dictionary next to "unteamlike," and he presides over a publicly traded company as a dictatorship of one.

Read more here (from Information Week) and watch the clip:

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).