Apple and Google are, at best, frenemies. However, the people that run these two competitors are, after all, people and it’s pretty cool when one of them reminds us they’re still human after all. Google’s senior vice president of Engineering Vic Gundotra, a family guy with a wife and kids, really likes Apple’s new iPad Air TV ad, “What’s Your Verse.”
Gundotra posted the following note on his Google+ page today about how he and his family had just rewatched Robin Williams’ Dead Poets’ Society and offered the following thoughts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0
I shed a few tears tonight. My wife and I spent a Friday night with our 14 year old son. He agreed to watch one of my favorite movies of all time; Dead Poets Society.
I had not watched the movie in many years… But the themes instantly resonated with me:
1) life is short
2) do things that matter because you will soon be fertilizer
3) conformity isn’t the path to truth or happiness
4) pursue love at all costs
5) poetry matters. Words matter.Anyway, I have to (painfully) admit that Apple’s latest ads touch on these themes (and directly quote from the movie) and hence have become my favorite ad of the year.
Carpe Diem [Latin: Seize the day]
Those words could easily be attributed to Steve Jobs, no? Great minds apparently do think alike.
Yes, Apple’s What’s Your Verse TV ad for the iPad Air is pretty darned inspiring. Of course, that isn’t surprising — Apple has been producing great advertising for decades.
It is somewhat surprising, pleasantly so, that Google’s Vic Gundotra took the time to recognize that Apple’s latest iPad Air TV spot really touched him. That’s very cool.
Perhaps Apple and Google can now sit down and reach an accord covering their numerous outstanding patent issues? Probably not, but Gundotra’s iPad Air is sweet nonetheless…
What’s your take?