What I will miss about Pandemic Life?
2020 was a year of uncertainty, a year of changes, a year of distance, and a year of tears. As we experienced a year of pandemics, I want to remind you what it was like at the beginning of this pandemic with some humor and exaggeration! I hope you will enjoy this ad as much as I did! Now, sit back with a cup of coffee, let’s take 7 minutes to watch this commercial.
We all experienced somewhat over a year of pandemic life and most of us are either working from home or study from home. In my opinion, what's great about this ad is that it made this WFH thing relatable. It is telling a story, a story that may be happening in everyone’s life too. Most of us are working from home, most of us have Apple products! Due to this pandemic, my company got into this WFH trend. While I took all this work home, I built a home office based on my needs.
Just like the ad, bosses love calling you at unexpected times of the day. Let’s imagine, we are currently in June 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. We think back on what it was like while working from home then?
When working from home first started, none of us knew what we were getting into. We were not prepared to handle these unknown and unexpected situations but we did it anyway! When ALL the tech companies in Bay Area decided to go remote, my employers did too. At the moment, I was working for 3 employers. There were many times I was in the middle of eating or in the “think” room (bathroom). It just happens that every time we schedule to do something unrelated to work, your boss is calling you or requesting a zoom conference, or messaging you on slack. Don’t lie! I am sure many of you people experienced something similar. Alright, let’s not get into too much detail about how chaotic that was. But scared to say I was enjoying WFH. I felt like this was the most productive year and I made some of the best decisions of my life. Maybe due to the nature of my previous experiences, working from home was something I experienced and liked. I like challenges, I like the flexibility. In the past, I had always worked with overseas teammates and traveled a lot so this wasn’t new to me but for most others, it is.
Now enough of my WFH stories, let’s talk about this ad! It was relatable to me and it was so much fun to watch. Even though it was almost 7 minutes long, but it was creative and eye-catching. I learned about The Three-Act Structure last semester in my Integrated Marketing class.
The traditional three-act structure includes the following parts:
- Act I — Setup: Exposition, Inciting Incident, Plot Point One
- Act II — Confrontation: Rising Action, Midpoint, Plot Point Two
- Act III — Resolution: Pre Climax, Climax, Denouement
The structure will make your story strong. I really loved the setting of this story. The co-workers calling each other asking about how they are doing with this “new” WFH thing. It shows the different scenes of each individual with a different persona. We see the wildness of a father WFH with his children, a millennial who does yoga, a generation Z whose rushing get ready, and all of a sudden there it is! The boss calling needing everyone to finish a new proposal in a week. What’s funny is that while the boss is calling, everyone’s only rushing to find a top and ignoring the bottom. How real is that! Zoom was probably everyone’s best friend during the pandemic! We also learned that the assigned project is called “The Pandora Box”, how clever to catch people’s attention! Imagining the beginning of the pandemic when everyone is new to this whole WFH thing when everyone is still learning and adapting to new lives, the crazy boss came into play with an unreal deadline. Besides the commonality that everyone is freaking out! Everyone is using Apple devices. Boom! The stage is set.
Next is where the most important part of this structure. It usually covers the longest part of the story. And it is about how the team communicates and works together under this uncertain circumstance. They were working day and sleepless nights to achieve this unreal goal set by the boss. When we thought the mission was already impossible. Boss had to call and tell them the presentation deadline date is moved up. What I loved about this ad is that it didn’t really directly promote any apple products, but it is promoting the Apple ecosystem, the culture, and productivity as a whole.
According to my Professor in the Integrated Marketing class last semester. We must add an inciting incident, a story without an inciting incident is not a story. “The Inciting incident… sets the story in motion … [while] the key incident [is] what the story is about, and draws the main character into the storyline.” — Sad Field’s Book Screenplay. Overall, I think Apple portraited this brand image very well. It is creative, innovative, fun, relevant, and most importantly, the storyline was relatable and eye-catching! It is scary to realize how much Apple products and technologies can do and how much we rely on these things.
Even though 2020 was very evil but so far 2021 is looking promising! As we are all getting vaccinated, the country is looking to open up again. Businesses and schools are planning to return to normal. I am surprised to say, I will miss this WFH life, I will miss my PJs, breakfast in bed, multi-monitors, dogs butting into my meetings, endless zoom calls! But at the same time, I can’t wait to meet everyone and officially step on the NYU campus!
Now that I finished with my thoughts and opinions, is time to hear from you! Did you like this ad? What were some of your takeaways? What will you miss the most about this pandemic life?
