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Comment by davidczech | Hacker News Reader

I think it’s usually filmed on weekends

You would just think that with a brand so intrinsically wrapped around the concept of technology working for and with the people that use it, you'd want to show the people who made it if you're going to show the apple campus at all.

It kind of just comes off as one of those YouTube liminal space horror videos when it's that empty.

The Apple brand is - foundationally - pretty solitary.

Think about the early ipod ads, just individuals dancing to music by themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dSgBsCVpqo

You can even go back to 1983 "Two kinds of people": a solitary man walks into an empty office, works by himself on the computer and then goes home for breakfast. https://youtu.be/4xmMYeFmc2Q

It's a strange conflict. So much of their other stuff is about togetherness mediated by technology (eg, facetime). And their Jobs-era presentations always ended with a note of appreciation for the folks who worked so hard to make the launch happen. But you're right that much of the brand imagery is solitary, right up to the whole "Here's to the crazy ones" vibe.

It's weirdly dystopian. I didn't realize it bothered me until moments before my comment, but now I can't get it out of my head.

"Here's to the crazy ones" is weirdly dystopian? :)

In a strange way, yes, with the premise that the world is otherwise the realm of uncreative, uninspired people. But the comment was addressed more at the odd lifelessness of the imagery.

> the concept of technology working for and with the people that use it

> liminal space horror

reminds me of that god awful crush commercial

they apologized for that one.

I had not seen that one, so I looked it up.

This was reminder to me that art is subjective. I don’t get the outrage. I kinda like it.

> You would just think that with a brand so intrinsically wrapped around the concept of technology working for and with the people that use it, you'd want to show the people who made it if you're going to show the apple campus at all.

I would think that a brand that is at least trying to put some emphasis on privacy in their products would also extend the same principle to their workforce. I don’t work for Apple, but I doubt that most of their employees would be thrilled about just being filmed at work for a public promo video.

There are legal issues with it too, or at least they think there are. They take down developer presentations after a few years partly so they won't have videos of random (ex-)employees up forever.

What legal issues could arise from a recording of an employee publicly representing the company?

Privacy and likeness rights, that kind of thing. And licenses expiring on stock photos or whatever's in the background.

If only in some shots, but they are such a valuable company that they simply cannot afford the risk of e.g. criticism for the choice of people they display, or inappropriate outfits or behaviour. One blip from a shareholder can cost them billions in value, which pisses off other shareholders. All of their published media, from videos like this to their conferences, are highly polished, rehearsed, and designed by committee. Microsoft and Google are the same, although at least with Google there's still room for some comedy in some of their departments: https://youtu.be/EHqPrHTN1dU

Easier to track continuity between takes if you don't have people in the background.

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