Apple enlists former stars from The Office US for latest advert
It's like Schrute farms all over again.
Apple wants to show off its new version of FileMaker and has enlisted several stars of the US version of The Office to help.
Kate Flannery (Meredith), Paul Lieberstein (Toby) and Leslie David Baker (Stanley) play a team of farmers in a mock TV news report. The small time farmers use FileMaker to run their business, apparently giving them more free time for Michael Scott-esque antics.
"Farm Time" begins with a reference to Dwight Schrute's beet farm before showing Lieberstein being interviewed – dressed in overalls, a shirt and tie while playing the banjo. He shows off the iPhone app he uses to manage the farm with "just one click". "Basically it just tells me how to manage the worker load."
"Anyone can do this?" the reporter asks. "Well, anyone with an iPhone," Lieberstein's character responds.
Flannery's character then puts a beet down her top to give it extra care before Baker's character is shown launching a drone to ship the vegetables. Lieberstein then shoots it down thinking it was a bird.
Apple is no stranger to using star power in its adverts. James Corden appeared in an ad for Apple Music in September, 2016 and pitched ideas to a board including Jimmy Iovine – an Apple Music executive.
Corden portrayed music stars throughout the generations including the Spice Girls, David Bowie and Pharrell Williams. Pharell also appeared in the ad asking Corden to skip his segment.
Dwayne Johnson appeared in an ad for the iPhone 7 and showed how Siri can be used in a day-to-day living, albeit in a very exaggerated manner. Johnson uses Siri to plan his schedule, call a taxi, listen to music and find out the weather in Rome.
And who can forget the earlier days of Justin Long in the Mac vs PC ads. I'm a Mac and I'm a PC was a friendly but mocking series of clips that showed how a Mac was a superior computer. Long, who played Mac, would regularly show his PC counterpart what he was missing out on.
