Funny comment and observation in MediaPost’s bulletin:

Do women own iPhones? I can’t tell from the latest set of ads, where only men gush about the device. One man loves the visual voicemail, although he chooses to skip the 4-minute message from the guy that owes him money. That would be the one I skip to. Maybe that’s the estrogen talking. Watch it here. An iPhone came to the rescue in another ad, when a man used it to find the name of his girlfriend’s boss’ fiancé. The guy in the final ad can ditch the man bag he used to carry his plethora of techie devices for his one and only iPhone. TBWA/Chiat/Day created the campaign and OMD handled the media buy.

Waving hand in air: guilty! guilty! The irony for me is how I bought an iPhone. Ex-boyfriend calls me from backstage at MacWorld telling me that for a limited time 4-gig Refurbs are going on sale. I post to a women’s tech list (sfwow.org) about the news. A few women do some insanely good sleuthing in a half hours’ time to find the very difficult-to-find items on the Apple Store. A few of us put through orders, two days later little black box of loveliness arrives on my doorstep.

So it took a village, needless to say. Feminist 101 cliches aside, women mostly commented on my purchase as I strode through airports on the Eastern seaboard last month. Maybe because we are used to commenting on skirts and hats and hairstyles to total strangers, who knows.

I’ve read marketing research about how women are the decision makers on cars, and how their decisions are mainly around utility. I think that goes for most high-end expenses. When the iPhone reached “expensive new phone” pricing bracket at $250, it was an easy decision for me. It’s a combination of a new iPod (my nano is dying) and cell phone with data capability. And, I could write it off as a business expense. So reduce it %40 in cost, and it replaces a $300 new iPod and a $150 new phone and it’s a deal.

My ideas for ads that involve women (note: one aired recently, but I haven’t seen it.)
– Sitting in intermission at ACT’s Sweeney Todd, we wondered, embarrassed, why Sondheim sounded so familiar. Quick check on wikipedia, voila.
– While visiting sister, we were totally busy running after 3 small children. I could take photos and email them to my mom with a few clicks, documenting wildlife in its native habitat.
– While on BART to a client, I did quick research on how iPhone email renders in various web clients. (OK, that’s not a viable commercial.)
– Researching in pub trivia about the real name of the dinosaur found in Patagonia last week. Note: this was purely warm-up, and not during the round.
– Accessing the MUNI page to find next arrival times- priceless.