Bits Blog: Motorola Ad Seems to Catch the ‘Made in U.S.A.’ Bug From Apple

On the day before Independence Day, Motorola Mobility, the handset maker owned by Google, will be running a new advertisement in newspapers for its next smartphone. The ad, however, won’t show a phone. It’s all about how the handset will be made in America.

And it looks a lot like an ad by a company in Cupertino, Calif.

The Motorola ad, slated to run in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Washington Post on Wednesday, is meant to make readers, including Motorola’s own employees, feel good that the new phone will be made in America. “We knew this would be a challenge,” the ad says. “In fact, some people said it couldn’t be done. But we’re not just any company.”

Motorola’s newspaper ad.

Compare that to Apple’s new promotional campaign, called “Designed by Apple in California,” that it started running after it introduced the Mac Pro, a new desktop computer that will be assembled in the United States. The ad’s script is similarly self-congratulatory:

We spend a lot of time
On a few great things.
Until every idea we touch
Enhances each life it touches.

A screen shot of Apple’s “Designed” ad.

Both ads use skinny white font types that are nearly identical. And both ads use pictures of athletic young adults looking healthy and proud to be American.