Dear Zooey Deschanel:

It's been almost a decade since I last wrote about you, way back before most knew who you are. That time I was writing about a Gap advertisement, this time I'm writing about your recent Apple Computer advertisement (video below).

Let me first preface this by saying that - then as now - I find you quite adorkable.

However, your ad causes me some consternation because, frankly, I do not think this is how things should be. I believe that your ad is a very small example of the decline of the U.S.

The U.S. has changed in many ways over the past few decades, some good and some bad. Some will say that the changes exemplified in your ad are for the better, and some are. However, others are, in my opinion, not.

The part of the ad about using a smart phone to see if it's raining appears to be just artistic license: almost all people would just look outside.

The part about tomato soup makes very little sense: why not just put on your "real shoes" and go to the store, even if it's raining? How soft would Apple have their customers become that they can't go out to a store but have to order things in on an individual basis?

Most importantly, you're promoting a company that has (allegedly) had various incidents with its foreign workers: child labor, suicides, and so on. Around 10 times as many people work for the Apple supply chain than work for Apple inside the U.S. While they're a major employer in the U.S., they could employ far more people inside the U.S. if they decided to do so. Apple's profit margins would suffer as a result, and that matters to many. Does it matter to you?

In years past, the U.S. built things, and we still do. However, our manufacturing output has or will be exceeded by China. Do we really want to become a country that emphasizes the most refined end of production, such as selling products made in China rather than manufacturing those products here in the U.S.?

Allow me to suggest that instead of promoting Apple, you try to promote efforts to keep manufacturing here in the U.S. I'll leave how to do that up to you, but a combination of the negative (such as publicly shaming and discrediting those who encourage outsourcing) and the positive (such as encouraging government programs) would probably work best.

Sincerely,

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