Briefly: Apple rolls out four new iPhone 5 ads

Apple on Friday posted four new ad spots for its iPhone 5, three touting the handset's features and one focusing on the gratis set of EarPods included with every purchase.

While the commercials bring back a product-centric style to Apple's ad style, unlike the widely panned "Genius" campaign, the company's newest video spots are still very lighthearted and may for some lean more towards "kitschy" than "elegant."

The first of the four, titled "Thumb," attempts to explain why Apple chose to use a 4-inch display in the iPhone 5, rather than larger screen sizes seen on a number of Android phones. Here the narrator seems to take a rather snide tone when describing how the new design is a perfect fit for thumb use, a definite departure from Apple's usual understated approach.

Up next is "Cheese," which shows off the new Panorama camera feature that ships with iOS 6. In this case, the narrator actually becomes part of the scene, directing the lineup of children dressed in costume to say an incredibly extended "cheese" as the panoramic photo is taken and processed. Once again, the spot is quite different from previous campaigns.

The final iPhone 5 ad, "Physics," takes a look at the new smartphone's thin design and larger screen. In a very tongue-in-cheek series of questions, the narrator asks "there are laws to physics, right?" and "how can something get bigger, and smaller?"

Apple's last ad focuses on the EarPods introduced alongside the iPhone 5 last week. It starts off extremely casual with the statement, "ears are weird," and goes on to explain how headphones should be "ear-shaped" instead of round "so, you know, they fit in your ears."

How these commercials will be received remains to be seen, but it looks as though Apple is trying to appeal to a wider demographic with the new campaign, a move that could raise the ire of critics accustomed to the company's trademark "classy" ads.