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Gross Apple Marketing

jonathanbuys.com

11–20 of 270 posts

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#11
post #2

I’m not sure if the author noticed, but the intent of the commercials is to be humorous. If the image of a middle aged man writing an email like he’s in middle school didn’t tip the author off, I’m not sure what will.

I think the author is trying to discuss how common lying has become. How it seems like nobody is expected to be honest anymore and everybody's just getting away with whatever they can get away with. How narcissism is an American disease and it's spreading fast do to companies like Apple, Facebook and online dating learning how to profit off it.

How is narcissism an American disease?

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#13
post #2

I’m not sure if the author noticed, but the intent of the commercials is to be humorous. If the image of a middle aged man writing an email like he’s in middle school didn’t tip the author off, I’m not sure what will.

It's like the Google Pixel ads showing how you can take a picture, and change all of the scenery with AI. Nothing is real, and you can't trust anything you see or hear. I would be pretty disappointed in my wife if she A) forgot my birthday, and B) spent 10 seconds putting together a photo collage using AI. I would expect her to feel the same. Personal and financial circumstances aside, it IS the thought that counts, and all of these ads seem to be saying it is fine to offload thinking to your trusty AI companion. It's not really humorous, it is dystopian.

Also, those ads showing different AIs acting like HAL but saying "the future doesn't have to be scary" are terrifying. In one the woman is locked in her house by her AI-bot, and uses a menacing tone, doesn't let her leave until she grabs her water bottle. In another, a man is in a self-driving car, which changes routes and takes him to a surprise birthday party. It is NOT a leap to go from these to hearing actual cases where "woman is trapped in her apartment and dies in a fire because the AI wouldn't unlock her door (or AI died first in the fire)", or "self-driving Tesla is hacked by the cartel/abusive ex and drives passenger to their death." I want NO part of the future they are selling.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#14
post #10

I was already bothered by the Apple Watch marketing. The messaging there is total fear. Buy an Apple Watch or literally die. Also, get them for your children or they will die too. The messaging that AI is for lying is another big yikes. Apple marketing department has lost the magic.

>The messaging there is total fear. Buy an Apple Watch or literally die. Also, get them for your children or they will die too.

Is there a specific advertisement you're referring to here, or just all apple watch advertisements? I haven't really seen any ads for the apple watch, and I am curious if this is an exaggeration.

I'm assuming by "literally" you meant "metaphorically", but I'd like to look up which ad you are referencing to get an idea of what you mean.

Edit: I've watched the ads. They are not in great taste, in my opinion, however they also did not tell me I would literally die if I don't buy an Apple Watch.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#15
post #2

I’m not sure if the author noticed, but the intent of the commercials is to be humorous. If the image of a middle aged man writing an email like he’s in middle school didn’t tip the author off, I’m not sure what will.

I think the author is trying to discuss how common lying has become. How it seems like nobody is expected to be honest anymore and everybody's just getting away with whatever they can get away with. How narcissism is an American disease and it's spreading fast do to companies like Apple, Facebook and online dating learning how to profit off it.

Right! It's one thing to accept marketing teams lying about their products, but now they are promoting lying!

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#16

> I’ve watched that little animation several times, and they tell a better story in a minute twenty-five than all of Apple’s AI commercials combined. If I showed that video to someone who isn't steeped in decades of Linux, I suspect they'd ask me what an Ubuntu is. As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny, and actually shows the product they're marketing.

Heh. That "little animation" is so generic, you could have substituted Ubuntu with Windows or MacOS and everything they showed would have been valid.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#18
Appple are speaking to the “Everyman”, Canonical are speaking to the tech literate.

Different audiences, Apple has power users, but its largest audience is an average person (my wife for example). The average person doesn’t care about tech, they want it to work, work well enough and be dependable.

Linux is can be a minefield, and Windows is a mess IMO.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#19
post #10

I was already bothered by the Apple Watch marketing. The messaging there is total fear. Buy an Apple Watch or literally die. Also, get them for your children or they will die too. The messaging that AI is for lying is another big yikes. Apple marketing department has lost the magic.

I remember people expressing similar frustrations with the crash detection features on iPhones, and I still don't understand the issue. These new safety features are helpful and have helped save lives. Scaling back the ad copy to "maybe you'd want to use this, just in case, though it's not a guarantee of anything, so whatever," as it seems the complaints are indicating, is not how any other life-saving features on any device have ever been sold. Those old LifeAlert "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials didn't pull their punch and say "Eh, maybe you'll want this for your grandparent."

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#20
post #5
post #2

I’m not sure if the author noticed, but the intent of the commercials is to be humorous. If the image of a middle aged man writing an email like he’s in middle school didn’t tip the author off, I’m not sure what will.

I don't think the problem is with the tone, but rather with the messaging. All AI-related marketing has been along the lines of "let the computer think for you" rather than "use the computer to think better", infantilizing rather than empowering the user. From the bicycle of the mind to the tricycle of the mind.

s/tricycle/wheelchair/
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