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Gross Apple Marketing

jonathanbuys.com

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Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#61

Post by CharlieDigital »

I work at a startup in the AI space.

We've been working with it for over a year now and I'm of the mind that AI, in it's current state, really isn't a tool meant for an end user to interact with.

It feels like it's the most useful when it's transparent and you -- as an end user -- don't know that there's an LLM in the process. The best use cases seem to be those that don't require an end consumer to directly interact with an AI, but their journey through some process is assisted by an AI instead.

The problem is that a lot of the marketing -- like these examples and Google's very misguided "Write me a letter" to an Olympian -- exists because companies keep trying to make "fetch" happen; the AI becomes the journey instead of being an assistant in that journey.

Amazon's Rufus is a prime example. It's tucked away as a button that one has to activate explicitly. But it would almost be better if it could just clean up the search results when I do a search and a bunch of junk is returned.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#62

Post by xanderlewis »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #54
longtimelistnr wrote: post #9

I think people still aren't accepting that Steve Jobs era marketing and product development left with the man. Apple is fundamentally different and is never going back.

Marketing yes, product development no. Jobs was a salesman, not an engineer or designer. He didn't contribute to the product of Apple despite his reputation for doing so.

Steve Jobs didn’t contribute to the product of Apple? Are you sure?

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#63

Post by Zanfa »

thrwaway1985882 wrote: post #8

> 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.

It was exactly like every other enterprise animated product video. Random words with some electronic music. I was actually expecting "synergy" to pop up.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#64

Post by repelsteeltje »

ceejayoz wrote: post #31
repelsteeltje wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there somewhere I can watch the Apple ad(s)? I don't understand what or who this schlub is.

They're linked in the article. That video specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM

My bad, it seems YouTube guides me towards other ads. Might be because I'm in eu or not using their app.

I managed to find the ad elsewhere

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#65

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

thrwaway1985882 wrote: post #8

> 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.

> As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny

OP is right, though. What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends. That's not a funny message to me. It's an appalling one.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#66

Post by iolo »

bowsamic wrote: post #4

I agree those ads are pretty concerning and reinforcing bad human behaviours, but the Ubuntu one shown is boring and vague animations. Hardly a good comparison. Who cares about those?

I feel there's a lack of respect for the person being interacted with in these ads. They all end too soon to show the consequences of transparent AI use and imply the other character has never heard of AI.

More accurate endings would be:

- "I thought we told Warren to stop uploading company emails to chatgpt."

- "A photo collage?!, after I spent a week building you that new console table for your birthday."

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#67

Post by nordsieck »

dagmx wrote: post #51

This article is a prime example of why tech literate people aren’t inherently strong marketers for tech. What does the Ubuntu ad say to the user? How does it capture someone’s attention? None of the ad tells me why this is something worth paying attention to versus other distros or OSs, it doesn’t even tell me it’s about the OS at all unless I already know what Ubuntu is. Contrast with the Apple ads that tell you exa…

> What does the Ubuntu ad say to the user? How does it capture someone’s attention?

Exactly. Contrary to the article, it doesn't tell a story at all. It's just some slick-ish graphics with a few words overlayed on top. They're nice words. But they didn't really embrace "show, don't tell".

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#68

Post by jollyllama »

DHPersonal wrote: post #19
Apreche wrote: 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 an…

Contrast with old OnStar commercials would be more fruitful.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#69

Post by jfoster »

devin wrote: post #43

I think this is mostly just a problem of not having good reasons to sell AI products to consumers in the first place. I recently saw some Ray Ban Meta glasses ads. One of them had a guy ask the glasses to describe what was in front of his face, and then he remarked “wow that’s accurate” (there are people skateboarding). The guy wasn’t blind. His use of the glasses made little sense. Another ad has a young man asking…

No way! There are definitely legitimate use-cases for all of the features demoed in these ads, but Apple's marketing took a darker path.

Email to boss: could've been someone who had a genuine struggle with language using it to finally get their boss to notice the effort they put into their work.

Remembering a name: could've used it to get the name and left it at them being impressed rather than making it a lie.

Summarizing email: could've used it when in a hurry at work whilst someone sent an extremely long email.

Video memories: could've used it for two people to share a nostalgic moment together without making it a lie.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#70

Post by bowsamic »

jfoster wrote: post #40
bowsamic wrote: post #4

I agree those ads are pretty concerning and reinforcing bad human behaviours, but the Ubuntu one shown is boring and vague animations. Hardly a good comparison. Who cares about those?

I like Ubuntu but agree that this post would've been better off without the comparison. Let's just ignore it. The Apple Intelligence ads really are sending a terrible message. Humanity needs more honesty, not a higher pile of lies.

I don't think it will be possible to ignore it, the bad comparison makes the author seem confused and unreliable
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