Gross Apple Marketing • Hacker News Board

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#81

Post by briandear » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #69

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. Summa…

Ernest Hemingway once said, “I’m sorry for the long letter, I didn’t have time for a shorter one.”

With Apple Intelligence, now you do.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#82

Post by tiltowait » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

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…

> 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.

On the other hand, this is a pretty common scenario: user is surprised when AI gets something right :) Not sure it’s the best showcase of a product, though …

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#83

Post by exitb » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

CharlieDigital wrote: post #61

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…

But it seems like Apple could make "fetch" happen in the past. Their ads were very aspirational, almost like you could become an Olympian if you just owned a Macintosh. These ads though, they're not about "you can do more". They're about "you can care less".

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#84

Post by crowcroft » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

The Ubuntu animation tells me nothing a short bullet point list couldn't. If you're going to create a video, show me something. Don't just tell Ubuntu is secure and put little boxes around a few icons – show me that Ubuntu is secure.

I don't love the Apple ads, but they are at least showing me some evidence of the features they're saying exist in Apple Intelligence.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#85

Post by bee_rider » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

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…

I remember iPods being advertised as, like, very cool. Remember all the ads with, like, the silhouettes dancing on colorful backgrounds? I can see thinking these ads were a bit over the top and silly, like a corporate ad exec’s idea of what is cool, but they definitely intended to be cool.

The people in these new ads are lame and clearly Apple intends to portray them as lame.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#86

Post by raverbashing » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

tw04 wrote: 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.

Correct

I wonder how much of (people self diagnosing themselves with) autism is actually related to other circumstances like lack of media literacy, lack of familiarity with social circles/norms (or lack of cultural knowledge)

The Ubuntu ad is not bad certainly but it is meh, and where it lacks is where it goes on the tech mode.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#87

Post by ucosty » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

skydhash wrote: post #20

qsort wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

More like one of those hover chairs from Wall-E

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#88

Post by ffsm8 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

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…

Maybe this will convince you?

https://youtu.be/zvbTDUSz8Cc?si=IdlMNjydYgbZH_6n

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#89

Post by troyvit » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

kylebenzle wrote: post #3

tw04 wrote: 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.

I think you nailed it. And coming from Apple, the company that established its cred by touting creativity, individuality, and innovating, it's a wild shift.

Apple in 1997 [1]: "Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Apple today: "Very Victorian, which I loved."

[1] https://thebrandhopper.com/2023/08/20/apple-top-commercials-...

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#90

Post by candiddevmike » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

CharlieDigital wrote: post #61

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…

I absolutely despise rufus. I used to be able to search questions and reviews instantaneously. Now I need to wait for rufus to poorly summarize everything, tap at least 2-3 times, and then get to see the search results. Talk about piss poor UX.