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.
As someone whose watch called 911 for me when I was in an accident, and who got a call when my mother fell, fear or not there are real, tangible benefits that probably can't be overstated.
Gross Apple Marketing
111–120 of 270 posts
Re: Gross Apple Marketing
#112This 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.
Even back then they had the Mac vs PC or a variety of other ads too that weren’t “cool” but were funny. Tongue in cheek ads have been in their DNA since forever.
Take for example the new Mac mini ad which is cute
https://youtu.be/JjpGvjy0Gxk?si=Gk1cU80FiJX2KYbC
Or just scrolling through their YouTube channel now to find a few over the years
Find your Friends https://youtu.be/yk6UVnMn9ts?si=UIqblUwbbONPFyRR
The Greatest https://youtu.be/8sX9IEHWRJ8?si=NhRVcMZyOlU7-PfC
HomePod ( probably my favorite of the bunch. Directed by Spike Jonze, starring FKA Twigs. Imho one of the best ads they’ve done) https://youtu.be/k70OczvX45k?si=4cKP63L4UwdP1vaW
AirPod pros https://youtu.be/DpcXUXtZ4CU?si=AqWofXEOu7ejTCA0
One could argue that they’ve not had anything as iconic as the silhouette commercial. I’d agree with that, but I disagree with the position that their ads today don’t show cool people or that ads back then didn’t show “lame” people.
Re: Gross Apple Marketing
#113I 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.
To be fair, since the Apple Watch introduced heart rate monitoring and other "medical" features, there have been numerous reported cases of it saving a persons life, from detecting heart conditions to detecting falls.
On the other side of the coin of more widespread and continuous monitoring is always the concerns of increasing false positives
Re: Gross Apple Marketing
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
#115I 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…
Re: Gross Apple Marketing
#116I’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,…
Re: Gross Apple Marketing
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Absolutely nobody is going to see these ads and to "Ah, well, now that I have seen this ad I will start lying". That person is already lying about stuff. We've all done it. I think the real indictment against Apple (and AI more broadly) is that this is the best use case for their supposedly revolutionary technology that they could come up with.
I don’t think anyone is claiming these ads will get people to start lying. The claim is that lying to your loved ones is good and makes you smart is indeed the message these ads are sending.
People do lie. But they don’t usually feel good about it. These ads send the message that not only is that good, but Apple Intelligence will make you even better at lying.
It’s just a bad message.
Re: Gross Apple Marketing
#118I 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
#119For a second I forgot where I was, and thought she'd be found out, then remembered it's an ad, and everyone is impressed.
Maybe the image is actually related to the woodworking? But I couldn't help but think, "that's about right - a random, ill-fitting photo"
Re: Gross Apple Marketing
#120I 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.
Many people who comment on Apple have never actually worked there and they think some curated history book tells the real story.
Go have a conversation with Eddie Cue or Craig Federighi about Steve. Or even Jony Ive. Perhaps talk to some of the original Lisa and Mac teams.