In some ways it's sad that the benefits being advertised are so meaningless in the scheme of things. They're advertising assisted living, the type you see in WALL-E. The only reason it's not more sad is that this form of assistance isn't terribly convenient and has very limited use right now. People have to force these situations a bit where it's useful, especially the ones shown on TV. A reminder to clean a dirty room?
In some ways it reflects where people are at. I work at a customer service, tech support job, and I am surprised at the number of people who need support for lifestyle gadgets and who call from their cars. And it's not urgent--they're calling from the device itself they need help with, so it can make calls. It may be a woman screaming that an in app purchase on her phone isn't working and she's trying to troubleshoot it with me over the phone while she's driving and she yells at her kids to be quiet. Because her kids are such an interruption to the task at hand: figuring out where her in app purchase of something like Fart Game went, while hurtling a car at 70 mph.
Technology was always evolving to make work easier for us. Word processing changed how we write, and desktop publishing, WWW, digital video editing, all self evident.
But what are we doing now? A digital buddy? Is that what we need?
I'm not saying Siri is a bad idea altogether. But it would be nice to see how it helps people lead a better life and have more time for their families as a result. Instead it shows people becoming more involved with technology: developing a relationship with their phones. And a very sad relationship at that! Standing around when you can see it's raining and asking your phone if it is raining? That's one of the saddest things I can think of. You could make an independent, slice-of-life film movie with a scene where a depressed girl is staring out into the rain and out of sheer boredom asks her phone if it's raining. It would actually be a great scene—for a dark movie.
And while I think Siri could be something useful, I don't think it seems like a revolutionary feature or terribly different from what already existed, I don't see how it's the main feature of the iPhone right now, and I don't know that it needs to be implemented as a persona. Why couldn't it just be a nondescript way of interacting with your phone? I mean when they invented the mouse they didn't say it was your personal scepter that would bow to your every wish. If this is to be a legitimate new interface paradigm, why not just make it part of the phone, why separate is as this "person"?
Finally, if you'll indulge me once more, does anyone else find the aesthetic appeal annoying of these ads and Siri? The beeping isn't particularly pleasant. Siri's voice sounds like a dated robot technology voice. And then of course the interactions themselves are forced, meaningless, and kind of sad.
I know much else wasn't new with the iPhone 4S, but why not advertise in an iPhone vs Android way they did with Mac vs PC, show why the iPhone is better for the more fundamental reasons, like app store garden walls and ensuring a consistent experience, the fact that the iPhone 3GS can run 5.1--those are the bigger differentiators.
The perfect Apple ad, or ad from any company, would go something like this:
YouTube:
video
Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzRKZbsr65c
I couldn't really express where these adds, or siri in general went wrong, and you did it. And the Costner add is imho indeed the message that Apple should be bringing, but then again, I'm afraid the "think different" attitude is sadly all but gone from Apple, and I'm starting to have some trouble believing Apple's messages lately. 
