Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Introduces Three New Mac Ads During Olympics Opening Ceremonies

Ok made it through all the comments. And read most of them before watching the ads.

Overall, I liked the commercials. I can see the comments of how it's un-Apple, but I try to view things individually. My favourite part of the Airplane one was when the genius left to help with a keynote, the guy left too as if empowered by the genius' help :p

One thing that bugs me immensely however is that you can buy a mac that comes without iPhoto, etc and it not be a knockoff: it's called a used Mac. I have a used late 2011 MBP 15" and it doesn't come with iLife. When starting the Mac App store for the first time on boot of a new mac, you get prompted to add your Apple ID to your iLife apps. That locks them to the single owner. Selling your mac strips them of this software. Now with 10.8's App Store doing software updates, my copies of iLife (installed from a USB restore key from an MBA 2010) likely won't get updated because it still can't associate the apps with my account.

While the connotation in the commercial is less strong than the comments, a knock off mac is a used mac. First sale has gone to hell I guess.
 
How many people are missing that this is a Retail Store advert campaign, not a product campaign? You don't see the products because they're selling the store experience.

The guy's got apple store uniform on, pretty sure I've NEVER seen that in their ads before. This is to bring people in and see what the fuss is about. And yes, it's not an ad for any of us ( though I personally loved the "Basically" one, so many retailers shrug their shoulders and just sell something white when they're asked about Mac)
 
Watching the opening ceremony with my roommate that uses a pc and isn't a Mac guy at all. See's commercial commences to talk about how he wants "A Mac soooooo bad!"

Commercial successful.
 
They were charming. They seemed like the usual Apple commercial to me. A little on the silly side, but hey thats okay.

I like how people think that these commercials wouldn't have made it in the Steve Jobs era. I don't think he would have cared. He had his way of running the company, and I'd be willing to bet money that in the arrangements of having Tim Cook take over, Steve (obviously) knew Tim would run things differently than he always had.

Some things stay the same, some things change due to personal preference and judgement by the one(s) in charge, But neither is wrong. Just different.

Think differently, remember. ;)
 
The man crush that people here have with Steve Jobs is very creepy.

Let's not forget he signed off on this:

4-flowerimacs.png


And this:

3ibooks.jpg


And this:

Apple_iPod_shuffle.jpg


And this:

444513.jpg


And how about when the iPod was announced. And so many b**ched about Apple giving us "another MP3 player" and how other MP3 players were less expensive and had better specs. And Apple is making a mistake getting into this market. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.500/

And let's take a trip through this thread when the unibody McBooks were announced. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/580680/
People complained left and right about how ugly the machines were (epically the black keyboard) how no matte screen option was a deal breaker, too expensive. Blah blah blah. This again happened on Steve's watch.

And of course the cube and MobileMe happened on his watch, as did Ping and Lion and the antenna issues with the iPhone 4 as well as the delay of the white iPhone. If any of this had happened with Steve not around the same people here would've been complaining and blaming it on thr absence of Steve.
 
I think "Basically" was the weakest ad, based on delivery (like a comedian trying too hard). That said, I have met *many* people over the years who are this guy... who "basically" bought an Apple product. :p
 
Benguitar said:
Think differently, remember. ;)
Click to expand...
I'm sure if Think Different came out now people would say it doesn't make sense (ala ideas can't do great things) and if Steve were around it would've been "Think Differently". ;)
 
The fluctuating pitch of the Apple genius is simply genius! Love the commercials. :D
 
I liked them. I thought they were pretty funny. I actually did like the fact that they didn't show any of the apps they mentioned. It created a mystery effect that will make people curious as to what those features are. Additionally, it plays to the iOS fans too. I really enjoyed them, and it's very refreshing to see all Mac ads. It should reassure those that are fearful of iOSification.
 
Only in America would you show adverts during the Olympics.. seriously, the rest of the world enjoyed it with no cut sections and no money making crap.
 
Alex Hobbs said:
Only in America would you show adverts during the Olympics.. seriously, the rest of the world enjoyed it with no cut sections and no money making crap.
Click to expand...

This, but it's not the citizens faults....my wife and I were sitting there swearing at the TV all night because they broke to commercial every 5 F$%$% minutes. It was ridiculous. To top it off, they broke to commercial like RIGHT before the US team was announced, and barely made it back in time. This country needs a revolution in the worst way, from our "For their money backers and not the people" government and every entity that is tied up with them, including TV and the media.

/Rant
 
robgreene said:
Came here to write the exact same thing. Definitely felt like the first deviation away from Jobs vision for the company. Disappointing.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing as well. Very disappointing to see Apple losing what makes it stand out. I mean even after Jobs passed the commercials still had the Apple feel. Had that intrigue, beauty, and overall simplicity that worked. Sure they went from the mac vs pc guy which was funny to the more refined product centric ads but still had the Apple feel. Those marketing campaigns fit the way Apple does things, their own way.

These just seem like run of the mill cheesy marketing you see from tons of companies in various industries. It wasn't different, it didn't stand out, if it wasn't for the Apple logo on the shirt of the "genius" it could have been a commercial for car insurance, repair work, or any number of things.

I thought the Retina MBP ads were awesome and sign Apple was keeping its focus on it's vision and way of doing things....then these cheesy commercials.
 
Last edited:
GuitarDTO said:
This, but it's not the citizens faults....my wife and I were sitting there swearing at the TV all night because they broke to commercial every 5 F$%$% minutes. It was ridiculous. To top it off, they broke to commercial like RIGHT before the US team was announced, and barely made it back in time. This country needs a revolution in the worst way, from our "For their money backers and not the people" government and every entity that is tied up with them, including TV and the media.

/Rant
Click to expand...

I thought they were not even showing it live in the US.
 
I found the ads boring and tasteless.

I have no idea of who decides to approve an ad wether it was Steve Jobs
or now Tim Cook. The reality IMO what makes an ad great is when it connects
to an emotion within. These ads seem like little excerpts from a bad sitcom.
I feel nothing when I see them. Missed opportunity Apple! The olympics are about people from all over forgetting their differences and uniting as humans
celebrating our accomplishments. If I was running the company I would exploit these feelings. Maybe showing children all over the world using iPads in classrooms encouraging them to learn. Or Autistic kids who were never able to communicate talking the first time through an iPad. People who are not mac users have no idea what "iMovie is or the other apps and therefore the commercial means nothing to them. Apple has contributed so much to our lives
and that is what I would have portrayed in the commercials . How about rerunning the "think different " commercial? Or a commercial showing the history of all the amazing products Apple has produced running side by side with clips from the olympics matched to the same time frame of when the products were released? I would had the final scene showing the olympics in the future and than end it with iPhone 5 coming soon ;)
 
Awful!

I thought these ads were awful, the worst Apple has ever run. They looked cheap and low-brow. I seriously doubt that if Steve Jobs were alive, he would have ever approved their being shown. To me, they cheapen the brand.
 
jlsm511 said:
as a former specialist, i vomited a little when i saw these :/
Click to expand...
Is that basically like a Genius? ;)

I think the commercials are quite good. Apple doesn't need commercials to sell their products to techy geeks like us. We read tech websites, research products, and make fairly informed decisions about what we buy. Some of us will decide that we like what Apple offers and buy their stuff, while others will buy something from another company.

These commercials are intended for your father, cousin, non-techy friends who see your Mac, like it, go off to the store without thinking to ask you for help, and end up buying a Mac lookalike because the Best Buy rep sold them on how "great" it was. They go home, use it, maybe get frustrated with it, and think that that's how all computers must be. Here, Apple tries to tell the average non-techy folks that there's something special about their computers. Specifically, their touting their Geniuses helping you patiently to get things working and walk you through using some of the fun apps the Macs come with. A lot of average people might see as a real value-add.
 
sputnikv said:
these felt sort of like the kind of commercials at&t/verizon/sprint puts out.. it's unsettling
Click to expand...

Exactly, ad felt cheap and stupid. So it takes a Genius to get anything done thats supposedly simple to do on a Mac?

The class that usually accompanies the brand is completely absent. The Celebrity/Siri ads are about as humorous as Apple dares get but they are still classy. This spot is devoid of both.
 
davidc2182 said:
I submitted this too, it should be policy that anyone who submits before MacRumors goes to post, should get at least a shout out...

As for the content of the ads, I like them, bout time they give retail some credit. The Genius in the ads I hope is really a Genius and not an actor!
Click to expand...

Oddly I have an actor friend at the 5th ave store that teaches apps. But that ain't him.

That guy is an actor. Do you want actors working at the genius bar too?
 
Rogifan said:
And how about when the iPod was announced. And so many b**ched about Apple giving us "another MP3 player" and how other MP3 players were less expensive and had better specs. And Apple is making a mistake getting into this market. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.500/

And let's take a trip through this thread when the unibody McBooks were announced. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/580680/
People complained left and right about how ugly the machines were (epically the black keyboard) how no matte screen option was a deal breaker, too expensive. Blah blah blah. This again happened on Steve's watch.

And of course the cube and MobileMe happened on his watch, as did Ping and Lion and the antenna issues with the iPhone 4 as well as the delay of the white iPhone. If any of this had happened with Steve not around the same people here would've been complaining and blaming it on thr absence of Steve.
Click to expand...

Haha I read the iPod thread. I like how so many people were calling out Apple for ditching PDAs and just introducing a "toy" that was just like all the other "toys" out there back then. And yet the iPod basically saved Apple and changed the music industry and the electronics industry forever. Funny to see over 10 years ago someone complaining even then that "Apple was losing focus on the servers and professional."

Fast forward to today and people are complaining that Apple is becoming an "iToy" company , same old story from 11 years ago it seems. But as for the commercial marketing...it's different to say a commercial is misguided than a product. People laughed at iPods as Apple losing sight of their vision and iPods changed the world...but a bad commercial is a bad commercial.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back