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Apple Introduces Three New Mac Ads During Olympics Opening Ceremonies

Disastrous ads. Overacted, stressful, gives the feeling that using a mac is complicated.

Definitely not Jobs's personal taste.
 
These ads suck. Felt like those generic product commercials. No charisma either..
 
Danoc said:
Disastrous ads. Overacted, stressful, gives the feeling that using a mac is complicated.

Definitely not Jobs's personal taste.
Click to expand...

Let's be frank, for the majority of users, computers no matter how well designed, are complicated, regardless of brand.
 
They look fine to me. Good to get/develop a personality again. As for the last one, it is appropriate as I saw in the press that people are returning "tablets" because after they bought them they found out they were not iPads.
 
Unfortunately, beyond rMBPs and iPads, Apple doesn't have much to advertise to the audience they'd seem to be reaching with commercials during the Olympics:

  • Mountain Lion's over 200 new features? An incremental upgrade.
  • Mac mini, iMac, or Mac Pro? That'd be like Ford advertising the '11 Fusion.
So Apple didn't really focus on any products - they didn't even show the apps they were claiming are so easy to use. But even that message was blunted by the need for the Apple Genius to jump in to help. I think that the ad with the guy on the plane would have been more effective if it began with an announcement saying that everyone would have to shut down their electronic equipment in, say, five minutes, and then actually showed him finishing his project in time.
 
scottrichardson said:
This may be obvious to some but...

There's a reason why most of us Mac fans dislike these ads..

The Ads are not designed for us

to befriend a duck, you have to quack like a duck.

I think the ads are perfect for what they are intended for (not us).
Click to expand...

good point. what gets me angry is that they're just trying to make everything look like an ipad nowadays, which brings no practical improvement to the computing experience... ALL THE WHILE without improving HW substantially as the tech world leaps and bounds ahead...

the new mac pro had better have a friggin GTX7XX...
 
No morons!

It is extremely common, almost universal, for a commercial to have an utter moron in it who needs to be schooled about the great new product. But never in an Apple ad! The closest thing to the moron Apple ads have had is 'PC', and that character does not represent a person, but a product. Apple users are not morons in Apple ads.

The campaign as a whole is wrong. The ads show that you can't do even simple things on Apple computers without help - the help of a genius, no less. Utterly wrong. Apple products are intuitive to use, and they just work. Bury this campaign fast.
 
ChrisH3677 said:
One things hasn't changed with the passing of Steve Jobs - there's still no shortage of "experts" who know better than Apple.

But now they can tag their "expertise" with supposed argument clinchers like "this would never have happened if Steve was still here."

Sorry guys, but you weren't experts when Steve was alive, and you aint now either, know matter how much you invoke Steve's name.
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This exactly.

The problem is that these folk (bless 'em) aren't so much experts at running multi-billion dollar corporations, as armchair CEOs with a man-crush on the late Steve Jobs (or the usual anti-Apple crew hoping to spread a little doubt).

This is why they've forgotten the PR foul-up that involved Apple trying to demonstrate the problem on other phones by having some fella squeeze a Motorola until he was ready to pass out.
That happened under Jobs, along with a number of ads that were banned in the UK for playing fast and loose with the truth.
The G5 Cube happened under Jobs.
The iPod Shuffle with no buttons happened under Jobs (and who seriously thought that idea was going to fly?).

Now for my tuppence worth:

I reckon these ads are the work of the John Browett (cue: 'Browett wouldn't have been hired if Steve Jobs was still alive!'), and though I wasn't expecting to, I really liked them.
Well acted, tongue-in-cheek, and got two messages across very clearly:

We have the Genius bar to help.
Just because it's shiny, doesn't make it an Apple.

Actually made me laugh, and I haven't laughed at a commercial since that fisherman kicked the bear in the groin (not a real bear, not a real fisherman).

And to the folk suggesting that it's a bad idea to make it look as though you'll need help with your Mac? Think it through.
The Genius Bar has been a prominent feature in the stores for years; it isn't hidden in a corner, or stuffed in the basement. It's out where people can find it because knowing that you can come back and get help with your Apple device is reassuring to any potential customer.

What Apple is trying to sell here is the whole experience. Not just the phone, or the Mac; they're showing that they've got your back even after you've spent your hard-earned cash.

And I think the armchair CEOs would see that, if Jobs was still alive.
 
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I was watching the opening ceremonies with some of my friends (we're college-age). Most of my friends are PC people and they often tease me about being a Mac person. I was embarrassed by the "Mayday" ad. It seemed really corny and not at all in Apple's style. The ad made Mac users look like buffoons who can't perform even the simplest tasks without the help of a "Genius". I think it's great that OS X is more intuitive than Windows, but I don't want it to be the operating system of idiots.
 
Not all mac users know what they are doing. This ad is not aimed at the people who use these forums. I work in retail we sell apple computers, more and more people are buying apple computers that are older and DO NOT know how to use them. These ads are aimed at them.

We see more and more people over the age of 45 buying apple computers and I do believe they are easier to use, they are different and that confuses some people. Just go down to your local apple store and just hang out and see who is actually using the genius bar and try to listen in.

Went a few weeks ago and it sounds like the questions we get at work all the time:
How do I set up my mail account?
How do I add another mail account?
What is an iPhoto?
How do I burn a disc of pictures?
Where is the USB port on this thing?
Can I send a photo from this to a PC?

The ad was not to show off Macs but apples customer service. Wether you like the ad or not (I don't) most of you are missing the point of the ad, they are not trying to make you buy one, they are trying to ease the minds of people who are thinking of buying one that if they need help they have someone to go to.
 
The genius in the "basically" ad looks really blazed. Just like me when I used to work retail...
 
ChrisH3677 said:
One things hasn't changed with the passing of Steve Jobs - there's still no shortage of "experts" who know better than Apple.

But now they can tag their "expertise" with supposed argument clinchers like "this would never have happened if Steve was still here."

Sorry guys, but you weren't experts when Steve was alive, and you aint now either, know matter how much you invoke Steve's name.
Click to expand...

^got em. a real expert of expert vs non expert.
 
I fly every week for work. If I saw some kid running around the plane, jumping into people's seats and such, I'd sit back and watch the flight attendant tell him to stop and buckle up or he would be taken off the plane.

Aside from being stupid, these commercials are pretty arrogant. They make Mac users look like they are helpless. Can't apply a sepia filter? Really. Lol.

Whatevs. I don't use OS X anymore so I don't really care. I guess it's fun to watch the train wreck before my eyes.

Oh, Tim.

And my Zenbook Prime, with it's 1080p IPS screen, is absolutely beautiful thank you very much. No desire for a "real" Mackbook. Thanks though.
 

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Who ever approved these commercials - YOUR FIRED!!
Felt like a Samsung commercial - minus the blue shirt and preschool hanging name badge.
 
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