Apple Stops Airing 'Genius' Ads on Olympic Television Broadcasts

[ristlin]

What do I want Apple to say?

"Introducing the new Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pros."
The Mac is back.

And one more thing...

The new, affordable Macintosh. Built to order, just the way you want it.
We've been listening to what you want and decided to think different and let you have it."

Now that you mention it, I would like them to say that too

 

[Mad-B-One]

The iPhone4 hasn't got a faulty antenna, you're just "holding it wrong".

I tried this "holding wrong" thing with a Blackberry Curve and a HTC Merge. Both had more signal loss held a certain way than connecting the bridges (or any other "death grip") on the iPhone 4. Just try it and tell us the results before you repeat something like that. Virtually every cell phone will have signal loss held a certain way. If you have full or close to full reception, it won't make a difference. If you are almost out of reception, it will drop the call. So, yea, you can make the signal go down holding a cellphone a certain way. No news there. Just hold it differently - it'll fix the problem.

 

[Small White Car]

Scenario 1: Apple is telling the truth and only bought ads for the weekend.

Scenario 2: Apple bought a bunch of ad time all week and if they don't use it they'll lose that money. Rather than sub-in older ads that people like, they've decided to just throw away that cash and give back the time.


Any surprise at which theory is getting a lot of play here in the Macrumors forum?

 

[a0me]

I think that we can all agree that these were probably some of the worst ads Apple has ever released.

 

[trainwrecka]

At least someone at Apple has common sense. Not all has been lost, yet.

I enjoyed them. That was a lot closer to real life for me. Everyone calls me for very simple Mac/iOS related stuff.

 

[JHankwitz]

Maybe you missed Steve Jobs himself saying the issue existed. Or perhaps you missed it amongst the smoke and mirrors of him also saying "all phones have it" and believed it.

The issue was real.

The issue is real, and it still exists in all phones. But now, the signal strength meter doesn't advertise it as well.

Place any phone out in the open for several minutes and record the number of bars showing. Then cup it in your hand and watch the bars decrease after several minutes. Depending on the make of phone this may take 3-5 minutes. Place the phone in the open again and watch how fast the bars increase back to normal. This built-in hysteresis makes you think that the signal is not diminished when you hold it.

 

[rhett7660]

Do not believe it.
They sucked, and Apple will not admit.

Exactly. Can't expect Apple to have a home run every time, but man these were bad, bad like not even walking up the plate and still striking out swinging bad.

 

[Vantage Point]

The Genius ads stunk, the Martin Scorcesse ad got old quickly. The old Mac vs PC ads where great and a pleasure to see multiple times. I even liked the childlike music from those old ads - which they stopped as soon as Windows 7 was released - which was also the time I switched to Mac.

 

[johncrab]

I thought the ads were hilarious. Apart from that, they stood out as something different and got attention which is what any ad is supposed to do. MS probably cranked up its negative publicity machine as they do anything Apple does something new in order to rubbish it. Half of their ad budget seems to be designated for planting negative stories about Apple within 48 hours of Apple doing anything new so I discount most of the negativity coming from "consumers".

Then again, about all they have to pitch is: "Coming soon: An opportunity to buy a new computer, new peripherals, new software and start all over without any help from us because we're patching a new front end on Win95. Again."

 

[CapnJackGig]

Everything's falling apart now. Kinda funny.

 

[muthuka]

Ads suck

oh boy. Looks like we started seeing things which we know steve might have rejected right away. I am hoping that they don't do this kind of sloppy work with iPhone 5.

 

[lifeinhd]

yikes - u like these?

im afraid to ask what else you like

Personally, I like grammar.

 

[b24pgg]

Lots of people are pretty clueless about their product.

If someone is so clueless that they don't even know how to use a search engine to do their own research and they need an ad agency to tell them what to think, something tells me a $1500+ computing machine is more than what they need.

 

[trip1ex]

The genius ad I was just too generic.

The problem wasn't that customers were portrayed as too clueless or anything.

The ad wasn't iconic nor funny or irreverent.

 

[GQB]

Do not believe it.
They sucked, and Apple will not admit.

Pulling them is the closest thing to admission that you'll see from any advertiser. You seriously expect any company to compound a mistake with needless mea culpas?
Move on. Apple did.

 

[d0vr]

I just watched them now as the original post on MR didn't appeal to me. They were supposed to be funny?

 

[sillypooh]

Well we were used to so much better...

 

[GQB]

If someone is so clueless that they don't even know how to use a search engine to do their own research and they need an ad agency to tell them what to think, something tells me a $1500+ computing machine is more than what they need.

Hope you and your sense of supriority are happy together.

 

[kahkityoong]

Thank God. They were shiiite.

 

[dualcyclone]

Lots of people are pretty clueless about their product. This goes the same for both Mac and PC users. I don't mean it in a bad way, but there are people that never cares to learn anything about it. At the first sign of trouble they simply call up a friend to ask question.

Tell me about it... I have "friends" who only ever contact me with technical queries. These people I ignore now.

But these adverts are a bit beyond the usual Apple brief of being clean and to the point. I could have made a single advert with the guy behind a "Genius Bar" saying, "Hi there, how may I help you?"... with text at the end saying:

At the Genius Bar, no question goes unanswered.
​

That probably would have had better reception. Although given my recent experience with apple support and the genius bar, I may as well be a retard that doesn't know how to use a cocktail stick.

 

[d0vr]

Everything's falling apart now. Kinda funny.

Yeh, how dare Apple try anything new! They tried something, it didn't work, they stopped doing it. Get over it - at least they don't keep trying to push out crap they know no one wants.

 

[JB413]

Apple should hire me to let them know whether their commercials suck or not.

 

[617arg]

What do I want Apple to say?

"Introducing the new Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pros."
The Mac is back.

And one more thing...

The new, affordable Macintosh. Built to order, just the way you want it.
We've been listening to what you want and decided to think different and let you have it."

Yes, I think it's time for Apple to treat its base to some new machines (of the non-handheld variety).

 

[Doombringer]

The Apple ads I remember the most (and most favorably) are the most straightforward. Sometimes, simply-stated is best-stated.

These Genius ads tried too hard to be funny. It's true that Geniuses, in Apple Stores, can help with X, Y or Z, but these folks aren't what we think of when we think of an Apple product. We think of the product itself, not the support staff.

The iPhone ads split the difference by showing the device, how it functions, some of its capabilities (even if these are inflated or error-corrected) while also adding something quirky (Scorsese's mannerisms, for one).

 

[PodPacker]

I like the ads

Taste is subjective. If you've ever dealt with someone switching to a Mac or an older person buying an iPad/iPod/iPhone or some PeeCee Weenee who bashes Macs for no reason at all then you can relate to these commercials. They are clearly geared towards a younger audience, which I think is the main problem. They were aired during the Olympics, which has a much older viewership (older people lose their sense of humor when technology is involved). Anyone remember VCR clocks?