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Former Apple Ad Man Slams 'Genius' TV Spots as "Landing With A Thud"

daneoni said:
Agreed. the ads weren't all that.
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Not surprising at all. SJ is GONE and it's all back to the 90s again.

The Sculley/Spindler years are back with a bang under Chief Executor/Zero Visionary Tim Cook.

And people still slam me for criticizing ML; it's all about the new mindset of the company, pandering to committee design, distributing dividends when it SHOULDN'T and putting iOS on top of everything else. I thought I would never say this, but I will anyway: is it time to bring Woz back? At least a founder he would be.
 
Beginning of the end

Steve had vision and a polished approach to advertising. He was in tune with what people wanted to see. This ad is total crap, might as well be a commercial for soap or tuna fish.
Apple better step it up or they are going to slide
 
Ad Man is an Idiot

I love this ad! It is clearly hitting out at the misconception that a Windows machine is like a Mac, which it most definitely is not. Sure, Windows 7 is a great OS, and Windows machines typically cost a little less than Macs, but they do not come with all those cool applications and they are not Macs.

The airline one should ring a bell with anyone who thought it was a good idea to get a project done on a plane, where you really should just have your iPad and a movie (or a paperback book).

Not having any kids myself, I've not been through this, but the number of fathersI know who think about the photos and videos more than the actual birth part is amazing. If you look at many tv shows and movies about babies, they are all video taping the birth.

Wish I could get one of those blue t-shirts!

As for worst ads ever, that is not even close. The British versions of "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" were much worse, as were the PowerPC snail and supercomputer ads. The worst thing about the PPC snail an supercomputer ads were that they lied! They lied so much the British advertising agency prevented them from being shown because Apple could not prove the Mac was faster than the PC. At least these are cute and targeting a specific market segment who think PC's are now Macs!
 
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MacRumors said:
Ken Segall was a creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day and worked with Steve Jobs for years, including at NeXT and Apple. He wrote a book about his experiences called Insanely Simple that posited "Simplicity" as the driving force behind everything Steve Jobs did.
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Not a big deal but I figure I point it out anyway. I saw the ads and I can't stand them. Focus on the products not silly stuff such as this.
 
None of us can possibly know what Steve would do. Steve was a master marketer, but he was also perfectly capable of a lapse in judgment. It's unfortunate that this campaign is appearing now, nine months after Steve passed away, because the timing only fuels the argument that everything will crumble now that Steve is gone. I don't buy that.
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I'm more of a pessimist. Until I see otherwise, I DO buy that argument. :apple:
 
Not sure I would consider them insulting and they were not that bad. It does show Apple's egotistical side which is very abrasive to those who have not experienced Apple.
 
Yeah these ads definitely sucked. I leave Tim in charge for less than a year and this is what happens...

[EDIT] I should probably clarify that the second part of my comment was factitious. I had nothing to do with leaving Tim in charge of Apple and I actually have a lot of faith in him.
 
Mac PC Ads -- Same discussion

I heard many of the same negative comments with the I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads ran. How soon you all forget. These ads are not bad! they may not resonate with everyone but out of the hundreds of non-apple users I have helped this ad speaks to them well. Funny, light-hearted approach that helps clarify some of the offerings Apple offers that they may be unaware of. Without being snobbish or unapproachable.

These ads are not brilliant but they are not horrible. I will say it again I heard many of the same negative comments about the long running I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads when they first came out. :rolleyes:
 
I thought these were Best Buy or Target type ads.
not great. i found it odd the "Genius" sleeps with his Apple shirt on and the lanyard around his neck...and flies that way too.

and the customers are doing the most moronic things...then again I've seen iPhone commercials (maybe it was for ATT though) that were as bad.
 
liven2 said:
I heard many of the same negative comments with the I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads ran. How soon you all forget. These ads are not bad! they may not resonate with everyone but out of the hundreds of non-apple users I have helped this ad fits them well. Funny, light-hearted different approach the helps clarify some of the offerings Apple offers.

These ads are not brilliant but they are not horrible. I will say it again I heard many of the same negative comments about the long running I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads when they first came out. :rolleyes:
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Honestly, to compare these non-ads with the great Mac x PC series is ludicrous...absolutely ludicrous.
 
I didn't think those ads were bad, it was nice to see Apple trying to be funny again instead of doing another one of those commercials showing a hand model holding iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch/Mac while someone talks or hipster music plays.

At the very least I'd rate them higher than the "If you don't have an iPhone" commercials that bragged about the iPhone doing exactly what every smartphone can do or the painfully cheesy "If you ask..." iPad commercials.
 
I think its a Creative's job not a Genie's to teach dumb people video editing

Geniuses are the tech support ie iphone swappers

get a new ad agency apple :(
 
paradox00 said:
They are simply demonstrating simple tasks that can be done on a mac that many users may not know about. They are aimed at switchers and designed to be comical, not demeaning.
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The problem is, imho, is that the ads explain how simple tasks are but don't really show how simple the tasks are. Previously when Apple has tried to convey simplicity, they have shown it rather than just talk about it. For example, the iPhone and iPad ads that show just a white background and the device with a hand using it to do normal day-to-day stuff. Here, even during those few seconds they do show a mac screen it doesn't really show anything.

Also, I kinda wanna see someone punch that kid in the face.
 
The sky is not falling but Apple really did drop the ball with these ads. The one where the guy got a computer that looked like a Mac is okay but the other two are just horrible. They make people look stupid and make Macs look like they're really difficult to figure out how to use.

If they want to impress and attract the non-geeky crowd why not have commercials that demonstrate some regular Joe performing some basic task that might not be that impressive to most of the people that frequent this forum but probably would be impressive to the audience they're trying to target – the general consumer. For example, show some regular Joe taking some home movies with his iPhone of his dog at the park then show him wirelessly transferring them to his Mac and quickly throwing together a movie with iMovie with music and everything then uploading it to YouTube. The final scene could show relatives halfway across the country watching the finished movie on YouTube. They could do tons of commercials like that and it would impress the people they're trying to attract. I'm always wowing my family and friends with stuff like that – stuff that isn't particularly difficult for me to do but for most people, who don't have the slightest clue what their mobile devices and computers can really do, it's really impressive.

That's what I would do.

-PN
 
the ads land somewhere in average territory as far as tech ads go. but since everyone places apple as the standard in hardware and marketing, this is seen as a resounding failure. these ads are certainly nothing to be copied by others like samsung or microsoft. even those uncreative hacks know who (apple) and when (not at this moment) to steal from.
 
So much hand-wringing about some TV ads.

Are these really so much different than 90% of ads that fall into the semi-crappy bin (Apple's or otherwise)?

Supposedly these ads insult mac users somehow, but that's absurd. I think everyone will successfully realize these characters are jokes, not representative mac users.

This feels like link baiting.
 
He may say it's "insane to ponder what Steve Jobs" would have done, but it's quite obvious he would not have created these commercials - that's for sure.
Horrible.
 
I was very surprised that Apple would run an ad like this. This is to the depths of Microsoft when comparing ads. I think most of us can agree Steve would never let ads that are uncool and cheesy like these run on the air. The direction the company is taking scares me a bit.
 
SamGabbay said:
My brother in law and I were watching the olympics when this commercial came on. He said "Apple is starting to do commercials like this?" and me being an Apple fan boy and ex-employee stated "No. Impossible, probably a best buy ad or Target". & then the unthinkable happened.

:apple:Mac came up. His next words were...
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That was basically my reaction too. I was expecting it to be a spoof or another Samsung ad that makes fun of Apple fanboys waiting in line.

As ads I don't think they are bad, but they seem very run of the mill like something you'd see from Best Buy or Dell. For Apple I think they are a step down from what they usually do. There's an App for That, I'm a Mac, Geoff GoldBlum, Rip.Mix.Burn, iPod Silhouettes... Apple has had a lot of good, and varied, TV ads in the past decade or so but these new ones seem to be cut from a lesser cloth than the rest.
 
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