Apple apparently hasn’t learned much from the criticism it took earlier this year for an ad showing creative works unceremoniously crushed in an industrial press (see “Apple Apologizes for Tone-Deaf “Crush!” iPad Pro Ad,” 10 May 2024). A pair of new ads for Apple Intelligence portray the Writing Tools and Memories movies as tools for those unwilling to put in any effort.
In the first ad, Apple Intelligence enables a goof-off who wastes time and annoys his colleagues to surprise his boss with an unexpectedly well-written email. It’s not clear that the boss is impressed; he just can’t believe the guy would have written a professional message.
Is the message that Apple Intelligence is aimed at the perpetually lazy? Where’s the positive ad with a dyslexic child using Writing Tools to proofread a school essay or a businessperson using it to understand a complex report dumped on them minutes before a meeting?
The second ad channels a similar suggestion—that Apple Intelligence is a crutch for the thoughtless. In it, a woman realizes that she has forgotten her husband’s birthday only after their kids give him thoughtful, homemade gifts, so she quickly uses Apple Intelligence to create a Memories movie of the children doing woodworking with their father. Apple Intelligence to the rescue! Apparently, making a Memories movie is easier than creating a repeating annual calendar event.
Why would Apple want to promote the idea that Apple Intelligence can bail you out from failing to pay attention to the most important people in your life? It’s trivially easy to imagine positive scenarios enhanced by a Memories movie, such as a teen sharing photos with an ailing grandparent in the hospital or high school friends reconnecting over shared sports photos. They might be a touch cloying, but Memories movies trend in that direction anyway.
As it stands now, and likely as it will be in its next release, Apple Intelligence won’t change the world or even your everyday Mac experience. But it can make a difference for some, and Apple would be better served by showing it helping those who are already trying to do good work and be good people.
Imagine you work at Apple’s ad agency. What ads would you like to see showcasing Apple Intelligence features?
I transcribe very old deeds by reading them aloud into BBEdit (or any text gathering app) and am constantly having to find and replace misspellings of words like “heirs” and “thence” which comes out as “fence” or “since.” It would be great for an ad to show someone doing this kind of task, and when the app mistypes one of these words, the ad shows the speaker pause, highlight the word, correct it and then have the AI remember the correction the next time it comes up.
I’ll go with Apple Intelligence being used by Apple designers and developers [1] to help them Think Different™ and to ship hardware and software that Just Works™.
;-)
Seriously, now, I don’t know if the current ad campaign is a symptom of tone deafness at Apple or simply a marketing decision to target user segments that respond to consumer-packaged-goods style ads. The “bumbling parent” and “surprised authority figure” themes are extremely common in ads for products such as paper towels, laundry detergent, and processed foods.
I’d also say the current wave of ads does not have the same focus or themes as the earlier ads that attacked a key Apple customer segment. I agree it was extraordinarily arrogant of Apple to seemingly approve of the destruction of graphic creatives’ jobs.
Ad Proposal: open on an Apple Product Designer staring at a design for a mouse on a screen. The Designer draws a charging port on the bottom of the mouse. They then click an “Apple Intelligence Magic Wand” button and we see Apple Intelligence move the port to the top edge of the mouse. ↩︎
I was reading an interesting astronomy article at BBC. At the foot of the page was a short list of “related” articles. It was evident that they were created by (questionable) AI e.g. “Manchester mayor opens partnership hub”! I thought some lazy editor has not checked the actual relevance of the links.
Then I switched to Tidbits and read Adam’s article that indicates Apple is targeting the lazy in its AI ads.
While the moving and serious kinds of ideas suggested here would be great, I have zero problem with the current funny ads for Apple Intelligence. I doubt someone is taking them seriously like, “I’m a lazy slob, too! I can use Apple Intelligence to make up for when I forget a birthday or prepare for work!”
I agree. Those 2 ads Adam mentioned are downright awful. I wistfully long for the days past where I was (at one time) trying to collect all ads Apple. I actually had DVDs full.of them.
And the music they are using for these AI ads is awful as well.
Happy to see this. Those new Apple Intelligence ads turned me off right away. All 5 of them. That’s not how we should be using or advertising AI/ML.
The key use case Apple itself boasts about essentially comes down to deception intended for lazy people and egoistical posers who have zero work ethic and care little about their family members and friends. Who wants that kind of behavior enforced?
What’s missing here is emphasis on how these tools can be used to support good behavior and suppress bad impulses.
The earlier ads were created by ad agencies like Chiat/Day. I believe then Apple brought ad creation inside the company. That’s a bad move; companies like Apple develop a distorted view of the world. If you want to market to the real world, you should employ people who live in it for that purpose.
I think it’s time for a fresh tier of management in there, a lot of ‘emeritus’ roles of late. Folks who don’t have to monitor anymore staying on and new blood not being empowered to kick into new directions for marketing.
The ads are as lazy, unmindful and unpleasant as the characters they ‘empower’.
I think that like it or not, the situations portrayed in the adverts are realistic and common uses of generative AI. Given that Apple is playing catch-up in the generative AI space and that Apple is primarily a lifestyle, not tech hobbyist or B2B, brand now, the ad campaign makes strategic sense.
Having said that, I agree with @LarryR that Apple marketing under Cook—an operations guy—is much less exciting and innovative than in the past. Then again, Apple is a much different company from just about every perspective than it was in the 1980s-2000s. Anybody looking for the old excitement and wonder will probably find it more interesting to follow startups, in my opinion.
For very many decades after 1984, Apple continues to work with what became known as TBWA/Chiat Day’s Media Arts Lab. It’s a freestanding ad agency within an ad agency, and Apple is, and has been, its only client:
Been thinking, this project might need a bit of zhuhzing. But you’re the big enchilada.
Holler back,
Warren
(I can’t get the gray flexed arms.)
And the after message:
Hey J,
Upon further consideration, I believe this project may require some refinement. However, you are the most capable individual to undertake this task.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Best regards,
Warren
Is this revised e-mail an example of smart writing? I don’t think so. The language here is stilted in the extreme: upon further consideration, may require, the introductory however, individual, undertake. And it’s all addressed to a boss, suggesting that the boss do the work. The smarter response to a boss might be to say “On it” — or to explain that you’re swamped and wonder whether someone else (who’s not the boss) might take on the task.
But wait: Warren’s e-mail bears the (dumb) subject line “Project Stuff” (unchanged in the revision). There’s no “Re:” — it doesn’t appear that Warren is replying to a request that he take on a new task, though he might be replying to a spoken request to do so. But look again at the original e-mail: Warren was suggesting that there might be a need for further work on a project, but that the decision rests with the boss. Warren was having second thoughts. Apple Intelligence appears to have misunderstood his words.
What might real human intelligence look like here? Maybe something like this:
Hi J,
I think that this project still needs improvement, and I’d be happy to meet and talk about it with you. But I know that’s your decision to make. Let me know what you think,
Warren
The scary question: is this revised e-mail an example of what Apple thinks good writing looks like, or is it an example of what someone at Apple thinks its customers think good writing looks like? I’m not sure which answer is scarier.
Retired English prof here — I had to do a close reading. :)
I’d say that given literacy levels in the US are decreasing (for many reasons, including the types of reading and writing students do now) both answers are correct. Plus the “fixed” text actually is typical of generative AI output.
Plus the “fixed” text actually is typical of generative AI output.
Yes, for sure. I once asked ChatGPT to write an e-mail to a professor about missing a class, just to see what would happen. It began “I hope this email finds you well” and went on for five paragraphs.
Sort of related: I’ve been hearing from colleagues in the AI space that there are real concerns about the ability of younger people to engage with AI…because they lack the skills needed to organize their thoughts and to write effective prompts.
It turns out that the people most adept with AI may not be hip, “raised on tech” twenty-somethings, but rather seasoned professionals and, dare I say it, retired English profs.
Ha! A related ancedote: I attended a webinar about real-world applications of generative AI a few months ago where a professor discussed how he uses gAI to generate reference letters for students. He has a lot of content posted online so he tells a student who wants a reference to send him bullet points. He then prompts a gAI to “write a recommendation that mentions “x”, “y”, and “z” in the voice of Professor XXX.”
Wow, the Catch Up Quick ad is equally as bad. At least the Change Your Tone ad, if exaggerated for effect, shows the guy using Apple Intelligence to restrain his baser impulses and be a better person.
