I agree with the consensus here about these ads - I’ve been complaining about them since the Bella Ramsey ads started in September.
That said: the demographic at tidbits forums is generally very technically proficient and, let’s face it, most of us are older than average. It’s very possible that these ads play very well with a younger and less technical demographic. As I recall Apple is very careful about their public image and I imagine tests their ads with focus groups pretty regularly. So perhaps Apple is getting the message across that they want to the people they want to see it.
The real question IMHO is: what other message are they getting across?
That it’s OK to be a self-absorbed poser? Or that it’s OK to be a slacker and try to cheat your way through life? Is that really what we strive to see such tools used for?
As @ace indicated, it seems their tone deafness that was put on such public display with the iPad crush ad, has not yet been satisfactorily addressed.
I stumbled on the r/CommercialsIHate subreddit, and while everyone there hates everything by definition, the Apple Intelligence ads are getting a lot of the same comments as we’re making. I’m guessing Reddit trends younger.
In each, the protagonist catches our eye and holds the look, a shared understanding implied, an ‘I got this’ from an isolated individual in the midst of a collective activity, which somehow deserves their contempt. I can’t stand these ads. The pudding one is the least offensive, but the family one really bothers me.
Yes! That’s what it is. Apple Intelligence is letting these people put one over on the rubes who are hard at work, who remembered their spouse’s birthday, who prepared for the meeting.
Except THAT sends the message that no oldsters need apply to own Apple products. As someone who has been an Apple loyalist since 1984 AND is a former Apple employee, I’m insulted.
It’s likely only a problem if these ads will prevent you (or, better, a significant number of people in this demographic) from ever buying an iPhone again. I don’t like almost all of these ads, though the one where the guy drafts an incendiary email when his food is stolen at work and uses AI to make it friendlier I think is just fine, and probably how I might use this going forward. But these ads will have absolutely zero effect on whether I buy an iPhone going forward.
Apple needs to show serious people doing serious work with AI, and I’ll admit that is likely a difficult task in a 30-60 second spot. Given that I have thousands of files related to my county’s history and genealogy, it would be great if I could tell AI to locate and list chronologically all of them that contain a particular name or place, but how easy would it be for Apple to create an ad showing something like that which would be eye-catching as well?
I didn’t care for the food-is-stolen ad. But as a senior citizen who has learned (the hard way) to reflect-rewrite-then send, I’m not part of the target market.
The main problem isn’t whether it dissuades people already inclined to buy Apple products from doing so. Apple isn’t targeting these ads at them. The problem comes from those who are on the fence seeing these ads and being turned off from the Apple products for <insert reason here>.
There’s already a huge contingent of Android and Windows fanatics who are happy to tell anyone who will listen that Apple’s products “aren’t for serious users”, and these ads don’t help that image at all.
She didn’t forget her spouse’s birthday. The guy says, “I thought we agreed ‘no gifts’” when the daughters walked in with them, so the woman felt put on the spot.
I couldn’t agree more with you, Adam. LLMs work best when you DO put in effort. Let me give an example:
My own most recent use of ChatGPT was to “write a T-shirt.” We’re giving T-shirts to everyone who attends our Tree-Trimming Party this year, and I needed inspiration for what the shirt’s message should be. Ideally, we wanted something in the spirit of Christmas that people of any religion (or none) could wear all year round. I’m a professional writer and was coming up blank, so I turned to ChatGPT just to get me started. After five tries, I got a winner:
Choose Joy,
Share Smiles,
Spread Love
All I had to do was break the lines, capitalize each word, then design the typography. We chose a rainbow-colored font, and the finished product looks great. It’s appropriate for everyone at anytime of year. Our us of an LLM wasn’t exactly easy , but it did enable us to think outside the box.
That’s not how most people seem to be interpreting her facial expressions, but under that interpretation, it’s equally as troubling that she feels sufficiently threatened by her daughters’ efforts that she has to compete with them. In that case, the reasonable adult thing would be to walk over to the couch and praise the daughters for being so thoughtful.
Here’s the latest Apple ad, but this time for Apple Pay. Apple is trying to be funny, but in doing so appears to be selling us on a obsessive and sedentary lifestyle while promoting impulse purchasing.
Shame, really. Apple Pay is a great service. It would deserve being advertised in its ability to make our lives better and showcasing how it supports good and healthy behavior, not this garbage.
They were better (and funnier) at this a year ago when they did these
Adam, what Apple needs is a return to the brilliance of Chiat\Day. Their current ad agency seems completely out of touch when it comes to communicating the benefits of AI. The ads they’ve produced are some of the most patronizing I’ve ever seen. If my generation were portrayed as a bunch of incompetent, drunken monkeys, I’d be offended. If I were still in management, I wouldn’t hesitate to fire anyone who relied on AI as a mere crutch instead of using it to enhance their capabilities.
