“Repeat after me: ‘The sky is not falling. The sky is not falling,'” Ken Segall blogs for Ken Segall’s Observatory. “I know it’s hard to say after viewing the new batch of Mac ads that debuted on the Olympics. I’m still in a bit of shock myself.”
“Sure, Apple has had a low point or two in its advertising past — but its low points are usually higher than most advertisers’ high points,” Segall writes. “This is different. These ads are causing a widespread gagging response, and deservedly so. I honestly can’t remember a single Apple campaign that’s been received so poorly.”
Segall writes, “This thing is so upsetting, it has me talking to myself: ‘Ken, you’re missing the obvious. Clearly these ads are targeted at first-timers, not for you.’ That’s a seemingly logical defense. It’s also a horrible one. How many great campaigns have you seen that appeal to one target group, but turn off everyone else? There’s no excuse for a campaign like that. Apple’s momentum is fueled by the enthusiasm of its core customers. The last thing it wants is to win new customers at the cost of looking ridiculous to its enthusiastic supporters.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple debuts three new Mac ads: ‘Basically,’ ‘Labor Day,’ and ‘Mayday’ (with video) – July 29, 2012
I feel like he’s the Dell Dude’s kin.
That’s what I thought. Two things.
1. Dell was cooking pretty good with the Dell guy. I still don’t know why they dumped him.
2. I’m not sure that if Steve were still alive that people would be praising the ads. There is such an watch for “Apple’s First Fail That Will Signal That Without Jobs The Company Is Doomed” that I’m a little suspect of negative punditry right now.
He was fired because he was busted for marijuana possession
Really? Based on his Dell Dude character I thought it was simply accepted that he was high.
Folks are writing about an Apple ad campaign and posting the videos this causing more widespread views of said Apple ad campaign.
Check and mate 🙂
Mac Geniuses don’t do the job of the Creatives.
Thank you picking that up. A genius never helps with iMovie
Coders are not designers.
I don’t know that I would take it to the point of “gagging response,” but I do know that I watched the first, then a part of the second, and thought they were horrible. Most Apple ads in the past were attention grabbing. This had no appeal to me. It’s just bland like any other ad from a generic, vanilla flavor tech company. Lacks the historic Apple edginess.
That’s because Apple products are no longer “edgy.”
Apple products have NEVER been edgy.
Why not?
They actually WORK!
You know what these are not bad at all. I think the author of this story is reaching here. They are fun and make comparisons to the Apple differce.
Viva la difference
I thought they were great. “Basically” addresses the Android / Windows Mac like products and devices. I also feel bad for those that get suckered into the BS that it is almost the same thing.
The “Labor Day” one is just real funny. In the end, focus on the event and Apple’s products and devices will just work and you can count on them.
It has been a long time now. I miss the “I am a Mac and I am a PC” ads. How about an “I am iOS and I am Android”. Time to draw new Google Android blood. Or is it oil? Isn’t Android a knockoff of the real thing? Very fitting name. It’s a poor copy of the real deal.
Yeah I thought the “Basically” one isn’t bad.
Laber day one is ok.
the 3rd what Muddygun said above “Thank you picking that up. A genius never helps with iMovie” is true. But the ad isn’t bad imo.
I agree, Apple Bring on the “Hi i’m iOS and I’m android” ads!
iOS: the iPhone does X
Android: So does android!
iOS: Didn’t the Judge rule that you violated copyright laws and copied iOS?
Android: moving on….
I don’t think Ken is reaching at all. Considering he use to work with Steve on Apple advertising, and is considered an advertising guru. He is also credited with naming the iMac – iMac. This isn’t some dufus with a blog.
I thought they were terrible the moment I saw them, My opinion is confirmed by someone who knows more than me about advertising.
I can just hear Steve destroying these ‘bozo’ ads in my head, this crap wouldn’t fly on his watch. It isn’t GREAT, therefore isn’t worth doing. These ads suck. They are annoying, there is nothing genuine about them. LAME..
I agree!
I think they get the point across to the average Windows sufferer.
What more do you need?
Is he saying Mr Cook jumped one of the sharks near the Farallon Islands?
I actually really like the new ads! Stop picking on Apple!
Not their best – if they had a hot girl instead (i know shallow) then we all would love them – the guys just a bit… well not likable!
Ah, I love the Apple elitists (I’ll admit, I’m still a recovering one, although it has been a while since I have gotten over it).
Yes, the ads are aimed at first timers – that is exactly what Apple needs – more Mac users (and that is good for us long time diehard users as well).
It’s funny, but I often find the same people that complain about Apple making Mac ads that are targeted at a larger, general audience are also the same people that complain that Apple is abandoning the Mac…
The days of keeping the Mac (and Apple in general) all to ourselves with a smug satisfaction that we know something everyone else doesn’t is over.
And that’s a very good thing.
In going with the targeting analogy…
You’re missing the target of the objection that people have to the ads.
The ads are obnoxious, no matter who they are targeted at.
OBNOXIOUS.
If they reach their intended target, the intended target is likely offended, if he can get past how obnoxious the ads are to think about what they’re trying to say.
If they reach people they aren’t intended for, they do nothing except (in keeping with the analogy) COLLATERAL DAMAGE.
This is just another in a string of pearls showing the lack of Steve is hurting the new Apple.
I agree; this is the most egregious act that Apple has ever performed and I am absolutely sick to my stomach. I am truly ashamed to admit that I have ever owned one of their products, and now will have to switch to Windows. How could they have done this shameful and embarrassing act against us, the very essence of all that is Apple and the only reason they have to exist? Damn that incompetent excuse for a leader Tim Cook.
There now, how was that little expansion on your pathetic diatribe you sniveling asshat?
Has Apple done anything post-Steve of which you’ve approved? Just askin’.
What do you find so obnoxious about these ads? I’ve actually heard people talking about them in the office (in a POSITIVE way). They seemed to think they were funny. Apparently the unwashed masses are enjoying them.
“OBNOXIOUS”
Bullshit.
Obnoxious, however, perfectly describes the entitled and pretentious air of nearly everyone bitching about these commercials. It’s pathetic.
iCal it,
I AGREE 100% with your opinion on these TERRIBLE ads..
They look great to me.
Not only extolling the virtues of the software one gets on a mac but also that there is always somebody friendly to talk to regarding problems.
These ads are about giving confidence to regular folks, grannies uncles and what not that switching is not a scary thing.
I think they are pretty good. It cracks me up that the “genius” guy is always wearing his “uniform” (complete with ID tag), even when he’s sleeping. Like he’s a superhero… 🙂
It’s like being punched in the face with a baseball bat. Yes, we know Apple makes ‘easy to use’ products and that Apple Geniuses are there to help hapless customers but the ads take this to extremes and overemphasizes the geek factor. There’s barely any humor in it.
I like the old Apple ads that delivered their message with subtlety and more importantly had taste written all over them. This batch lacks taste and isn’t even remotely funny.
But… the “enthusiastic core supporters” are going to buy Apple products regardless of the advertising.
Seriously, this line of reasoning makes no sense. Why should Apple’s marketing department give two sh*ts about the opinion of people like me who are completely devoted to the Mac platform? Is anyone out there seriously considering switching to Windows or Linux because of these ads?
For the record: I don’t like the ads. They remind me too much of the “Dell Dude” ads. But I also don’t care. I’m buying a Mac mini anyway. If these ads don’t achieve their intended purpose, presumably Apple will move on to something else.
——RM
“Why should Apple’s marketing department give two sh*ts about the opinion of people like me who are completely devoted to the Mac platform? Is anyone out there seriously considering switching to Windows or Linux because of these ads?”
^ EXACTLY.
I am happy that Apple’s marketing department knows it should not direct ads at people who already use Macs.
I am deaf to whining dweebs.
The new ads are great. My mom, who knows nothing about computers, called and asked if I saw the super funny new Apple commercial. She has never done that in her life and that is the audience these commercials are targeting.
Some of you are being too kind. There are terrible ads no matter how you slice it. Bad. Bad bad. Terrible. Microsoftworthy bad. Bad.
The ads aren’t as bad as your spelling:
It’s “they’re” or “they are” not “there are”
Bullshit. Anyone who thinks these ads have plumbed some new depth of bad clearly doesn’t watch TV, and/or has their g
Head so far up their ass they can brush their teeth and wash their hair at the same time.
Not as bad as the mattress ads describing the 20 lbs of dead dust mites I’m sleeping on.
Get rid of this garbage and bring back the Mac vs. PC ads. With the Windows 8 disaster looming, now’s the perfect time to go back on offense and hit ’em hard.
Except when Steve pronounced the world to have moved into the Post PC era, those old commercials no longer make sense.
Uh no Mac commercials would make sense then.
Ads are fine!!!
But I would like the PC guy and the Mac guy back again.
They’re the worst in Apple’s history. Who made them- Penney’s?….
Although terrorized by the new Safari’s countless issues of a missing RSS (my blind friend lost all of his news gathering abilities until he finds another easy way), also slow page updates, vanishing progress bar, and often being forced to reload a page several times, especially if it’s not cached, just to make it show up, I thought the worst was over.
Wrong!
What brought true terror to my heart was when I caught one of the Mac ads last night. An Apple “Genius” that looks more like a 12 year old in a commercial as lame as any Microsoft ad. This is not the quality or intelligence of Apple from the past. This was just a regurgitated version of “Obe-Wan, you’re my only hope!”, but Obe-wan is a kid with extremely bad acting. (Sorry, kid, you’re no Justin Long.) It felt very desperate as if saying…
“We have kids at the core of our customer service department (this is our idea of a ‘genius’)”
“We have cool apps, too, but you will need one of our ‘Geniuses’ to help understand it.”
These commercials HAD to pass through dozens of hands for approval and not ONE person stood up and said, “This seriously suxs!” After the long silence and void of any new iMacs or Mac Pros, and now this terrible commercial from a “D” student’s “Advertising 101” class project, the only thing that came to my mind was the ad being proof-positive reinforcement of Apple circling the drain.
I’ve been around way before Brodie helped Johann, and I have never seen Apple make so many sequential blundering moves before. Only due to being forced into a Hobson’s Choice, I’ll stay with a Mac computer, but I don’t see a reason to stay with Safari anymore, and it is my first step in over a decade to slowly move away from Apple.
And I thought only Microsoft had the dexterity to push their customers to the competition with such elegant swift efficiency.
“I’ve been around way before Brodie helped Johann, and I have never seen Apple make so many sequential blundering moves before”
Spare us your drama queen histrionics and STFU.
*laughs*
Every single Apple advertising campaign I can remember has been mercilessly lambasted by trolls, pundits, and comedians both amateur and professional.
The new ads stink? They’re driving people away? They’re a sign that Apple is dying? They’re the worst crap ever?
Sorry, but I’ve heard that so many times before that I’ve lost count. The truth is these disastrous new ads will bring more users to Apple, just like all of those other disastrous new Apple ads before them.
Look and listen closely and you will see Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly** doing Apple commercials. Look at the hand gestures in Basically and the voice trail off. Classic Michael J. Fox.
**Marty McFly: Character from “Back to the Future Movies” Universal Picture all Rights Reserved.
I was just going to mention that. Kudos
Perhaps just a shade too subtle for some of the harrumphers around here.
Exactly! There’s that certain effusive charm, just over-the-top enough to be highly amusing, the high-tech boy scout on a mission to save the future.
And wasn’t it just a few years ago that folks were ranting here that Apple should stop being so artsy with its ads and just tell the folks why Macs are better? Well?
The one named “Basically” is fine, more like it would be good. The other two…. not a fan, too silly.
I can see the good points about the ads, but when our cultural heroes have become early 20 somethings, what does that say about us.
Have been a teacher, now iPhone and web developer, but within the last 5 years did a semester at college. Wow. Sophomores with barely an 7-8 grade reading and writing level, math even less. College: the worlds most expensive dating and party service.
Is that the market we want to aim for? Look at the job stats, think they are going to be able to make the credit card payments, yeah right. Did you know that 25-35% of college courses are now remedial? Do I want to hire them in a company? No way. Staying as a one person company using my Doctorate of Experience and Hard Knocks which totally blows away two BA degrees, except in terms of certificates on the wall, not even close.
But the idea of showing the main advantages of the Mac is a good one, I just question the idea of marketing to an age group that is at the dumbest part of their life. Let the flames begin.
What?
One word for these ads:
Pedestrian.
Not good Phil Schiller. Open up your source of opinions before committing to lameness.
I think the new ads are fun. Hey, they are reaching out not to us Mac-heads already caught up in the cult (happily), but to those folks likely to be taken in by the “basically looks like a Mac” ultrabooks. Face it, there are millions and millions of folks now loving their iPhones and iPads but who have never experienced a Mac itself. These ads are speaking to them, not us. If it brings some of those folks over, the more the merrier.
Know what’s all the fuss about. I think they’re great. They’re meant for the first timers at Apple. Come on guys, can’t you see it? All the ads before they showed what a product could do, a particular feature. With the “reported” new iphone and ipad, with the Mountain Lion, the icloud you name it. Apple is targeting new people, And who are they? The people not going to Winfroze 8 (lolol). As for me it is a great and smart moove from Apple. As for the blogger, keep your pants on man and dont worry.
I like the ads, but they don’t show people actually using the product. Any company could make this ad; it doesn’t explain why the Mac is better.