Comments on: Ken Segall: Apple’s new Mac ads are causing a widespread gagging response

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:23:00 +0000

Those Olympic ads are dangerous hurting Apple image, there’s only one of them acceptable as an Apple ad.
Apple chiefs: Be very careful not to become common.. !

By: fredman

fredman — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:57:30 +0000

something hip and cool??

try and say that to creatives, and they will ask you what is for you “hip and cool”. that’s dumb

By: Truth

Truth — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:09:23 +0000

iCal it,

I AGREE 100% with your opinion on these TERRIBLE ads..

By: Truth

Truth — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:08:09 +0000

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..

By: Vega 51

Vega 51 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:03:24 +0000

I believe in maintaining character in ads. Taut the features and advancements with beautiful scenery and orchestra background music like in Star Wars. Leave the bashing to the presidential candidates.

By: FTB

FTB — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:17:17 +0000

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….

By: Coal Cracker

Coal Cracker — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:34:44 +0000

Coders are not designers.

By: davylow

davylow — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:30:59 +0000

The message is, “You can’t do anything on a Mac without a Mac Genius talking you through it.” ???

By: radTech5000

radTech5000 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:54:10 +0000

I love these new commercials, I just hope it opens up some eyes. Way to go Apple you rock as always!

By: clyde2801

clyde2801 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:30:09 +0000

The ads are completely unbelievable. They’re making him out to be an Apple employee, but he doesn’t have a single tattoo or piercing; not even facial hair!

I’m not buying it at all.

By: ploogman

ploogman — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:04:50 +0000

these ads are silly and derivative of the Dell guy and Apple’s previous Mac vs. PC ads – no real imagination at work here

they should play to their strengths = stop talking down to consumers – Apple if you are listening, don’t talk down to your customers or prospective customers -

but I don’t think they hurt Apple – they are just super silly

the one with the baby is especially bad in my opinion

By: JerseyTrader

JerseyTrader — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:01:15 +0000

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.

By: muddygun

muddygun — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:43:46 +0000

Thank you picking that up. A genius never helps with iMovie

By: Mike Hill

Mike Hill — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:26:24 +0000

Completely agree. These ads are worthy of windoze. Definitely not Mac material!

By: macman1138

macman1138 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:31:29 +0000

Mac Geniuses don’t do the job of the Creatives.

By: pete Peterson

pete Peterson — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:16:41 +0000

I’m going to say this one more time so everybody pay attention and then we can move on. “Apple is a mobile device company.” – Steve Jobs.

Apple doesn’t care about its core, faithful real computer customers. If we don’t convert to the minimalist world of iOS, then we have but one choice – to see if MSoft has figured out anything since we last checked. I doubt it. but it’s all that is left for us.

Apple wants billions from the mass market of phones, pads, and pods. That’s it. That’s what these ads say and that’s what Apple intended them to say.

By: mrreeee

mrreeee — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:14:03 +0000

Apple products have NEVER been edgy.

Why not?

They actually WORK!

By: Lefty

Lefty — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 03:51:52 +0000

That’s because Apple products are no longer “edgy.”

By: His Shadow

His Shadow — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:54:15 +0000

“OBNOXIOUS”

Bullshit.

Obnoxious, however, perfectly describes the entitled and pretentious air of nearly everyone bitching about these commercials. It’s pathetic.

By: IPerk

IPerk — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:31:59 +0000

I watched them all.
I just threw up, in my mouth, a little.

By: OnMark

OnMark — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:11:52 +0000

No one has mentioned “adorable”….. and I find them all to be so…. not understanding the backlash… folks respond to such.

By: Wrong Again

Wrong Again — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 01:33:43 +0000

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

By: Spark

Spark — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 01:20:55 +0000

Really? Based on his Dell Dude character I thought it was simply accepted that he was high.

By: Billy Mitchell

Billy Mitchell — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 01:09:11 +0000

The ads are straight up weaksauce. But i agree they are better than the 20lbs of dead skin mattresses ads.

By: Really

Really — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:51:42 +0000

Uh no Mac commercials would make sense then.

By: @aryugaetu

@aryugaetu — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:03:10 +0000

Nope, that would be massively insulting and condescending towards the audience by implying that they are below the computer literacy levels of a 9 and 2 year old, respectively.

What was that you were saying about Advertising 101? =D

By: @aryugaetu

@aryugaetu — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 23:53:39 +0000

*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.

By: Bruce K

Bruce K — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 23:20:23 +0000

Really? I think they are good. Although I am not an official expert I have those same conversations with family and friends. Not as clever as other ads but not bad either.

By: Dialtone

Dialtone — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 23:17:33 +0000

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?

By: spyintheskyuk

spyintheskyuk — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 23:08:22 +0000

It’s like a Micosoft ad, can’t think of a worse insult

By: HTML5 Gordon

HTML5 Gordon — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 23:05:26 +0000

Yeah, those new LINUX commercials rock.

By: HTML5 Gordon

HTML5 Gordon — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:55:08 +0000

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.

By: dave

dave — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:49:25 +0000

I was in advertising.

In the end of the day the success of a sales ad for a company is how much product it sells.

A successful ad is not like Seagull saying “award wining” or not causing a “gagging response” from pundits or handful of tech geeks.

a LOT of award winning ads (ads which arty farty judges give awards too) were failures as sales tools (go thumb through ad design award journals from years back and see the ads for no longer existing – i.e bankrupt – companies).

some ads like the classic “muscle building ‘the dude Kick sand in my Face’ “ads in the back of comic books sold bonks of product $$$ but never won awards and probably caused ‘widespread gagging response’.

I’m not offering here my opinion of whether the new ads are good or bad but I’m saying at the end of the day before we judge let’s wait for the SALES numbers.

Seagall says : “I present Exhibit A: the now-legendary Mac vs. PC campaign, which delivered 66 fantastic ads over a period of four years.”

my take : although Mac has got better sales growth rates than PCs for years, worldwide Mac market share (in spite of Vista, windows malware and general suckiness of Windows, in spite of iPod, iPhone etc HALO effect) is still around 5%.

So in SALES was those award winning ads so great? in my opinion GREAT ADS (ads that actually SELL ) would have given Macs to rise to 20-30% market share now (not sitting at 5%).

(incidentally a LOT of PC people — i.e new customers — HATED those Mac PC guy ads and thought apple was arrogant.)

By: Robo

Robo — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:44:52 +0000

I liked them. Funny and poked fun at pos windows!

By: ken1w

ken1w — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:42:45 +0000

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…

By: mclark

mclark — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:31:34 +0000

Much ado about nothing.

By: Rev

Rev — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:30:18 +0000

He was fired because he was busted for marijuana possession

By: Zeke

Zeke — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:17:00 +0000

Has Apple done anything post-Steve of which you’ve approved? Just askin’.

By: Spark

Spark — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:12:30 +0000

Not as bad as the mattress ads describing the 20 lbs of dead dust mites I’m sleeping on.

By: Spark

Spark — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:08:57 +0000

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.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:05:44 +0000

For someone whose comments are usually level-headed, TH, I’m surprised at this one. Unless you’re being sarcastic? The notion that unspectacular TV ads would impact your use of the products is pretty thin.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:03:16 +0000

I’ll agree you with. My only problems with the new ads were both the implication that Genius Bar employees are available wherever/whenever and that it takes a Genius to get people to be successful on their Macs. Now if Tim Cook decides that Geniuses should be out-and-about rather than behind the counter of the store, then I’ll retract my first objection.

For the record I found them funny and refreshing departure from the now oft-copied style of old (white background, jingle, etc.) The baby one didn’t really do anything for me. But I wasn’t gagging at it either.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:58:22 +0000

Except when Steve pronounced the world to have moved into the Post PC era, those old commercials no longer make sense.

By: Amen Brother

Amen Brother — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:57:32 +0000

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?

By: hannahjs

hannahjs — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:51:42 +0000

Perhaps just a shade too subtle for some of the harrumphers around here.

By: 84 Mac Guy

84 Mac Guy — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:41:38 +0000

While everyone seems to absolutely hate or love these ads, my first thought in seeing them was:

Hey, Apple employees are now allowed to wear their Apple t-shirts outside of Apple Stores.

But I’m an engineer so my thought-processing is different.

By: omalansky

omalansky — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:39:10 +0000

“Gagging response” seems too harsh considering what unadulterated crap most commercials are; but it’s still a double fail for Apple and their advertising agency.

By: HD Boy

HD Boy — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:31:08 +0000

They sort look and feel like Dell commercials, especially the dweeby Genius.

By: Thelonious Mac

Thelonious Mac — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:26:32 +0000

What?

By: Mike Mancuso

Mike Mancuso — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:26:13 +0000

I am disappointed – these aids might have a new target audience but they lost their soul in the process… Where is the fun, witty, unique approach to messaging? This reminds me of Mojave, step it up apple!