Whether or not you like Apple products, it’s hard to dispute the power of the company’s iconic ad campaigns. From the famous “1984” ad for Macintosh, 1997’s “Think Different,” the 2006 John Hodgman / Justin Long “Get a Mac” series through to today’s iPhone ads, the work of TBWA/Chiat/Day has been consistently simple and clever, positioning Apple products as perfectly crafted moments of zen-like calm that make your life easier.
Apple’s latest series of three commercials, broadcast during the 2012 London Olympics, are nothing like that.
Agreed. These ads are inexcusable for a single reason—it’s against brand.
The Apple brand stands for beauty, simplicity and ease of use for average people. But now they’re saying, Apples are so confusing that you need an on-call Genius.
Steve Jobs would never have approved these ads for this simple reason.
They all star a single actor who portrays an Apple Genius Bar employee, and stupidity appears to be the other unifying theme. It’s the young genius’ job to explain to two seemingly inept Mac users how to use their computers, and to let a would-be Mac buyer know that he’s been deceived.
They feel intellectually cheap. We have no idea how these got greenlit, much less how the company decided they were worth paying for a fraction of the $1 billion NBC Universal made in Olympics-class airtime this year. Perhaps you’ll feel differently, though. You can watch them below and decide for yourself.
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