Critics Blast Apple's Cheesy New Ad Campaign

theodp writes "BetaBeat reports that people are pretty much falling over themselves to mock Apple's cheesy new Genius ad campaign, using zingers like 'intellectually cheap,' 'cringe-inducing,' 'borderline smarmy,' and — perhaps the unkindest cut of all — Microsoft-worthy — to describe them. Apple's trilogy-of-terror ad lineup includes Mayday ('An Apple Genius shows a fellow passenger how easy it is to make great home movies with iMovie. All before the tray tables are returned to their upright position.'), Labor Day ('An Apple Genius shows a soon-to-be father all the amazing things he can make with iPhoto.'), and Basically ('An Apple Genius points out there are a lot of things that separate a Mac from an ordinary computer, like great apps that come built in.'). The Atlantic's Jordan Weissmann says Steve Jobs would be appalled by the new ads, which certainly don't fare well in a head-to-head comparison with Think Different."

Comments

Successful ad campaign is successful

[drinkydoh]

They even got their ad campaign freely detailed on Slashdot and by all those different critics. Can't be more successful than that.

Re:Successful ad campaign is successful

[gl4ss]

it's detailed well elsewhere too.
if views were a metric, then it's successful. but if apple had filmed a turd for 20 seconds and published that as an official advert it would have the highest viewcount on youtube - however I really doubt that would mean it's a successful advert for them in building of their brand image.

Basically they're Apple adverts, basically.

Re:People are talking

[bluefoxlucid]

GEICO and Progressive ad campaigns generate giggles, but they're being dumped because they actually don't generate any increase in revenue.

Personally I can't see how anyone thought it was a good move to label Apple technicians "Geniuses". If they were geniuses, they would be doing something useful.

Re:People are talking

[chispito]

It is generating buzz. Bad or good, that is the goal of an ad campaign.

You don't want to generate buzz by destroying your hard-earned brand identity. Let's compare:

1) Old campaign "You can intuitively and effortlessly do cool things with our products."
2) New campaign "You will find yourself in tech emergencies while using our products, from which only a trained professional can save you (even though we used to tell you this only happened to customers of our competitor)."