Ad nauseam: Apple might actually be doomed if this keeps up

Macworld

Um… what the heck is going on with Apple’s advertising? Forget the problem with Apple selling ads, which is also a problem. Apple has a problem making ads.

Disclaimer: you can’t talk about Apple ads without discussing the “Get a Mac” ads. Legally, the Macalope means. There are any number of local, state, and federal laws that prohibit the discussion of Apple ads without first laying the groundwork of the “Get a Mac” ads. So, sorry, the horny one would love to just discuss Apple’s ads of late but… no can do.

To be clear, the Macalope hasn’t checked on this, he’s just assuming it based on every discussion of Apple ads to date that he’s read.

Throughout the late 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s (no, don’t get up, we’ve locked the doors), Apple ran ads that were incredibly good at a time when they desperately needed to be incredibly good.

The Macalope doesn’t know if you recall, but Apple was famously about to go out of business throughout the ’90s. Remember that? It was in all the papers. The “Think Different” campaign said, “Hey, we haven’t gone out of business! Forget all about that guy in a suit! We fired him!”

iMac ads touted Apple’s difference, the ”Switch” campaign said anyone can use a Mac, and iPod ads continued the message that Apple was cool and until we got to the last truly iconic ad campaign Apple produced, which poked fun at PCs and made Macs look normal.

None of this is to say that Apple hasn’t produced any good ads since 2009. It just hasn’t produced any that are really memorable. Memorable for good reasons, that is. And the last year or so has been pretty rough. Not only has Apple not produced any particularly good ads, it’s made a number so bad that it’s subsequently pulled them.

That’s not good! They spent a lot of money on those ads!

Apple released the “Crush” ad in May of 2024, in which musical instruments, paints, a metronome, and other objects associated with creative endeavors were crushed into an iPad. Just days later it took the unprecedented step of apologizing for the ad and pulled it. What the company was going for with the ad was “Look at all the great things you can do with an iPad!” What it got was “WE ARE THE DESTRUCTOR. ALL YOUR ARTS PERISH BEFORE US.”

Ironically, it could have saved that for an AI ad if it was going for a truth in advertising type thing. Don’t worry, though. It also screwed up its AI ads!

And its AI, come to think of it.

Getting the metaphor wrong is a cardinal sin in advertising. It’s a cardinal sin in writing, too. Actually, maybe it’s just a cardinal sin in general.

Months later, Apple released a number of questionable ads for Apple Intelligence, ads that featured a bad employee and bad spouse using it to make themselves look better by essentially lying to people. Then Apple had to pull another Apple Intelligence ad featuring Bella Ramsey asking Siri to identify someone based on previously collected information because, ha, funny story, it wasn’t able to deliver that feature.

This is already a lot of advertising snafus for one company and we’re not done yet.

In June, Apple released “Convince Your Parents to Get You a Mac”, featuring a comedian from Saturday Night Live as a dimwitted presenter advising kids on how to trick their parents into buying them a Mac. Is that what we’re doing now, Apple? The company has apparently had second thoughts about this one as it’s also been pulled.

That’s three ads in a little over a year that Apple has pulled. And we’ve got one more thing to talk about.

That would, of course, be the company’s over-zealous marketing of its film F1.

Oh, you haven’t heard of it? Just out of a six-month stint in solitary confinement? Must be nice.

The Macalope isn’t rending nearly as many garments over this as many others are. It is annoying, unseemly and unnecessary for Apple to resort to marketing one of its products in the Wallet app and via notifications. It is, at least, apparently including a new way to opt out of such ads in iOS 26. Even so, the marketing blitz for F1 has been brutal, everything from surprise appearances at Apple Stores to Happy Meal toys. Regardless of which thing annoys you the most, Apple’s approach has been excessively ham-fisted, particularly for a movie that, as far as the Macalope can tell, is not in any way about ham (although, it’s reportedly pretty good, despite the disappointing lack of delicious ham).

Apple’s ads were cute. Even longer ago they were hopeful. Now they’re often cynical.

The good news is the advertising part of this is eminently fixable (the AI engineering part much less so). But Apple should really figure out what’s going on here and get on it soon. One of the company’s long-time strengths is turning into a serious liability.