Gross Apple Marketing

Overall reaction to Apple’s “Apple Intelligence” ads

• Many find the AI ads “bleak,” “dystopian,” and morally off‑putting, especially the ones where:
  • An employee uses AI to sound “professional.”
  • A woman uses AI to fake remembering someone’s name and to pretend she read a colleague’s email.
  • A spouse uses AI to cover up forgetting a birthday with a last‑second auto‑generated collage.
• Critics say the ads normalize and celebrate lying, laziness, and disrespect, framing deception as “genius” rather than something to feel uneasy about.
• Defenders argue the spots are clearly meant as light sitcom‑style humor, exaggerating familiar failings (forgetfulness, procrastination) and not intended as moral instruction.

Ethics, culture, and “infantilizing” tech

• Several commenters see the ads as emblematic of a wider trend: AI pitched as “let the computer think for you” instead of “think better with the computer.”
• Concern that this reinforces intellectual passivity, undermines personal responsibility, and accelerates a culture where nothing can be trusted (deepfakes, AI‑written messages).
• Some tie this to broader worries about narcissism, dishonesty, and loneliness in modern consumer culture.

Comparison with Ubuntu / Canonical ad

• The Ubuntu animation is widely panned as generic, jargon‑heavy, and emotionally flat; many say it doesn’t explain what Ubuntu is or why anyone should care.
• A few agree it’s less objectionable than Apple’s ads but also note it “tells” buzzwords (“secure,” “performant,” “certified”) instead of “showing” concrete benefits.
• Some argue the author’s praise of the Ubuntu ad undermines their credibility about Apple’s ads.

Apple marketing, past and present

• Multiple comments contrast the new AI campaign with earlier Apple ads that were aspirational, creative, or playful without encouraging deceit.
• Others say the Steve Jobs era of emotionally resonant, “Think Different”‑style messaging is gone; current Apple feels more cynical or confused about AI’s value.
• The fear‑based Apple Watch and crash‑detection campaigns are cited as another shift: “buy this or you/your kids might die,” which some defend as legitimate safety marketing and others see as tasteless.

Views on AI itself

• Many see consumer AI use cases as flimsy—mostly about cheating at work or outsourcing trivial tasks.
• Others report genuine usefulness in narrow, transparent roles (translation, transcription, accessibility, meeting prep) and argue the best AI is often invisible rather than the star of the ad.