It’s over. The awful Best Buy-like commercials that Apple has aired within the past few weeks are over. Apple is canceling the series after it was regarded as a complete opposite of the 1984 Macintosh commercial. Apple has received much criticism from its Mac Genius commercials. They have been called some of the worst commercials in Apple’s history. They are the commercials that Apple wanted to be their next “Get a Mac” series which were regarded as some as the best commercials of all time. Those came from Steve Jobs. These “Mac Genius” commercials came from Tim Cook. Not a good sign.
I must give bad news that I read from a very good source. An expert analyst of Apple that has made news before said after Steve’s death that the first thing to go in Apple should it slip, is the advertising. Once the advertising goes, the rest will follow. Apple would at that point lose everything that Steve put into the company, it’s innovation and ability to succeed may not be there any longer. The first thing to lose its touch would be advertising and it would then fall like dominos.
But there’s one key thing that I must point out that may make the difference. Look at the title of the article. They cancelled the commercials. They’re doing what Steve had to do before. Think of a product or two that Steve decided to cancel instead of continuing to invest money in a failed product. Think of the Mac mini’s predecessor. I bet you’re probably thinking “I didn’t know there was one”. Well, there actually was. It was called the Cube. The product was very well designed (won a few design awards) but it didn’t catch on with consumers since the design didn’t matter when one looked at the specs or lack of specs. Of course, we all know the Mac minis innovation and popularity. The Mac mini is one of Apple’s best selling computers, partly because of its price, the least out of all their computers and the ability to handle tasks efficiently. I believe that because Apple canceled their commercials, they realized their mistake and fixed it. They saw that people hated the “Mac Genius” commercials and they canceled them. A very “Apple” move.
Apple without Steve Jobs has had an almost full year. It has had its ups and downs. One of the ups is the new iPad. One of the downs definitely being these commercials. Apple has had ups and downs before and it will continue to do so. Apple is a great company with great people in it left behind by an insanely great man. I’m hoping that without Jobs, Apple can continue to innovate and make insanely great products. But if Apple slips up and starts making just great products ornjust good products, that will be their downfall. Of course, I do not predict this will happen. I predict, with a few more speed bumps along the way than before Steve passed, that they will continue to make insanely great products.
Thanks for reading,
Joe