Apple Stops Airing 'Genius' Ads on Olympic Television Broadcasts

Late last month during the Opening Ceremonies for the Summer Olympics, Apple debuted a series of three ads focused on an "Apple Genius" helping customers in unusual situations. The ads received a relatively poor reception, with some observers objecting to the portrayal of customers as clueless and others simply not finding the ads as humorous as they were clearly intended to be.

apple genius ad labor day
While Apple continues to feature the ads on its Mac site, a number of people have noticed that the ads have not re-aired on television since the opening weekend of the Olympics. In line with that observation, Mashable reports that Apple has indeed stopped airing the ads. But rather than the move being related to their mediocre reception, a representative for Apple's ad agency claims that the ads were only ever intended to run for that brief period of time.

A rep for TBWA/Media/Arts Lab, Apple’s ad agency, says the ads are not running anymore, but that was the plan all along. The ads were intended only for a “first run” during the Olympics, which meant just the first weekend of the Games, the rep says.

The new ads also remain on Apple's YouTube page, although the company quietly removed and reposted its Martin Scorsese iPhone ad to the channel late yesterday, leading to speculation that the company prefers to have that ad rather than the newer Genius ads at the top of its feed.

Top Rated Comments

Stewie86 Avatar
152 months ago
Complete BS. Those were clearly meant for a long run. They know they took them down based on negative reception.
Score: 52 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tigres Avatar
152 months ago
Do not believe it.
They sucked, and Apple will not admit.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TimTheEnchanter Avatar
152 months ago
Gotta love marketing people when they spin their own spin. :D
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aajeev Avatar
152 months ago
Lots of people are pretty clueless about their product. This goes the same for both Mac and PC users. I don't mean it in a bad way, but there are people that never cares to learn anything about it. At the first sign of trouble they simply call up a friend to ask question.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DisMyMac Avatar
152 months ago
Can we please see an iMac ad? Or even a Mac Pro ad?
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tommy060289 Avatar
152 months ago
good. They were crap.

Apples products have always been about Elegance, beauty, simplicity.

These adverts were like the terrible adverts to come to expect from mere average companies selling junk at ten a penny. Not Apple
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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