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.

Popular Stories

ios 18 4 carplay

Apple Upgrades CarPlay in Two Ways

Wednesday March 12, 2025 6:05 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone includes a smaller but meaningful improvement for Apple's in-car iPhone mirroring system CarPlay. Specifically, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra with a...
Apple More Personal Siri Ad

John Gruber Says 'Something is Rotten' at Apple

Wednesday March 12, 2025 7:39 pm PDT by
Daring Fireball's John Gruber today shared some strongly-worded comments about Apple's delayed personalized Siri features. Gruber is a well-known Apple pundit who has been writing about the company for more than two decades. In a blog post titled "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino," Gruber said Apple's credibility has been "damaged" by the delay:Keynote by keynote, product by...
Apple Maps vs Google Maps Feature

iOS 18.4 Adds a Highly-Requested Setting to iPhones — But Not in U.S.

Wednesday March 12, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
iPhones are finally getting a much-requested setting, but availability is limited. The upcoming iOS 18.4 update introduces an option to set a default navigation app, other than Apple Maps, but unfortunately this new setting is limited to users in the EU. There, you can now set an app like Google Maps or Waze as your default navigation app on the iPhone by opening the Settings app and tapping ...
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Launch Now Just Months Away: Here's What We Know

Tuesday March 11, 2025 3:26 am PDT by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as excellent for...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Will Bring Biggest Design Overhaul Since iOS 7

Monday March 10, 2025 12:17 pm PDT by
Apple is planning for a major design overhaul of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac interfaces with the introduction of iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16 later this year, reports Bloomberg. The update will "fundamentally change" the look of Apple's operating system, introducing a more consistent cross-platform experience. Apple plans to update the style of icons, menus, apps, windows, and system...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro Machined Parts Leak Reflects Camera Redesign Rumors

Thursday March 13, 2025 3:07 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to feature a significant design overhaul, and a new image apparently taken on an assembly line for the unreleased devices appears to confirm the biggest rumored change. Render of an iPhone 17 Pro model shared by Jon Prosser The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to adopt a horizontal camera bar reminiscent of Google's Pixel...
Sad Siri Feature

Kuo: Apple Knows Apple Intelligence is 'Underwhelming' and Won't Drive iPhone Upgrades

Thursday March 13, 2025 9:32 am PDT by
The Apple Intelligence features that Apple introduced with iOS 18 are not pushing people to upgrade their iPhones, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reiterated today. Apple's recent Siri failures are also going to have an impact on 2025 iPhone shipments, which the market is beginning to realize. As early as last July, Kuo said expectations that Apple Intelligence could drive iPhone upgrades were...
iOS 18

12 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.4

Monday March 10, 2025 9:28 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.4 in early April, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a neat new capability to iPhone 15 Pro devices, new emoji, and more. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.4 still introduces enhancements that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've listed 12 new...
macOS 16 visionOS Inspired

Major macOS 16 Redesign to Bring Biggest Changes Since Big Sur

Wednesday March 12, 2025 2:28 am PDT by
Apple is planning a radical redesign of macOS with version 16, and it could be the most significant visual refresh since macOS Big Sur was introduced in 2020, according to Bloomberg. MacRumors concept render The upcoming Mac operating system will reportedly be part of Apple's sweeping effort to create a more consistent interface across all of its platforms, including iPhone, iPad, and Apple...

Top Rated Comments

Stewie86 Avatar
165 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
165 months ago
Do not believe it.
They sucked, and Apple will not admit.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TimTheEnchanter Avatar
165 months ago
Gotta love marketing people when they spin their own spin. :D
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aajeev Avatar
165 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
165 months ago
Can we please see an iMac ad? Or even a Mac Pro ad?
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tommy060289 Avatar
165 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)