Apple Lives Long Enough to Become the Ad Villain
Look Apple, we get it. You really, really, really, really want F1 to be a hit. And after a series of feature film flops, you really need it to be to maintain any level of credibility in the space.1 The Apple TV+ shows have been, for the most part, great. The movies, pretty much the opposite. That's obviously somewhat subjective, but it also matters for things like word-of-mouth. And that matters more than it normally would for Apple's movies because they've inexplicably been so bad at marketing them.
Apple! Bad at marketing! I know!
Movie marketing, as it turns out, is a different beast than iPhone marketing. (And even there, Apple has been stumbling of late.) So they've clearly gone back to the drawing board for F1. WWDC was essentially a giant ad for the film.2 I'm not sure how scalable that marketing is, but it allowed them to piggyback on the news (and non-news) out of the event. And now they're trying something else.
From Sarah Perez at TechCrunch:
Apple customers aren’t thrilled they’re getting an ad from the Apple Wallet app promoting the tech giant’s original film “F1 the Movie.” Across social media, iPhone owners are complaining that their Wallet app sent out a push notification offering a $10 discount at Fandango for anyone buying two or more tickets to the film.
Yes, Apple pushed an ad to every iPhone user.3 Millions and millions and millions of people got served an ad all at once. From Apple. Promoting an Apple movie. And promoting Apple Pay (and their partner Fandango). From the Wallet app.
This is not the first time Apple has dabbled in promotion for Apple Pay and their partners, of course. But it is the first time they're hitting this trifecta: using their device to push their service and their movie. It's a bit much. But it's also just a push notification (and a notice in the Wallet app), you can just shoo it away, right? Sure, but there's also clearly a reason why this backlash keeps bubbling up.
As I wrote last night (referencing the most famous line written by Jonathan Nolan): You either die ranting against inserting ads or live long enough to start inserting ads.
Warner Crocker made a similar point in highlighting what's going on here:
My grandfather used to say that “a weed is anything that grows where you don’t want it to.” Most of today’s advertising certainly feels weed like. And it keeps getting worse, especially when pushed at us from sources we don’t expect it from. Amazon we expect this from. Apple not so much.
As he notes, there's nothing inherently wrong with advertising itself. In the best cases, it can actually be useful or even a form of art. The problem is the old "when you give a mouse a cookie" parable. You start to make some money and you keep going. But Apple has a different problem which is actually tied to another one of the problems that they've had of late.
Apple has spent the past couple of decades railing against ad-based business models. And now, well, they're doing ads. Granted, it's to sell their own products. But again, they're doing ads outside of this as well. With Apple Pay. With Apple News. Perhaps soon with Apple Maps. Given how vital the 'Services' business is now to Apple's overall growth story, I'd bet a lot of money we're going to see this continuing to ramp. Apple must be looking at the businesses Amazon and Netflix have now built from scratch here with revenue envy.
But again, the problem is their previous rhetoric against this general business. One imagines that they'll try to use the "intrusive" and "personal data" distinction, but those are semantic lines that will fade eventually. If Apple does indeed keep pushing more into ads, they'll also keep doing things to make those ads more effective. They already failed in the space once with 'iAd', and much as with F1 itself, they can't afford to fail again. If and when Tim Cook is no longer CEO, that could be the perfect timing to fully revisit previously precious stances...
For now, we just have the scent of hypocrisy and the appearance of greed with these ads. Again, I'm not sure it's the latter – I think they just really, really, really want and need F1 to be a hit and are pulling out every advertising stop that they can, including on their own properties. But it's no less hypocritical.
And it doesn't help that it reminds people of when Apple automatically shoved a U2 album into everyone's iPhone. As a wise old man (not Bono) once said – to keep the movies references going – "with great power, comes great responsibility." People pay a lot of money for these devices from Apple. And part of the implicit bargain is that they won't have adware or ads themselves shoved at them in every direction. Again, that's been morphing over time. Businesses are gonna business.
One more thing: as alluded to above, my mind is drawn elsewhere with this story as well. Apple spent years railing against "vaporware" being touted by their competition and then did the same thing last WWDC with Apple Intelligence.
Yes, they take issue with that categorization, which is undoubtedly why they iced out John Gruber at WWDC this year. But he's hardly the only one saying it. And for good reason. Again, Apple is trying to fall back on semantics, but if you have to do that, you've already lost. Vaporware is vaporware until you ship it.
Apple users and enthusiasts have been trained over the years to believe that Apple would never dabble in such things. And now they have. Just as we've been taught that Apple would never stoop to intrusive ads in their user experience. And now they have.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 For the record, I do think F1 will end up being Apple's first hit movie — which I've been saying from the get-go – but beyond the advertising, that's mostly because by most accounts so far, it's actually good.
2 Don't forget the Tim Cook magazine photoshoot as well for the film. So hot right now.
3 Well, at least those in the US – though I got it as well in the UK (though that may be because my account is still tied to my US account).