Apple's 'Designed by Apple' TV Ad Scoring Poorly with Viewers

At its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, Apple rolled out a new advertising campaign centered around the tagline "Designed by Apple in California", focusing on the company's brand and how its primary goal is enriching lives. The campaign has included a 60-second television ad, as well as a dedicated page on Apple's website and most recently two-page spreads in major newspapers.

But Bloomberg reports that the campaign is not registering well with the public, citing survey data from consulting firm Ace Metrix showing that the TV ad is Apple's lowest-scoring commercial over the past year.

The company’s latest ad, which began airing June 10, has earned the lowest score of 26 Apple TV ads in the past year, according to Ace Metrix Inc., a consulting firm that analyzes the effectiveness of TV ads through surveys of at least 500 TV viewers. The ad scored 489 on the company’s scoring system, below an industry average of 542 and far below past iconic Apple campaigns that often topped 700.


Boston University advertising professor Edward Boches notes that the campaign marks a significant shift for Apple, with the focus on the company rather than its products rubbing some viewers the wrong way.

“Apple was never a company that bragged about itself,” said Edward Boches, a professor of advertising at Boston University. “In a manifesto ad, it’s hard not to come across as self indulgent. And even though it suggests the wonderful things Apple products can do, the ad lacks joy.”

Boches goes on to point out that some view the campaign as inappropriately political, highlighting Apple as a California-based company in tacit contrast to Samsung, which is based in South Korea. He suggests that the campaign may end up being a rather short-lived one, similar to the "Genius" campaign that consisted of just three ads running for a brief period during the Summer Olympics.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
macbook pro blue green

When Will Apple Release the M5 MacBook Pro?

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:53 pm PDT by
Apple regularly refreshes the MacBook Pro models, and a new version that uses M5 series chips is in the works. Apple just finished refreshing most of the Mac lineup with M4 chips, and now it's time for the M5. Rumors suggest that we could see the first M5 MacBook Pro models this fall. Design There have been no rumors of a design update for the M5 MacBook Pro models that are coming this...
Apple Lumon Terminal Pro

Apple's Mac Site Features Fictional 'Lumon Terminal Pro'

Wednesday March 26, 2025 12:19 pm PDT by
Apple is going all out with promotions for the popular Severance Apple TV+ show today, and as of right now, you'll find a new "Lumon Terminal Pro" listed on Apple's Mac site. The Lumon Terminal Pro is designed to look similar to the machines that Severance employees like Mark S. and Helly R. use for macrodata refinement. The Terminal features a blue keyboard, a small display with wide...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Tuesday March 25, 2025 6:45 am PDT by
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing. Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1. Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Supports 8K Video Recording, Suggests Leaker [Updated]

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:06 am PDT by
Update 7:25 pm: Based on comments from our forums, it appears the original Weibo post may have been mistranslated and "8K" actually refers to the high price of the device rather than 8K video recording capabilities. The iPhone 16 Pro currently starts at 7,999 yuan in China. Our original article follows below. Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are capable of shooting 8K video, up...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

'iPhone Fold' to Feature Metallic Glass Hinge That Resists Deformation

Thursday March 27, 2025 4:21 am PDT by
Last week, we covered a report claiming that Apple's book-style foldable iPhone (or "iPhone Fold," as we are provisionally calling it here) will use liquid metal hinges to improve durability and help minimize screen creasing. Today, a Chinese leaker provided more details on the properties of this hinge material that help to clarify why Apple chose it for its first foldable device. According...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

Gurman: Jon Prosser's iOS 19 Mockups 'Aren't Representative' of Redesign

Tuesday March 25, 2025 4:47 pm PDT by
The iOS 19 mockup images that leaker Jon Prosser shared today are not representative of the actual iOS 19 design, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on social media. According to Gurman, the images that are "floating around" are based on "very old builds" or "vague descriptions," and are lacking key features. Gurman says that we can "expect more from Apple in June." Gurman made the same comment ...
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive a New Perk

Thursday March 20, 2025 12:01 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost. The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month. In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...

Top Rated Comments

newagemac Avatar
153 months ago
I love these ads compared to some of the previous ones. Reminds me of the Think Different campaign which was also more of a company manifesto. Hope to see more like it.
Score: 85 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tiger8 Avatar
153 months ago
it's not the ad

it's the lack of new things that's scoring poorly with Apple.

I understand why Apple moved everything to Fall, but in today's tech 9 months without a single new product is A LONG TIME.
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
extradryny Avatar
153 months ago
One problem here: while consumers love their Apple devices on an individual level, I think many have mixed feelings about whether these devices have really improved our emotional lives -- as the sappy narration implies.

A young girl alone in her room staring at an iPhone, constantly connected... a woman on the subway with headphones stuck in her ears, who will never have a chance conversation with a stranger... a elementary school kid with an iPad in the classroom, who will never write legibly...

Not making a claim about the utility of iDevices - I love mine, too - but I think the mixed feelings most of us have really challenge the effectiveness of an emotion-driven campaign like this.
Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Qfic Avatar
153 months ago
Don't like the ads, it sorta feels like they're taking credit for life.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
joneill55 Avatar
153 months ago
Meh, SJ didn't care for focus groups and he liked consulting firms even less!
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LaDirection Avatar
153 months ago
Since Midas died, EVERYTHING they do is wrong, it's uncanny. They're like headless chickens.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)