Ad pros say Apple's chaotic new commercial fails at what the brand once did best

A cortisol-spiking nightmare or just another morning in a modern family home?

Apple’s latest ad has divided both the internet and advertising pros over whether its chaotic depiction of family life hits the mark.

The ad for its new HomeView smart home device follows a family hurrying to get ready for the day.

The parents and siblings variously bicker about the etymology of “French toast,” the temperature of the thermostat, and the whereabouts of their missing belongings, all while barking commands at the device that’s supposed to make their lives easier. “As an unapologetic tech fan, it’s been a while since a new product made me want to disconnect and, as one commentator put it, ‘live in a cave for a bit,'” Richard Exon, founder of the creative agency Joint, told Business Insider. “But this ad managed it.” HomeView’s marketing positioning matters as Apple tries to convince consumers to introduce another connected screen into their homes and draw them further into its deeply integrated ecosystem of products and services.

It’s also the second major product launched under its new CEO, John Ternus, who faces the challenge of proving the company remains an innovator capable of creating must-have products across different categories.

Prominent tech analyst Benedict Evans wrote on Threads that the “stressful, confusing, complex situation” portrayed in the ad gave him few clues as to why he would want the device.

While some viewers found the commercial exhausting, others saw a familiar reflection of their own family lives.

Some ad pros think that was a mistake.

The company, renowned for making people want technology they never even knew they needed, may have failed to make its new device appear desirable. “The question for any brand when launching a new product is, how do I turn need into want?” said famed ad man John Hegarty, who cofounded the ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty. “Sadly, presenting a list of features doesn’t get me to need, never mind want.” Dylan Stuart, senior partner at the brand consultancy Lippincott, said Apple seemed to have overlooked the difference between selling technology and selling aspiration. “Apple’s genius was never really about making better products; it was about making people feel that owning those products would make them better versions of themselves,” Stuart said. “Nobody aspires to become a more efficient administrator of domestic dysfunction,” Stuart added.

The three-minute ad crams in a dizzying number of features.

A small sample: “It feels like a case of ‘your brief is showing,'” said Sean McNamara, head of strategy at the creative agency Party Land, referring to the briefing instructions marketers assign to their creative teams and agencies. “It would probably go down easier broken up into snackable pieces versus the twelve-course tasting menu.” The dose of realism is a departure from Apple’s familiar, polished, and aspirational marketing playbook.

The family scene follows well-trodden territory for a tech company trying to bring relatable use cases to life.

In doing so, some critics said Apple may have sacrificed its marketing distinctiveness. “From a brand perspective, it’s giving serious Google,” McNamara said. “If you edited out Siri and blurred out the logos on the hardware and in the UX, I don’t think viewers would connect it back to Apple.” Apple has set high expectations for its marketing.

Prior ads in its catalog include the cinematic, Ridley Scott-directed “1984” Super Bowl spot that launched the original Macintosh, “Think Different,” which launched after Steve Jobs returned to the company, and the award-winning “Shot on iPhone” campaign. “For any other advertiser, this piece of work could be considered acceptable, although it would pass largely unnoticed,” Joint’s Exon said. “But for Apple, the creative bar is so high that even a slight misstep unleashes something close to mass hysteria from the commenting classes.” Apple’s push deeper into the smart home may explain the shift in its marketing toward a more demonstrative, feature-heavy approach. “I think there’s something to Apple not leaning too heavily into an aspirational lifestyle tone,” said Haley Hunter, chief operating and marketing officer at Party Land. “I just don’t think that works anymore.” Hunter said that a core tenet of her agency’s creative approach is that “it’s funny because it’s true.” Apple’s commercial, she said, wasn’t particularly comedic, but its depiction of family life was honest. “I did actually get called ‘Bruh’ this morning by a tween,” Hunter said.

Some ad pros suggested the backlash to the HomeView commercial was overblown.

The ad simply explains what the technology does and puts it at the center of everyday life, said Simon Cooper, executive creative director at the agency Born Social. “They’re just a normal functioning family,” Cooper said. “It’s like ‘The Simpsons’ with more fingers and fewer jokes.”