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Apple's latest iPhone XS ad is a big, old mess

Is this the best idea Cupertino could muster?

Written by Chris Matyszczyk, Contributing Writer on Oct. 1, 2018

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There used to be some sophistication about Apple's ads. Somehow, Steve Jobs's sense of taste permeated the way Cupertino chose to communicate.

Since his passing, things have been a touch erratic. There have been truly memorable ads. More, though, have bathed in a bland musicality, with nary a thought to sustain their life.

For a long time, Apple preferred to just show people dancing.

Also: iPhone XS Max first impressions: It's big, but not too big

Apple's first iPhone XS ad was an attempt at a grand illusion, one whose only real trick was to hide its now entirely uncontroversial notch.

The dog got bigger, the man didn't. Weird.
YouTube screenshot by ZDNet

Now, the company's released a new oeuvre, one that is largely depressing.

The deeply-considered thought behind it is that now you have a bigger screen, everything gets bigger.

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Yes, just as if you visited Texas.

You photograph a cat and it gets bigger. You photograph your friends and they get bigger.

And, believe it or not, you photograph a dog and it gets bigger, too.

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Goodness me, how long did it take someone to think of that? And how long did it take everyone at Apple not to see this was as inspired as ordering chicken at KFC?

I understand that Apple is trying to be as many things to as many people in as many places these days.

"Everything you love just got bigger," says Apple in the ad. Other than the imagination of Apple's creative department, that is.

Also: iPhone XS smartphone beauty really is only skin deep

Despite the fact that Samsung could crow for quite a while that its phones were bigger, this isn't the first time Apple has boasted its product has a bigger screen.

Remember the iPhone 5? Apple explained in a charming ad how the bigger screen works for humans. It showed that the screen had been designed with the stretching ability of the human thumb in mind.

In those days, Apple ads were distinctively Apple.

This new ad could just as easily be for Samsung as Apple. Talking of which, here's Samsung ad that boasted it was the home of big and bigger.

You might not remember it. It's from 2017, after all.

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