So there I was, minding my own business, when suddenly I was assaulted. Apple beat me over the head with an ad that contained what I can only assume was a family who lived somewhere in Berkley, California, and was so unlikeable that it actually made me hate the product it was trying to sell. Not that it needed much help, because the product is embarrassingly behind the times.
In fact, I'd say the entire ad is behind the times, and I can only conclude that the days of Apple being one of the more popular tech companies are swiftly going to come to a close. The house that Jobs built is so dilapidated that whatever glory it was coasting on is clearly running out.
Let's talk about the product that it's trying to sell first.
It's Amazon Echo Show. It's Google Nest Hub. That's it. Apple's tendency to take other companies' ideas and slap its logo on their products while painting it white shines through tremendously here. There's no innovation. There's nothing super cool that makes it stand out. It's just Apple's version of another company's product.
Now, with that said, the ad that's supposed to display and promote this product is so awful that it didn't just turn me off to its new home device; it legitimately made me not want to have an iPhone. I'm not lying when I write this. I clicked off the ad and immediately began looking at Samsung phones. I didn't even mean to, either. I was so legitimately repulsed by the ad that my subconscious wanted me to distance myself from Apple.
The ad features a "modern family," only without the jokes. The father is effeminate; the mother is the corporate breadwinner; the son is a Bart Simpson knock-off who calls his dad by his first name; the sister is an insufferable know-it-all; the grandparents are a couple who belittle their son's looks, and the older sister is a hippie who wants her mom to chill out; and the only quiet moment of the ad has the husband and wife (partners?) saying good morning to each other with all the warmth of a cast-iron toilet in a snowstorm.
The ad literally ends with Siri telling the husband that they have couples' ice skating lessons that night.
This ad single handedly made me want to switch to a Samsung or something. Wow that was bad.
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) October 13, 2026
Where do I start with why this ad was so horrible?
For starters, this ad feels like it wasn't for anyone. I'm not sure who was supposed to relate to this. It feels like a bunch of single corporate leftists' idea of what a family looks and behaves like. While I've been in plenty of "hectic morning" situations myself, this family feels so cold and disconnected from each other to the point where it feels like spite is just bubbling under the surface from each of them.
The only one who seems to have any grounding is the eldest daughter, who I can only assume is how the corporate leftists who created her think they look and behave.
This is all cemented by the parents' only interaction with each other while they're alone. They say good morning; they smile with no emotion; they walk away from each other. No hug, no kiss, no contact. I hate it. It makes the entire family feel less like they were just acting high-strung because they were rushing and more like they genuinely just have no affection for each other.
If Apple thinks this is what family life is like, then I can only conclude that the amount of "out of touch" they are is off the charts, and if a corporation is that out of touch, then I'm not sure it's going to be able to actually provide anything worthwhile. Apple is clearly bringing up the rear in terms of innovation, which tells me that my gut reaction to that ad is correct. They lost the plot. They're creating things based on their interpretation of progression, which is based on other people's descriptions of life and success. It's reactionary thinking.
That's a pretty awful position for a tech company to be in, and Apple's found itself smack dab in the middle of it.
But honestly, this was probably a long time coming. Apple's entire playbook for years has been just taking what other companies are doing and acting as if they innovated it. At some point, they were going to get passed up. I think that time is now.
