These ads don’t show people who need help from a Genius, because they aren’t dealing with problems from software/hardware. These people need Trainers/Creatives or Specialists. A Genius just isn’t there to wait around and answer any questions that a customer might have, they’re there to help a specific type of customer.  I think that if these ads presented the employee as a Trainer or a Specialist, then customers that aren’t familiar with the dynamics of an Apple store might not expect a Genius, and only a Genius, to address every issue they have.

Additionally, why does this one actor appear in every ad that was just released? I think that most customers are going to be able to figure out that whomever is wearing the bright blue shirt with an Apple logo dead center and a grey lanyard is the Apple employee that they want to help them with their problems.  Why does the employee have to be a young white male? When I was a Specialist at my store, I would often get great opinions from other employees to help my customers, and these employees were (wait for it) not always male and not always white and not always young!  I think these ads are a great opportunity for Apple to showcase not only the diversity of people that could benefit from using their products, but also the diversity of people who know how to make these products do amazing things for those people that could benefit from them.

TL;DR I think these ads should be a little more accurate, regarding what to expect from an Apple store and who to expect to help you when you’re in a store.

Say something uninformed about a brand, wait for someone to point out their error, and then claim they’re a fanboy for having some perspective.

I come here to avoid this childish silliness.

FYI I wasn’t being insulting, just observant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qd-Oc6FFDA

NO! I was mistaken! He’s sleeping in the shirt, and then he PUTS ON THE BADGE TO ANSWER THE DOOR.

I think this ad is the only one that works, humour-wise.

In the Windows world, you can’t easily talk to someone face to face from the manufacturer or Microshit.  You have to go to  a third party.

Some arrogant geeks who memorized a few workarounds and copy and pasted some command line crap from a blog won’t get these ads, since they are SOOO much smarter than a surgeon who didn’t have time to figure out a stupid computer program.

 You’re welcome.

It’s totally a nitpick, of course, but it’s odd to see a company like Apple, which generally prides itself in being so precise, instead so completely misidentify itself here. 

These are completely banal, yes, though I think part of the problem (as hundreds of people have said already) is simply that the implied message of “a clueless user needs a professional to show him how to do stuff on a Mac” is so antithetical to the Apple brand.

Also, pretty much all of the Windows 7 “My Idea” and “To the Cloud” ads involve showing someone using a computer.

Second, they highlight the plastic nametag dangling on a string, which I’ve always thought looked super-dorky, especially for a company that values looking cool as much as Apple does.

Third, everything the Genius is doing in these ads? Is not what Geniuses do. It’s what Creatives do. They’re totally different job titles and totally different roles in the store, requiring different skill sets. Geniuses fix your crap when it is broken (for values of “broken” which include software and hardware failures). Creatives teach you how to use your computer to make/do cool stuff.

But carry on if you’re enjoying yourself, I suppose.

MS needs to just keep their focus on the corporate world, which they’re good at, and could improve. But each new version of their OS sticks a middle finger up to their business customers – where they have a real chance to create something for an actual niche they know well. More like Win 95/2000 (which is what got them that market share in the first place).

All likely the result of shareholder pressure.

But I’m sure as hell not going to buy anything that Ballmer pitches at me.  That guy couldn’t sell me Oxygen on the moon.

I totally agree with what you took from the ad though.  I’m often baffled by how little people that work with computers can do with computers, baffled.  So reassuring people that irrelevant of how simple their problem seems, help is at hand, is a really good thing.

Talking about ads like this in places like this is silly anyway, as if you know how to sign in to Disqus you’re probably 10 times more technically advanced than the people these particular ads are targeted at.

The snarkers in the comments that think these problems are an indication of how easy it is to use a Mac have clearly never received an attachment containing a screenshot saved in a word document before.