During the Olympics opening ceremony, Apple debuted three new commercials advertising its Genius Bar. The ads represented the first time Apple had every advertised the Genius Bar or the folks that run it in a television ad. Apple only ran these ads for a short time. When they stopped appearing on our TVs, Apple explained that they were intended only for a 'first run' during the Olympics. However, it seems there may be another reason for ditching the ads so early on.
MacRumors reports that Apple has actually pulled the ads in question from YouTube and removed them from its own website. As MacRumors points out, though Apple does tend to remove older videos from Apple.com and YouTube, commercials tend to stay on the site for quite a while before that happens. Case in point: There are videos dating back to 2010 still on the Cupertino-based company's YouTube channel.
The Genius ads weren't exactly well received when they first aired. Some felt the ads weren't accurate representations of the kinds of questions the folks working at the Genius Bar deal with (instead suggesting that the questions in the video are better suited to one of Apple's one-on-one learning sessions). Others felt the ads made Apple customers look stupid or that they were just a bit too cheesy. Former Apple ad man Ken Segall said he was shocked when he saw the TV spots.
"I honestly can’t remember a single Apple campaign that's been received so poorly," he said of the ads. Of course, not everyone disliked the ads, but the removal of the videos makes it seems as though Apple has taken the criticism to heart.
