Apple No Longer Wants You To Watch This Cringe-Worthy Mac Ad

A few days ago, Apple released a seven-minute video ad featuring comedian Martin Herlihy on its YouTube channel. Just two days after its release, however, the video was pulled. The 81-slide deck featured in the video remains on Apple's website.

In the video titled How to convince your parent to get a Mac,  Martin pitches the Mac as an investment in a student's future. The video gives humorous, but sometimes logical reasons why college students should get a MacBook instead of other laptops. It asserts that the decision will save money in the long term and minimize the headaches sometimes associated with Windows PCs. At one point, Martin hilariously displayed a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and told students that MacBooks don’t encounter such a problems. While some arguments in the video seem to make sense, there has been some serious backlash from the public.
While Apple has not communicated any specific reason for pulling the video, one suggestion could be allegations of false advertising. Viewers were led to believe that MacBooks don't need extra antivirus protection other than the built-in XProtect on macOS, for example. Some have suggested this is overly optimistic at best. Students who purchase MacBooks will probably find out later that they need additional protection.


Around this time last year, Apple was accused of using scare tactics to promote the iPhone and Safari and was also hit with a lawsuit accusing it of false advertising. Within the last year, Apple has had to pull at least 4 ads from the public.

As one of the world's largest companies, Apple has immense resources for marketing and advertising, but is also the subject of intense scrutiny. Recent complaints from the public and the retractions from the company, however, seem to indicate it needs to re-examine some of its marketing strategies.