Is Apple really losing its advertising touch?

When it comes to advertising, there are only a handful of brands known for their consistently iconic output. Up there with the likes of Nike and McDonald's is arguably Apple, whose 'Think different' ads remain cultural touchstones and among the best print ads ever. But the brand's latest billboard campaign had led some to suggest Apple's marketing has 'fallen off a cliff'.

Large print ads have been popping up across the US to promote Genmoji, one of the new Apple Intelligence features that lets users generate custom emoji via a text prompt. The playful, cartoonish style of the emoji themselves exactly what you'd expect from Apple, but when plastered on a billboard across the city, the whole thing starts to look a little juvenile – particularly when compared with iconic Apple ads of yore.

"Imagine it. Genmoji it." Reads the text on the ads, which sits atop one of various AI-generated emoji. And from the cut-and-paste look of the ads to the attempt to turn Gemoji into a verb, Apple's billboards are proving more than a little irritating.

"You know I support Apple in almost everything. But this is really embarrassing," One X user comments in response to a viral photo of a billboard depicting, er, a fried egg with limbs. Another adds, "I will never tire of talking about the pain of seeing advertising die before my eyes."

The problem isn't just Apple's dogged commitment to trying to make personalised emoji 'a thing'. It's also the sheer crudeness of the design. Apple ads have always been simple, but there's a difference between a minimal ad featuring a classy product shot (or black-and-white photograph of an artist using said product), and the aforementioned egg with limbs. Whereas previous Apple ads have felt timeless, these Gen Z-baiting efforts probably aren't going to age well.

Indeed, Apple hasn't had a great year when it comes to ads. In a rare move, the company apologised last year for a tone-deaf iPad Pro ad that seemed to advocate the 'crushing' of creativity. A few months later, it apologised again for its stereotypical depiction of Thailand in another ad.