Once upon a time, generally after I’d done something particularly boneheaded—filling the garage with toxic fumes from a “slightly” modified Gilbert chemistry set comes to mind—my mother would recite, “Sorry doesn’t feed the dinosaurs.”

It’s very much the kind of thing a Jewish mother might say to remind a son blessed with more enthusiasm than sense that an ounce of forethought beats a pound of contrition.   

In hindsight, however, I think she was missing the teachable moment. 

It’s not just being sorry; it’s being sorry for the right things that help us learn.

In a roundabout way, that brings me to Apple’s apology for its iPad “Crush” video. With its statement, “We missed the mark with this video,” the company was expressing regret for creative that offended the creative community.

Well, Apple was wrong on that.

So was most of the global creative community.

And so was I. 

Talking about it, the remarkable Bob Brihn is the only one I’ve heard asking the clear-eyed question: “where the hell were the strategists?” Which isn’t by way of pointing the finger at any particular job title, so much as zeroing in on the right root cause for sorry:

A catastrophic and compounding failure of strategy.

Brihn’s point: “The thing about this ad that’s so strange, in my opinion, is that the strategy is so last century. You mean to tell me there’s “one single” device that allows me to do all these wonderful creative things? Who knew?”

And he hadn’t even heard about the LG mobile phone ad from 16 years ago that used the exact same setup to say almost exactly the same thing (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SblMbEsMq8Q)

He is transparently, obviously, and patently right. Especially after going on to point out that by accepting, a dusty strategic premise, at charitable best, Apple triggered a subsequent sin—turning its back on a brand pillar that’s defined the company ever since a certain spot aired on Super Bowl XVIII.

Actually, two brand pillars: being the avatar of creative (and creative’s) liberation. And think different.

If you’ve seen the “we fixed it” version of the Apple spot that Toby Barlow and others put up, you’ll find proof of Brihn’s point (https://vimeo.com/944515314/3f884c7bcd?share=copy). Even though running the film in reverse gets you to a more satisfying emotional conclusion.  

Still: not thinking different.

Truism: if you borrow an idea that’s been done before, you damned well better find a way to make it so interesting it becomes your own.

All of which leads to four things to learn from this sorry tale:

First, advertising fish rot from the strategic head.

Second, never, ever, stop challenging your conceptual foundations.

Third, beware lemming-think; it will blind you to obvious truth.

And last, of course, always listen to Jewish mothers. They know whereof they speak.

P.S.  Turns out one brand’s strategic slipup is another’s opportunity. Got to love this classic brand-on-brand snark: https://9to5google.com/2024/05/15/samsung-ipad-pro-ad/