The creative director behind Apple’s maligned “Genius” ads has quit, reports “Macworld UK” (http://macte.ch/R3rZL). Scot Trattner was an executive creative director at TBWA/Media Arts Lab, he is moving on to a post at agency 72andSunny.
While Trattner’s latest Apple ad campaign hasn’t been well received, he has had more success with other Apple campaigns, including the ‘I’m a Mac’ campaign, notes “Macworld UK.” Trattner has worked on campaigns for Apple since 2004.
This week Apple removed its “Mac Genius” TV spots from its YouTube channel and from the Apple.com marketing page. The ads — which featured a young Apple Genius helping Mac users with problems — debuted during the Summer Olympics, but stopped airing soon after. They generally got negative reviews, especially for making some Mac users seem, well, a bit dumb and unable to figure out how to use Macs.
Apple stopped airing the ads on television soon after they were introduced during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic. That was the plan all along, according to Apple’s ad agency. Still, they were available on YouTube and Apple’s website — but no more.
Apple does sometimes remove older advertisements from its website and YouTube. However, there are still has ads on YouTube from as far back as November 2010, notes “MacRumors” (www.macrumors.com).