We're Not Stupid, We're Lazy

Recently, an Apple advertising poster caused a stir. It showed a child holding a smeared iPhone, with the following claim:

"Relax, it's iPhone"

All hell broke loose.

Controversy erupted over the pairing of a two-year-old child with an electronic device, the intervention of the Children's Ombudsman, and the subsequent removal and replacement of the poster by Apple.

Below, I offer a short reflection on the subject.

The Apple ad campaign in question

The idea behind the message "Relax, it's iPhone" is to highlight the product's resistance and durability even in real, everyday conditions. In fact, the images in question also show a dog with the phone in its mouth and a phone thrown on the beach, in the sun and in the sand (a poster that later replaced the one with the child).

A decidedly effective approach in a historical moment when the durability of a device that costs a considerable amount of money is absolutely essential, especially now that the EU has made it mandatory for manufacturing companies to guarantee device repairs.

You may like Apple or not, but it has been a pioneer in communication and marketing, making technology popular and turning its feuds with Windows and Samsung into part of the industry's history. Instead of spending time saying how great their devices are, they are able to make you want to buy a product by pressing our emotional buttons, because yes, people, that is what marketing does: it pushes buttons in our brain to lead us to buy one product instead of another.

Marketing is not evil. It does its job: selling.

Our job is to learn how to manage our gut reactions, without unloading all the responsibility for what we cannot manage or have onto companies that, I repeat, are doing their job: selling.

Why, in my opinion, the poster is not problematic

Let's get to the heart of my thinking.

Now that we know the objective of this ad, if you have followed the reasoning so far, you will ask yourself: why did Apple have to remove the poster?

Because "people" started to challenge the fact that the poster in question undermined all the awareness work being done to protect children and young people in the digital sphere. Seriously?

I am not a parent and I cannot fully understand, but I can imagine that the situation depicted is almost everyday life for many parents: I imagine it can happen that, in a hectic moment perhaps, a child might grab the phone and drool all over it (maybe while the parent is trying to do eight things at once, because yes, time is what it is when managing a family too).

In my ignorance, I cannot see in this specific image what the Children's Ombudsman saw, but surprisingly that is not the point, also because I am nobody to judge a decision made by an administrative body responsible for protecting minors, let that be clear.

What I was reflecting on is the fact that Apple did not even bother to try to explain its reasons. It simply removed and replaced the poster, as you do with someone you know it is not worth discussing with because they would not understand anyway.

We're not stupid, we're lazy

Here the issue is that we were treated exactly like that, like someone it is not worth discussing with.

A manager of mine (the same one who told me "Stefania remember, only the brave") once said:

"Reason is given to fools."

We made fools of ourselves, the kind of people you tell "yes yes, you're right" and leave simmering in their convictions. Seen that way, it is not exactly the synonym of a moral victory over a big tech company, is it?

This happens not because we are actually fools, but because we are no longer used to looking a little beyond the tip of our nose: we have a first impression and that becomes absolute truth, pushing us into utterly useless battles of belief, when instead there are systemic problems that we should stop underestimating (also because, for now, Apple removed that image from there, not in absolute terms; it did not apologize, issue statements, or anything else).

Yes, there are campaigns that came out very badly (like American Eagle's last year), but personally I really do not think this is one of them, also because:

• we do not know why the child has the phone in hand (essential context for supporting the controversy: did the child grab the phone, or was it given to keep them entertained?),
• there are no objective levers that can make a child say "mum I want the iPhone"
• the child is not the target of the campaign
• there are no obvious or subtle messages that can harm or belittle any category

On the contrary, I feel empathy imagining a parent in that specific situation even though I do not have children. Tell me if that is not a well-executed emotional lever.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to take back our ability to reason, reflect, and become people who are capable of understanding and worth having a constructive discussion with.

We cannot keep assuming that everything must always be obvious and over-explained to avoid feeling triggered. Discussions are what allow our brain to grow, to form itself, to break limits and patterns. Hyper political correctness flattens conversation and makes everything grey, for better and for worse.

Let us remember that the great evolutions in history came because someone questioned something, worked to show that the system was flawed, to break wrong convictions, and to prove new theories. Let us not settle for assuming that what we come into contact with should not make us think, because yes, thinking is hard, but not reasoning makes us lazy, and mental laziness is dangerous.