Another Apple ad campaign crashes and burns under pressure from viewers

Back in 2019, "The Underdogs" was a seemingly one-off ad showing a group of office colleagues. Since then, it's become a whole series of adventures in advertising.

In the style of 2023's episode, the new edition is a ten-minute comedy thriller called "The Underdogs: OOO (Out of Office)." Having left their corporate office jobs to start a company in 2022's video, the team is now trying to secure an order for their packaging business.

For most of the video, most of the team are racing around Thailand trying to meet the quantities and design demands of their client.

But, the response to the latest chapter of the ad effort was not positive. Apple came under fire on social media for being insensitive to Thailand's modernization.

The company was also slammed for depicting the country as backwards, and criticized for other production aspects that were viewed as not showing Thailand in a positive light.

As they will, politicians seized on the public backlash to make their own points.

"Thai people are deeply unhappy with the advertisement," head of the country's tourism committee Sattra Saipan said on Thursday. "I encourage Thai people to stop using Apple products and change to other brands."

Like with the iPad Pro "Crush" ad campaign blowback, the response from Apple was relatively swift. The video was removed, and the company made a rare statement about the matter.

"Our intent was to celebrate the country's optimism and culture," Apple said in a statement. We apologize for not fully capturing the vibrancy of Thailand today."

The video is still mirrored here and there on unofficial venues. But as of Friday morning, it has been withdrawn from Apple's distribution methods.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin appears to have put the matter behind him.

"Let's look at the positive side," he said. "Apple has shown a real intention to do business in Thailand."

The "Underdogs" saga is Apple's third advertising mis-step in less than a year. Apple's iPad Pro "Crush" ad showed paints, guitars, toys, sculptures, and more, all being crushed by a hydraulic press, which then rises up again to reveal the iPad Pro. Artists quickly pointed out the ad was insensitive — and potentially disturbing.

While the ad was meant to highlight how many features were packed into Apple's thinnest product ever, many creatives felt it more allegorical to technology crushing human creativity.

"Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it's incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world," Apple's company's VP of marketing communications said in a statement at the time. "Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry."

Apple then pulled that ad.

And before then, during the iPhone 15 event in September, Apple aired a five-minute comedy sketch meant to highlight the company's environmental efforts. Instead, most viewers found the ad awkward and repetitive.