For sure, points are to be awarded for the clever dystopian portrayal of capitalist surveillance through the mechanism of robotic Birds, capital B.
But when introducing Safari as our protagonist and feathered camera repellant, the ad conveniently glosses over the fact that Apple maintains a mighty profitable search relationship to this day with one of the web’s oldest and worst offenders of privacy: Google.
When a user opens Safari on iPhone, iPad, or Mac to search the web, Google will be their default chaperone, thanks to a yearly $18 billion contract Apple has with the company. Yes, we could delve into the nuance of that contract—Apple may have eroded some of Google’s utility with new Spotlight features, Google could potentially use its popular apps to crush Safari and Spotlight, maybe this contract should exist as a modern day peace treaty—but I don’t really give a shit. The situation is what it is, and Safari defaulting to Google is not the privacy rallying cry Apple and wishes it was with this ad.
To me, “Flock” attempting to make the case of protecting our privacy with a product that tosses users into the lion’s den of privacy dismantling companies is just… sad. It’s sad to see Apple try its privacy sales pitch with one of the weakest and most contradictory pillars of said pitch.
That said, I thought the ad concept and execution were great. Evoking The Birds as robotic surveillance cameras is timely and poignant. I just wish Safari was as effective a remedy as Apple falsely claims.