The best ad about ad tech this year was made by a company trying to kill it.

Apple’s new spot: a man in a chrome suit who follows you everywhere you browse. The data tracker, made literal.

Can we fit this audience ID into that segment. Did the impression land on the right group of people we’ve never met and can’t verify. Are these signals fresh (most won’t even ask). This is the daily work of modern media, and Apple just drew it as a man in a silver suit you can’t shake off.

We’ve spent twenty years and billions building a machine to guess who the customer is. We got very good at the guessing. We never stopped to ask whether the customer wanted to be followed into their tent.

The best part isn’t that Apple is anti-advertising. It’s that the ad is genuinely brilliant.

No behavioural targeting made me remember it. No lookalike model. No clean room. Just an idea, executed with craft, humour and an idea worth watching.

Most optimise the precision of the following. Apple optimised being worth watching.

Efficiency without memorability is just sophisticated waste.

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