It's come to this: Apple makes two emoji movies

When you have billions in the bank and your brand is among the most successful of the past two decades, perhaps you don't really need to worry about making great ads anymore.

Ad Nut doesn't expect the '1984' ad every time out, but the brand doesn't seem to have any interest in maintaining the reputation it once cultivated for groundbreaking creative work. Its drab Christmas 2017 ad did not impress in Ad Nut's ridiculously long holiday-ad review, and that came hot on the heels of the brand getting painfully pwned by Samsung. Before that, we saw a love story set in a very empty Shanghai, which was kind of neat to see, but nothing more than a safe and workmanlike ad. The most entertaining Apple work Ad Nut has seen lately was done by one of its customers (see "Audible voiceover causes (and solves) problems in Singtel iPhone campaign").

Now we reach a new low, with these two ads made for the Grammy telecast, which took place in the US Sunday night. They feature Apple Animoji lip-syncing to Grammy-nominated songs (the alien is doing Childish Gambino’s "Redbone" and the dog offers up "Stir Fry", by Migos).

These are fine commercials. They promote a real feature (although the fine print informs us that the Animoji feature only records for 10 seconds, and that the ads were "professionally animated"). They're even moderately entertaining—Ad Nut likes silly emojis as much as anyone, even if one of them is a murderous beast.

The question is: Is "fine" good enough for Apple now?

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. Check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame.