Apple's Siri 'movie' starring the Rock is just another ad
Commentary: Apple releases its new ad featuring The Rock. It's, well, rocky.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
It's so exciting because, well, The Rock is in it.
Oh, how those Hollywood types love to hype.
On Sunday, The Rock insisted that he and Apple had made a "movie" together, one that would star himself and Siri and launch on Monday.
Well, here it is, proof that Hollywood is in big trouble. This "movie," entitled "The Rock x Siri Dominate the Day," is just over three minutes long, and it's a shower of cliches that don't even try to pretend they're anything other than an ad.
The scenario is that The Rock is a very busy person and Siri is his trusty assistant, there to guide him through his day.
I wonder how long it took whole hordes of creative types to come up with that elusive scenario.
So here we have The Rock proving that he is simply the Rockiest Rock in America, with Siri fetching him a Lyft ride. (Cue excitement.)
There we have The Rock driving a car quickly, piloting a plane to Rome and doing a little renovation work at the Sistine Chapel. Meanwhile, Siri tells him how hot it will be in Rome and reads him his most recent email.
Here we have The Rock launching a fashion line. And there we have Siri texting Chef Ludo, because The Rock is now bored by his fashion line -- we are, too -- and wants to do a little cooking.
The Rock can do anything. And Siri, well, she tries to do so as much as she can. Whenever she's asked, that is.
She can connect him with his movie producer through FaceTime, for example. She can also help The Rock list his life goals.
Of course, it's all pleasantly entertaining in its way because it features The Rock, the most bankable, possibly presidential candidate we have.
She's not exactly effusive about the experience, is she?
I can't help thinking, though, that it's a better ad for The Rock (also occasionally known as Dwayne Johnson) than for Siri. A source suggests that this is, indeed, the case. That source is Siri.
Some people might say, of course, that the Apple assistant could use a good advertising campaign of her own. She seems to have fallen off the pace of, say, Google's cerebral artificial assistant and Amazon's everyday, everywhere helpmate Alexa.
But Apple may indeed be trying to ramp things up, if somewhat obliquely. After all, its music-loving, Siri-powered HomePod is on the near (December) horizon.
I asked Siri to tell me about her new "movie" with The Rock. Her reply: "Here are some movies with Dwayne Johnson."
I persisted. "Hey Siri, what was it like working with The Rock?".
"Here's what I found on the web for 'what was it like working with the rock,'" she replied. The first link was to a Zac Efron interview.
Oh.
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