“F1 The Movie” ad in Apple Wallet is almost as bad as the 2014 U2 debacle
Apple is trying to push “F1 The Movie” to iPhone owners via a promotional notification in the built-in Wallet app which reads like an ad, really.
The notification informs users about a discount on movie tickets via Fandango with a promotional code. The promotional message reads as follows: “Save on 2+ tickets to F1 The Movie with APPLEPAYTEN. Ends 6/29. While supplies last. Terms apply.”
Apple also promoted the movie by recreating the F1 Monaco Grand Prix circuit in 3D on Apple Maps and creating a haptic trailer that takes advantage of the iPhone’s Taptic Engine to simulate onscreen action and engine rev via vibrations. It’s smart marketing and I have nothing against it.
Apple Wallet sends F1 movie notifications to iPhone owners
But this has nothing to do with great marketing. The Wallet app, of all places, is the worst possible place to shove ads down our throat.
Got a promo today from @Apple in the Wallet app about F1: The Movie.
Not sure system apps are the right place for ads-even for something this cool.
If I wanted this kind of clutter on my phone, I would’ve bought an Android…@AppleSupport #iPhone #WalletApp #F1TheMovie pic.twitter.com/grTBFeotrP— Avi Landau (@AviL89) June 25, 2025
It’s where I manage my credit and debit cards, make purchase with Apple Pay and track orders. My banking app doesn’t show any ad because banks are aware that user trust is crucial in all financial matters.
It’s not just that many people find ads annoying, no matter where they appear. It’s that Apple Wallet ought to be sacrosanct — like the Passwords and Journal apps. Apple is asking us to trust this app with our finances, our identity cards and our keys.
And this on why this Wallet ad is especially troublesome:
I’m 99.9 percent certain this F1 ad was just blasted out to zillions of Wallet users indiscriminately, but some number of users who got it — especially people who know they’re in the demographic for the movie — surely think they got the ad because Wallet is tracking their interests and activities. Like, what if you recently bought tickets to see another summer blockbuster movie? Using Apple Wallet? And then you got this ad? It’d be completely sensible to be spooked by that, and conclude that Apple Wallet is tracking you.
Gruber dropped the hammer on Apple’s marketing department:
Sending this ad is completely destructive to all the hard work other teams at Apple have done to make Apple Wallet actually private. I try very seldom to call for anyone to be fired, but I think whoever authorized this movie ad through Wallet push notifications ought to be canned.
How to turn off promotional notifications in Apple Wallet
iOS 26 brings new settings inside the Wallet app for managing what notifications you receive, including opting out of promotional notifications that are turned on by default. These features are unavailable in the Wallet app on iOS 18 and earlier.
1) Open the Wallet app on your iPhone running iOS 26 or later.
2) Tap the three-dotted icon in the top-right corner and choose “Notifications” from the menu.
3) In the section titled “In-Wallet Messaging”, slide the switch “Offers & Promotions” to the OFF position. Doing so will prevent the Wallet app from showing you “notifications about special offers and discounts available from Apple and its partners.”
On iOS 18 and earlier, it’s not possible to disable these promotional notifications in the Wallet app without turning of all Wallet notifications in the Settings app.
The world’s greatest marketing machine
Apple occasionally reminds us why it’s the world’s greatest marketing machine with cool marketing stunts like its pop-up glass cube at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal inside of which “Severance” actors played themselves and were in character all the time, pretending to work on Luman Industries computers.
But this is something different, and almost as bad as the U2 debacle in 2014 when Apple made an unforgettable blunder by automatically downloading U2’s “Songs of Innocence” album onto people’s iPhones without them asking for it, taking up space in each user’s iTunes library. The move backfired, forcing Apple to release a tool to remove the album from people’s iTunes libraries and purchase histories.
Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/06/27/f1-movie-apple-wallet-ad-backlash/
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