Jun 30, 2025 13:39:00

Apple's forced sending of movie promotional notifications to iPhone users violated Apple's own terms and conditions. The movie in question is 'F1,' a huge hit starring Brad Pitt.

The movie '

F1 ' starring Brad Pitt was released on Friday, June 27, 2025. Apple promoted the movie using the 'wallet notification function' , but it has been pointed out that Apple's advertising method violates Apple's own rules.

App Review Guidelines - Apple Developer
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

More on Apple's Trust-Eroding 'F1 the Movie' Wallet Ad | Hacker News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44411069

'F1 / F1' is a racing movie starring Brad Pitt, and it was a huge hit with a worldwide opening weekend box office takings of $144 million (about 20.8 billion yen). This 'F1 / F1' is produced by Apple, and Apple is putting a lot of effort into promoting 'F1 / F1', such as showing a special video at the beginning of the WWDC25 keynote speech.

Apple's advertising strategy extends to 'sending notifications through its own apps,' with several users reporting that they received notifications promoting the movie 'F1' from Apple's Wallet app. Some users have criticized Apple's advertising strategy, saying, 'Advertising a movie in an essential app like Wallet is a low-level strategy that is unbecoming of Apple,' and 'It's the same as when

U2 gave out a free album in 2014, when no one asked for it, but they sent it to me.'

Users are flooded with complaints when iPhone's Wallet app advertises Apple's movie 'F1' - GIGAZINE

In addition, a comment was posted on the news sharing site Hacker News stating that 'using Wallet's notification function to promote 'F1' violates Apple's terms of service.'

Apple requires all apps published on the App Store to follow the ' App Review Guidelines ,' which state in section 4.5.4 that ' push notifications may not be used for campaigns or direct marketing .' Because Wallet is distributed on the App Store just like any other third-party app, the user is pointing out that Apple is violating its own guidelines.

It has also been reported that similar notifications were received from the Apple TV app. Hacker News has posted comments about Apple's advertising campaign, such as, 'Apple openly attacks advertising and says that privacy is a fundamental human right. And yet they send targeted ads to places where no one expects them to appear. I liked Apple's consistency, but now Apple has become just like any other company,' and 'This is a really stupid and big mistake. It's sad that Apple is neglecting its own brand . It's like they're saying , 'We won the smartphone war, so let's make money!''