While it felt like just about everyone was in on the Severance hype, when I recommend other shows on the 2025 TV schedule that are only available with an Apple TV+ subscription, sometimes people have no clue what I’m talking about. Now, a creator of a series that is housed on the streamer is calling out the service for its marketing tactics, going as far as to say that it's “probably the worst marketer in the universe.”
Alex Berger is a French-American producer behind hit shows like The Bureau and The Agency, he’s also the man behind the Apple TV+ series La Maison. While speaking at Canneseries (via Variety) about the success of The Agency (which is available with a Paramount+ subscription), he also opened up about the disappointment he felt with La Maison, seeing as both shows premiered in 2024. Explaining why he was upset about how Apple marketed his drama, the executive producer explained:
Marketing makes a show. Apple, for example, is probably the worst marketer in the universe — the best for iPhones, the worst for television. They don’t do marketing, and it was an issue for us with La Maison. We did a great show that had an amazing success in France and other places in Europe, but they never promoted it. It drove me crazy.
La Maison, which is a French drama about a family that runs a haute couture house, was critically acclaimed. In fact, it boasts a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it flew under the radar.
It feels like this show has what it takes to be one of the best Apple TV+ series. However, Berger blames the lack of marketing for it when it comes to the number of people who actually watched it.
After his initial comments regarding his disappointment toward Apple TV+’s marketing strategy, Berger was asked why he chose to take his project to this streamer. He explained that he had hoped his series could help expand the service’s international offerings. However, ultimately, he was “very frustrated” with how his project was advertised, explaining:
We got very frustrated and just thought at one point that they were shooting themselves in the foot, and why? I think Apple TV+ is the premium you get with an iPhone. It’s a closed club, a small club now. They do some amazing shows, my criticism is not on the artistic side, where they are very ambitious and have the money to back it up, but these are shows that nobody will see most of the time, which is a pity.
Over the years that Apple has been producing television, it has made a ton of critically acclaimed hits. Shows like Jason Segel’s Shrinking, the adaptation of Silo, Seth Rogen’s The Studio and more have been met with love from critics. However, when it comes to the masses watching these projects, it’s harder to track and truly know if they’re big hits.
Obviously, Apple TV+ has some massive, and I mean massive, hits. Ted Lasso has become a major moment in the world of television, winning Emmy after Emmy alongside the hearts of millions. Now, it’s even coming back for Season 4, and hype is high. Severance also went super viral this year with Season 2, and became the streamer’s most watched show, logging 589 million minutes viewed in the U.S. across all its episodes (per Deadline).
While this service has some notable and very big successes, it also doesn’t have the same number of hits as streamers like Netflix, Max, Hulu, and Paramount+.
According to Berger, this could be because of how shows are marketed on the platform. He’s clearly very frustrated with how his drama was treated, despite its critical acclaim, because it didn’t reach as many people as he would have liked.
Now, it will be interesting to see if Apple TV+ evolves in its marketing ways to make it so more people know about its impressive library of content.
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