I'd say we did, you need more and more for the same effect.

Here is the first ad ever, for a watch : https://youtu.be/ho2OJfXkvpI

For comparison, here is the latest ad for the best selling watch as of today : https://youtu.be/kdMTc5WfnkM

In case anyone accuses you of not comparing like to like, even a contemporary Bulova commercial is much more similar to the latter than the former: https://youtu.be/trp7p634qAU?si=fGvyxHp_cayuw5xa

Everyone's trying too hard to stand out, but honestly the first one would stand out more today, despite being a still image!

My thoughts exactly. Apple could probably go viral with the original style of ad today.

I'm not sure it is valid to use the first ad ever as a basis for comparison. At this time it was a novelty to even have a television – of course an incredibly basic ad would work. And how much do you think they had to pay for an ad on a very new technology? I doubt much.

Wow, I haven't watched any ads for a while and that was pretty jarring.