JBL's Marketing Blunder..

Don’t see the blunder.   Thought it was concise and informative and somewhat entertaining.

They went out of their way to try & do the opposite of what you're suggesting. These are not airheads or excessively glamorous or two dimensional. JBL tie to keep it real & reflective of the way people talk in real life.  They ere aiming for respectful authenticity & didn't do too bad a job either.  It may not help them that much as it's  little diffuse - but hurt them?

Absolutely not.

Who buys JBL? Many years ago I used to play guitar using a a Fender twin reverb with two JBL D120F's. So while you all are trying to figure whose speaker can reproduce music most accurately, try to remember the equipment that made that sound in the first place. JBL made good stuff for the music industry. 

SJB

In the area of accurate reproduction, the original speakers which created the sound in the first place are not necessarily the best choice. Very likely that a speaker which is more accurate and true to the source will make the JBL D120s sound more correct. Some of the worst speakers I have ever heard were the JBLs from the 1970s. 

JBL's attempts to improve their home audio business are comical. In the ad, they claim 'MA' stands for Modern Audio. I was expecting a modern look that would appeal to Gen X/Y/Z. 

The chassis and speaker cabinets look like leftovers fom the '70s.  They'll never capture the gross profits they make with their car audio business since they do well as an OEM provider to many auto makers.