People are aware of Apple constantly and it’s extremely hard to forget about them; the ads are made to incentivize you to buy them. This post does not do that. Would an article about AOL’s discbombing marketing strategy released during that time be an ad? Just making people know these exist doesn’t incentivize anyone except fanatics; to incentivize them you need to tell people about the features, not the expensive freaking price.
Apple is a tech company that markets itself as a luxury/lifestyle company. People already know the image, and those who didn’t already find value in Apple or luxury products will not be accepted by such images.
Your observation is correct about Apple marketing, but this post is not an ad. My takeaway is that people who spend a massive chunk of their annual income on these phones are idiots, unless they use the phone to the 5 year mark, in which case the phone's cost becomes overall cheaper. A refurbished year old iPhone is the best iPhone, if one really has to buy one.