Apple Apologizes For ‘Soul Crushing’ iPad Ad

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Apple has issued an apology following massive backlash to an ad for the new iPad Pro that crushes physical creative tools in an industrial press.

As we highlighted, the commercial shows the device obliterating items such as musical instruments, paint and cameras, then unveiling an iPad as the replacement for everything creative.

Following an overwhelmingly negative response from viewers who branded the ad ‘soul crushing’, Apple issued a statement.

“Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad,’ the company claimed, going on to admit “We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

‘We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry,’ the tech giant said of a new ad involving a hydraulic press, which had drawn heavy backlash https://t.co/s0eNXW565X pic.twitter.com/mwhrDvOJ8L

— Financial Times (@FT) May 10, 2024

According to reports, there were plans to broadcast the ad on terrestrial television, but they have now been scrapped.

The ad is still live on Apple’s YouTube channel.

It’s encouraging to see that people do not want dystopian tech crushing all aspects of humanity.

British filmmaker Asif Kapadia was taken aback, like many others, as to how honest the ad was in its admission that tech companies are crushing creativity.

Like iPads but don’t know why anyone thought this ad was a good idea
It is the most honest metaphor for what tech companies do to the arts, to artists musicians, creators, writers, filmmakers: squeeze them, use them, not pay well, take everything then say it’s all created by them https://t.co/ZgwXO53UZ0

— asifkapadia (@asifkapadia) May 8, 2024

James Bore, tech expert at consultancy Bores Group, told the Daily Mail that the ad “shows how disconnected they are from actual creative efforts.”

“I think they may have alienated a not-insignificant part of their target market by thinking like technologists rather than creatives,” Bores continued, adding “There were much better ways to create the same message, without destroying things that their customers will feel sentimental about for a publicity stunt.”

“Unless of course they were going deliberately for the controversy sells angle, which I can’t rule out entirely,” Bores further noted.

Someone “fixed” the Apple ad by reversing it, thereby effectively crushing the iPad and having the creative objects appearing in its place.

Hey @Apple, @rezawrecktion elegantly fixed your ad for you — sound on 🔊 & enjoy 😊 pic.twitter.com/A9nImoVPx4

— Art Jonak (@ArtJonak) May 8, 2024

Others pointed out that the ultimate irony is that the concept wasn’t even an original creation, and was done before by LG in 2008:

LG phone ad from 2008 (BBH London) pic.twitter.com/cWIDZx1d4a

— Andy Allen (@asallen) May 9, 2024

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