- Apple has been met with a wave of backlash over an ad promoting its latest iPad Pro model, billed because the thinnest product the tech firm has created so far.
- To emphasize the slimness, a new industrial, titled “Crush!” shows a menagerie of artistic works and tools, including sculptures, a piano, paints and a vinyl record player, getting crushed under a large metal press. The end result is the iPad Pro, implying the tablet can contain all of those media capabilities in a single sleek device.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook posted the video on X, formerly Twitter, where it has been met with a negative response, with many users perceiving the ad as hostile to art. The discussion of technology versus creativity has been heightened amid the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), an area where Apple is predicted to make more concrete moves soon.
Apple’s latest iPad Pro, amongst its first new tablet model releases in two years, comes with rather a lot of bells and whistles. The device is the thinnest yet from the iPhone maker while also carrying its most advanced display and a hefty amount of computing power because of the new M4 chip, an evolution in Apple silicon. Online discussion isn’t focused on the cutting-edge facets of the device, nevertheless, because of an ad that’s widely received the thumbs down on social media.
The ad was reportedly created in-house with production by Iconoclast and directors Vania and Muggia. Marketing Dive has reached out to Apple for comment on details behind the campaign, including its media plan and ad agencies, and can update this story pending a response. The ad also appears on Apple’s YouTube, where comments are turned off.
The video has been painted because the anti-”1984,” referencing an iconic Apple industrial that showed people free of an Orwellian dystopia because the protagonist smashes the screen of their oppressor with a sledgehammer. That effort, which was directed by Ridley Scott and ran around Super Bowl XVIII in 1984, is taken into account one of the most effective TV ads of all time.
Critics of the new iPad Pro spot conversely see a dystopian vision dropped at life as a spread of tangible art objects are violently crushed right into a single piece of technology. Responses to Cook’s X post, which had accrued over 49 million views at press time, underscore the frustration. Many creators and artists depend on Apple products for work, adding a way of betrayal to some of their sentiments.
“I’m a creator, a conventional artist, a macintosh user of a few years, yet I never even understand why would I would like an iPad, and this destruction is amazingly distasteful and would never persuade me but otherwise,” wrote one user.
“It is a heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and egotistic commercial. When I see this result, I’m ashamed to purchase Apple products since nineteen years [sic],” wrote one other.
Apple has also positioned the iPad Pro as an “outrageously” powerful device for AI. Creatives have expressed concerns that generative AI, which is trained on existing media, unfairly cribs from their work, and raised legal and ethical challenges against the technology. Apple has yet to meaningfully detail its generative AI plans but indicated it’ll share more news on that front within the near future.
“I feel AI, generative AI and AI, each are big opportunities for us across our products. And we’ll talk more about it in the approaching weeks,” Cook said on a call with investors discussing Apple’s latest round of earnings last week.
The iPad Pro ad’s backlash builds on a bumpy run for Apple. The company’s fiscal second quarter brought the sharpest drop-off in quarterly iPhone sales in years. Its tablet segment also struggled because of an absence of new releases, with revenue falling 17% year-over-year within the opening stretch of 2024. The Apple Vision Pro, an expensive mixed-reality headset that launched in February, has received an uneven response and likewise raised debate about enabling a disconnected future.
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