Tech giant Apple is known for its products and its stylish and effective marketing strategies and events. However, to promote its new iPad, the company has released an advertisement that has been criticized by several Internet users and celebrities.
The ad shows an industrial press crushing various creative objects to create a new ultra-thin iPad. The crush!” Ad shows a variety of items being crushed in the new iPad Pro, including a record player, a piano, a guitar, an antique TV set, cameras, a typewriter, books, paint cans and tubes, and a vintage arcade slot machine. The song “All I Ever Need Is You” by Sonny and Cher was used as the soundtrack of the ad.
Introducing the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we've ever made, the most advanced display we've ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things that will be made with it. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024
The idea behind the ad is to tell users that their new device will allow them to watch TV shows and movies, play games, read books, take photos, record videos and much more in a sleek, thinner form factor than ever.
Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote while sharing the ad: “Introducing the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we've ever made, the most advanced display we've ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine what happens it will be used to create.”
However, the ad is seen as a graphic representation of the technology industry's destruction of cultural sectors. Many people on social media called it “destructive” and said it “crushes symbols of human creativity and cultural achievement to appeal to professional creators.”
Actor Hugh Grant wrote: “The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.”
Filmmaker and actor Justine Bateman added: “Really, what's wrong with you?”
Another person wrote: “It's a heartbreaking, uncomfortable and selfish ad. Seeing this result makes me ashamed of buying Apple products for 19 years.”
One user said: “Crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievement to appeal to professional creators, nice. Maybe for the next Apple Watch Pro you should crush sports equipment, show a robot running faster than a man, then go to the turn the camera and say, 'God is dead and we killed him'”
“Steve wouldn't have sent that ad. It would have hurt him too much to watch it,” one user commented.
“This ad has effectively convinced me that I need less technology in my life,” another person added.
An multi-trillion dollar corporation decides what you do with it.”
“1984: Monochrome, conformist, industrial world exploded by colorful, vibrant people. 2024: Colorful, vibrant humanity is crushed by monochrome, conformist industrial press,” one user wrote.