Apple Apologizes for Dystopian Ad That Crushes Art Tools
After airing an astonishingly unnerving advertisement for the new iPad Pro earlier this week, Apple issued an apology on Thursday.
The clip — which shows an array of creative tools such as a guitar, piano, trumpet, and bottles of paint being crushed by a hydraulic press — was widely criticized. Other items being pulverized included an Angry Bird statue and arcade cabinet.
“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” the company’s VP of marketing communications, Tor Myhren, told AdAge in a statement. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the “Crush” spot, which also appeared on the company’s YouTube, on social media. While both are still up, AdAge said that plans for a television run have been ditched.
“Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create,” Cook wrote on X/Twitter.
The company received an immediate backlash from designers, musicians, photographers, and filmmakers — creatives Apple has spent decades promoting their products too.
“The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” wrote actor Hugh Grant on X.
Filmmaker and actor Justine Bateman, who served as an SAG-AFTRA advisor on the use of AI, quoted Cook’s post, captioning: “Truly, what is wrong with you?”
