Tech giant, Apple has had its tail between its legs this month, as they apologise to the public for ‘missing the mark’ with their most recent advert; in which they single handedly crush creativity (according to some of the public). Rumour has it, that it has caused so much upset, Apple will be taking it down.
Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive, launched Apple’s new ad, named ‘Crush!’ on 7th May on X, along with this caption – ‘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.’
The ad, which still remains on YouTube and has 3.2M views, depicts a scene with a hydraulic press looming over a tower of wonderful creations ranging from musical instruments to a trusty typewriter – all connected via creativity and originality. The press slowly crushes each and every object, to ‘All I ever need is you’ by Sonny and Cher, until there is nothingness. As the press rises, the new iPad Pro is revealed, along with the words “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.”
If you haven’t already watched the ad, you can view it here, along with Hugh Grant’s gleaming review.
Before I viewed it myself, I had already read articles that threw some serious shade at the ad; and they didn’t paint a pretty picture, for example, ‘That Much-Despised Apple Ad Could Be More Disturbing Than It Looks’ (The New York Times). As a creative myself, I was expecting to be insulted and to feel personally attacked when I saw it, but truthfully, and maybe optimistically, I could see where Tim Cook was coming from when he launched it. Like many Apple products and those similar, what they’re trying to portray is the versatility of their technology; this isn’t particularly groundbreaking, and I can certainly think of a few ads in the past that have been far more offensive.
However, the controversy lies in whether it’s appropriate to release an advert that reduces all of these examples of wonderful, human-led creativity, into a single piece of technology, all in today’s climate where left right and centre, we are seeing the rise and threat that artificial intelligence has on the creative industry. Is it an insult to creativity, or was it a genuine misjudgement? One perspective to consider, is that perhaps we are all hypersensitive to the subject, we are surrounded by the constant buzz and fear mongering of our jobs being swiped beneath out feet and being replaced by new technology. This of course creates an anxious atmosphere in which we are more likely to be offended, and you can see why when we’re also facing headlines such as ‘AI ‘apocalypse’ could take away almost 8m jobs in UK’ (BBC).
Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice-president of marketing communications, sent a statement to the trade publication Ad Age, with an apology: “Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world…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.”
Undeniably, it’s a powerful and thought-provoking advert that has sparked a lot of conversation, but are we unnecessarily digging too deep beneath the surface, or should we be concerned about a dark truth that the ad reveals of the ominous tech-dominated future that we are destined for?
Featured Image credit: Apple
